Cutty Sark DLR station reopening next week say Transport for London
Transport for London have announced that Cutty Sark DLR station will reopen next week on 23 March.
The station has been shut for ten months while escalator replacement work has been undertaken and meets the target reopening deadline of spring 2026.
Escalators had been faulty for years at the station which was built under a 1990s PFI project. The Lewisham extension from Island Gardens opened in 1999 and Cutty Sark was a late addition to plans.
Upon TfL taking over from private company CGL who were in charge of maintaining the line, they criticised the state of some assets. CGL were the organisation in charge as part of a 24 and a half-year concession running from 1999, with their logo featuring on DLR signs as seen below.
CGL didn’t last the full time 24 and a half year period.
TfL promptly covered the signs featuring CGL when they ceased operation.
Station design
Aside from new escalators at the station a new lift has also been installed.
Blue panels inside the station have been replaced with white in an attempt to make it brighter inside. It can be a pretty gloomy station.
As well as being a late addition to 1990s extension plans, the station was built to a tight budget in the late 1990s with platform only long enough for two-car trains. It was part-funded by over-station development.
That included a pub, shops, restaurants and housing.
That short term saving hasn’t helped long term with a cramped station in the middle of one of the capital’s main tourist destinations.
See also Woolwich Elizabeth line station for an example of penny wise, pound foolish. A late addition to Crossrail it too suffers from inadequate design having just one entrance.
Marathon
With new escalators and a lift in place Cutty Sark will now be ready to welcome those attending or watching the London marathon next month and also the annual pick-up in tourists this summer.
In addition, many new homes are on the way nearby in Greenwich.
Saxon Wharf on Deptford Creek looks as though it’s just about complete externally with scaffolding set to come down, while reserved matters continue to be submitted for a tower near the junction with Creek Road.
That tower will feature 414 student rooms. Nearby sites have also been classified as suitable for housing under the newly released draft Local Plan guilding forthcoming development.
Excellent news re the reopening of Cutty Sark Gardens DLR . Will be great to be able to use the escalators again, rather than trudging up and down those steps . Well done TfL and well done to all those 3500 plus people who signed that petition calling for the replacement of the escalators.
Delighted to see this news. I don’t want to sound churlish, but I do sometimes wonder why work like this takes so long in this country. As a carer for someone in a wheelchair, the closure and the need to reroute via Greenwich has been a bigger issue than it might appear to able-bodied travellers. Still, this should save my mum and me about an hour a day (yes, really) which is very welcome. (And yes, we normally use the lift!). Well done to everyone who has worked hard to resolve this.
Did you need read the article? Clearly not! It takes time to make escalators custom fit to the space, amend the wall panels, install a new lift. Station remained opened and allowed trains to continue running through.
It’s not the easiest site to build things and it not like there wasn’t an alternative station all of 5 mins away
@d R: ‘Station remained opened and allowed trains to continue running through.’ That makes no sense. Trains ran non-stop through Cutty Sark, so in what sense did it remain open?
Ewww… not quite clear why you could not have made those points in a polite and respectful way. Even though they might be incorrect. The original poster deserves more respect. Something you’re clearly unable to give.
The Evening Standard had a bit more detail on this which explains the complexity of the work:
“ It took engineers 17 weeks to build each escalator. Cutty Sark was built as a “cut and cover” station, which restricted access, meaning steel beams and a pulley system had to be temporarily installed to move each giant piece of each escalator into position manually.
Some of the bigger sections were brought in by train – not a DLR train but a bespoke freight train.”
Good to see Cutty Sark station on the Docklands Light Railway to reopen next week following it’s massive upgrade to the escalators. Since it first opened on the 3rd December 1999 following the completion of the DLR extension to Lewisham.
The penny pinching and rushed design on these late additions is always frustrating with hindsight, but at the time it was the difference between having a station and not having a station.
Woolwich, Cutty Sark and Pimlico are all miracle stations in that they very nearly didn’t get built at all, each in totally different political eras.
I have been to Cutty Sark many times before and it’s nice to see the DLR station to reopen. Following its massive upgrade to the escalators. And to see the new B23 Stocks to enter service in the summer as they have been delayed because of issues with the braking.
Welcome news indeed – and thanks to former West Greenwich councillor, Maureen O’Mara for spearheading the campaign that made all the new improvements possible.
That’s great news. I have been to Cutty Sark and it’s nice to see new escalators installed. I’m still waiting for the DLR B23 Stock to enter service that are replacing the B90, B92 and B2K stocks.