"John Salmon" wrote:
[snip]
The half-hourly 12-car rail shuttles which ran from St. Pancras to
Ebbsfleet
yesterday for the Westfield opening (they run again on Saturday) seemed to
be a bit of a flop. On one of the trains I used, Gensheet members (five
of
us) seemed to outnumber 'normal' passengers. Of course, the interest for
us
was the (first-ever?) use of platforms 1 and 4 at Stratford International
by
passenger-carrying trains. Platform 1 seemed not to be set up with any
expectation of passengers arriving from the Ebbsfleet direction; the 'way
out' signs led me to an escalator going the wrong way, so I trudged up the
metal staircase to find myself outside the station (without having passed
through a barrier) just opposite the entrance to Westfield.

Interesting - hadn't realised there were going to be extra SE Highspeed
services running - looking at the Southeastern website, it seems the idea
was to use the crowds thronging to Westfield Stratford City (mouthful!) as a
way of testing procedures for the Games next year:

http://www.southeasternrailway.co.uk/news/latest-news/extra-trains-for-westfield-stratford-city-opening/
or via http://preview.tinyurl.com/5re9ay9

---quote---
Extra trains for Westfield Stratford City opening
Date: 06 Sep 2011

Southeastern today announced that it will be running extra services for the
opening of Westfield Stratford City on Tuesday 13 September and Saturday 17
September. With over 150,000 visitors expected for the opening day of the
new shopping centre, Southeastern is taking the opportunity to test plans
for the Paralympics next year.

The extra services will see an additional 2 trains an hour running between
St Pancras International and Ebbsfleet International via Stratford
International from approximately 07.00 until 23.00. The extra services will
also use the International platforms at Stratford International station.
Working with Network Rail and High Speed 1, Southeastern will also be able
to test queuing and other operational systems at the stations planned for
the Olympics.

Southeastern spokesman said, “We have been working closely with Westfield to
understand what the numbers of passengers will be on our service for the
opening. We know from the opening of Westfield London that nearly 250,000
shoppers attended. We are taking advantage of this increase in numbers to
test our plans for 2012.”
---/quote---


Wonder if they might get some punters this Saturday?

For those in the locale of Ebbsfleet at least (e.g. Gravesend and Dartford
etc), then I'm tempted to suggest that their mega-retail needs (such as they
are) are probably quite well served by the existing massive Bluewater
shopping centre - however, the retail-addicted might adopt a different
mindset!

Interesting to hear about the 'back entrance' to Stratford International.

An aside - there's no free passage on the DLR between Stratford station (aka
Stratford Regional) and Stratford Int'l station on the DLR for SE Highspeed
punters, as some had been expecting (well, I kinda had been) - instead, one
can walk through the shopping centre between the two. I have to say I did
perversely rather enjoy the now defunct shuttle bus link - one had the
slight feel of going through a frontier style no-mans land, a la the Berlin
wall or some such (albeit without the friendly Grepos).