On Mon, 22 Feb 2016 16:31:24 +0000, Basil Jet
wrote:


I popped into Euston yesterday at 6pm. The electronic Solari boards all
had trains on them but none had a platform apart from the DC service.
The concourse was packed with baffled people. As soon as a platform
appeared for a train, part of the crowd made its way forward weaving
through the rest. It was chaos! I asked the information woman if
something had gone catastrophically wrong with a system, but no, this
was normal and the crowd level was normal too. Some trains had no
platform announced until they were due to leave in four minutes, which
is fine for the fit but not so good for twirlies. I was astonished that
such an important station could be run so badly.

I found a flood gate whose purpose I could not divine. As you go down
the escalators from the main concourse to the Underground, if you turn
left at the bottom instead of right you end up in a corridor leading to
the car hire and stuff. There is a flood gate a few metres from the
Underground ticket hall, but it's only head height rather than roof
height. Why is it there at all? Is the car park expected to flood?

Quite possibly. When the Great Hampstead (and downhill thereof) Flood
occurred about 30-40 years ago there were a heck of a lot of places
which turned out to be occasional flood risks. With the Underground
station there is a particular risk of otherwise minor flooding causing
serious trouble as there is no other "dam" between the bottom of the
concouse escalators and the main escalator shafts. The area on the
other side of the gate would itself be something of a sump if fed by
any flood/storm water coming down the ramps from Cardington Street and
Eversholt Street.