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[email protected] · January 17th 12, 08:15 AM posted to uk.transport.london

In article , (Roland Perry)
wrote:

In message , at 18:23:48
on Mon, 16 Jan 2012, Paul Corfield remarked:
The exit route will be off the south end of the concourse as expected.
The footbridge and escalators will be for those using the upper level
of the new concourse. I took a little walk round and I think there
will a large circulating area between the buffer stops and exit
gateline. While I take your point about the potential for mixed flows
I wonder if the new way of working will be any worse than people
pouring off trains on to a small jam packed concourse with people
simultaneously heading on to trains.

One of the changes they've made in the last year or two (I can't say
exactly when) was to rope off a corridor across the old concourse in
front of the departure board. I suppose that directs people towards
the newish stairs down to the tube station, but it does reduce the
number of people filtering through the waiting crowds.

You have misunderstood the purpose of that corridor. If you look carefully
you can see that it was created because the route between the halves of the
train shed near the platform ends has been gated off so there is otherwise
no route to the barriers opposite platforms 0-4 from the ends of the other
platforms.

Although that begs the question of the waiting crowds. Years ago they
used to have queue "lanes" marked on the floor of the concourse and
people would more or less stand in lines waiting for their train to
be ready. Now it's just one chaotic scrum because no-one is told
which platform the train is leaving from until the very last minute.

The queue lanes still exist but seem not to be used very often.

Presumably they'll be trying to encourage people to wait on the new
concourse for the platform announcement, rather than filtering
through the barriers to the platform area and then waiting. That's
the scheme at StPancrasMML, assisted by a lack of platform
information beyond the barriers. Of course, what that does is create
a long queue for the barriers as soon as the platform is announced,
with people increasingly anxious that the train's going to leave
without them.

All true.

I don't wish to debate the rights or wrongs of St Pancras. I would
merely comment that neither station is a green field site and
therefore there will inevitably be some compromises about how you deal
with flows when dealing with intensive train services and the related
floods of passengers.

The first set of escalators for the MML platforms should have been
turned through 90 degrees, to end near their ticket office. As it is,
the MML concourse is needlessly remote from that ticket office, the
main departure board (which seems a bit lost where it is at the
moment) the toilets, SPILL barriers and the Northern ticket hall for
the tube. Even if the rest of the design remained, that one small
change would make quite a difference.

Kings Cross will be an interesting "experiment", because I can't
think of another big terminus where there's not a substantial
concourse beyond the buffers. I know they realise they have issues at
Kings Cross with persuading passengers toward the Piazza (doubtless
vainly when it's pouring with rain outside).

We shall see.

--
Colin Rosenstiel