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Recliner[_3_] · September 20th 17, 12:45 AM posted to uk.transport.london

wrote:
In article ,
(Recliner) wrote:

Roland Perry wrote:
In message , at 19:49:53 on Tue,
19 Sep 2017, Recliner remarked:
I wonder why covent garden was spared? Its a small cramped station
that can't really cope with evening crowds and its literally a
3-4 minute walk to leicester square. Its a bit of an anomoly IMO.

IMO the explanation is lots of tourists, who support lots of shops
and restaurants, who pay lots of business rates, add up to a good
case not to make it harder for tourists to find Covent Garden (on
the tube map) and get there.

I suspect the opera house is more likely to be the reason. Covent
Garden was still a fruit market when the other Picc stations closed.

Not to mention the LT Museum _ wouldn't it be embarrassing to close
the nearest station to it?

The museum opened in 1980, when were the closures of York Rd, Brompton
Rd etc?

Almost fifty years earlier I think.

I was suggesting that it survived the 1990s closures partly for that
reason. I dare say that there were suggestions to close it rather than
replacing the lifts.

Apart from Aldwych that closed for very different reasons, what
others were shuttered up in the 90's?

The Ongar branch closed on the same day as Aldwych. They could well have
closed Covent Garden on the same day, had there been a desire to do so.

And if the government was willing after a formal closure application to
allow it to do so. Covent Garden was far busier than Aldwych/Ongar by 1994.

Exactly. It may be close to Leicester Square station underground, but
Covent Garden station is nevertheless a busy station in its own right. And
the surface route between them isn't direct or obvious.