Lift failures in Wapping

• After reopening the reliability of the lifts improved
• In 2012 the reliability of the lifts fell below the level of performance in 2010.
• Number of people getting stuck inthe lift has fallen and remained steady in 2012, but someone gets trapped in the lift every month.

For those who don't use Wapping Station, anyone wishing to go from platform to station concourse has two options- the first, is to take one of the two lifts, the second is to take the stairs. Wapping however, lays claim to being the deepest sub-surface station (ie those lines dug using cut and cover - District, Circle, Metropolitan, H&C and the old ELL) on the network at 18.3m, which to my mind is the same as walking up 4 or 5 floors of a house. I know that my granny probably couldn't manage that, and would struggle with the stairs from the platform to the lift lobby.

I don't mind walking up the stairs occasionally, but to be honest, it's not something I enjoy, particularly if I've been to Sainsbury's in Whitechapel. Walking down is generally fine, though of course there is always the danger of slipping, particularly in wet weather. So finding myself at the back of a queue for the one operational lift, I was inspired to submit an FOI request to TfL. The data has come back, and basically includes a line of data for each incident dealt with by a lift engineer, listing the date of the incident, a description of the incident and when the problem was fixed. I've processed the data, and summarised it into years and quarters and my initial analysis of the data is shown in the table below.

So, what can we see? My high level observations are:

• After the station re-opened in 2010, there were on average at least two incidents a week, with passengers gettting trapped just less than once a week.
• Performance improved in 2011, with fewer 'entrapments' - only one a month on average, although performance varied significantly in each quarter.
• In 2012, we've seen a big drop in reliability, with two incidents a week, although entrapments haven't increased as much (leading to a reduction in the proportion of incidents including entrapments)

 

Year	Quarter	Number of incidents	Number of entrapments	Proportion of incidents involving entrapment	Days between incidents	Days between entrapments
2010	Q2	11	5	45%	2.5	6.0
	Q3	25	10	40%	3.3	8.8
	Q4	36	13	36%	2.2	6.3
	Year	72	28	39%	2.9	7.5
2011	Q1	13	2	15%	6.1	59.0
	Q2	22	1	5%	4.0	N/A
	Q3	20	2	10%	4.7	49.0
	Q4	25	7	28%	3.5	8.8
	Year	80	12	15%	4.6	29.5
2012	Q1	28	5	18%	2.8	13.3
	Q2	43	2	5%	2.1	1.0
	Q3	28	3	11%	2.6	7.0
	Year	99	10	10%	2.5	26.4
2010-2012		251	50	20%	3.3	16.9

The range of incidents relating to the operation of the lifts varies quite considerably, and I need to go through the data and code the descriptions entered by the lift engineers. My calculations on entrapments are based on my manual coding of the data, reviewing for references to entrapments. In some instances the data states 'no entrapments', but in most instances there is no reference, so the level of entrapment may be higher, though I have no definite evidence that this is the case.

I find it disconcerting that the lifts break nearly three times a week, and whilst it might not be a massive inconvenience for me, it is for many people who are less mobile, and leads to congestion by the lifts and stairs, particularly at platform level.