Thread: Connectivity
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Old May 20th 05, 08:34 AM posted to uk.transport.london
lonelytraveller lonelytraveller is offline
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First recorded activity at LondonBanter: May 2005
Posts: 346
Default Connectivity

One of the things I find strange about the tube is that they hardly
ever (i.e. everywhere except holborn) seem to attempt to correct the
lack of interchange between lines which cross each other (e.g. West
Ruislip), so that you don't need to make ridiculous journeys to get
between them. I have constructed a list of these, and wonder whether
any plans are in the pipeline to correct the problem, or ever have
been.


Acton and Ealing - this whole area is a mess, with multiple lines
crossing each other, but never interchanging - e.g. you could cut out
either the central line, or the district line, if you had an
interchange to the picadilly from the central just before ealing
broadway. Likewise, acton main line and west acton are very close yet
without interchange.

Aldgate - The trains from Tower Hill to Aldgate East, and from
Liverpool Street to Aldgate East, both pass extremely closely to the
south and north ends of the Aldgate platforms (respectively). Why
didn't they just add platforms in for these so that you don't need to
make awkward changes at this triangle.

Aldwych - The southern end of the platforms are close enough to Temple
for an escalator to join them together. As they were forever trying to
make Aldwych more useful, I am surprised they never considered this, as
a short cut from Holborn to the circle line would be very useful.

Bank - The Waterloo & City line is quite far from the other lines (the
platforms are actually half way to Mansion House), so why didn't they
just extend it, moving the platforms to somewhere like Princes Street,
so that it is a very brief walk to the other lines.


Blackfriars - The Waterloo & City line passes directly beneath here, a
connection to it would alleviate travel from Bank to Blackfriars (thus
rendered 1 stop rather than 4) and from Blackfriars to Waterloo
(currently 4 stops including interchange), assuming the frequency of
the line was changed to something more similar to the other tube lines,
so that it could cope with the number of passengers. A connection here
would be amazingly significant to journey times from this area, and
routes from more north that involve using thameslink, as well as
connecting the area up much better.

Earls Court - The station appears to have been placed in one of the
most awkward of locations - had it been placed to the east in the
triangle where the lines diverge, there wouldn't be so much trouble
getting to high street kensington or gloucester road. More
significantly, had the station been placed to the west, it would have
enabled a direct connection to the West London Line, allowing the
branch to Kensington Olympia to be scrapped (and resolve similar issues
with having to get a branch to West Brompton first) - in fact, if the
Kings Line (Chelsea-Hackney line) went ahead, it would allow the Kings
line to take other the southern half of the Wimbledon Branch, and the
West London line to take over the northern half (and thus increase the
frequency of the West London Line significantly, as it would have
dedicated track rather than share it with freight).



Edgeware Road - The connection between the nearby bakerloo and circle
line stations is via an increadibly scary mugging friendly set of
underpasses. It could be much better done, more directly, via a simple
escalator between the bakerloo and circle line platforms.

Euston Square - The eastern end of this station is near Euston, and an
escalator link would connect the two, although there is a problem due
to a huge sewer right next to and parrallel with the eastern end of the
station, which obstructs the potential path quite a bit. The western
end is fairly close to Warren Street - the distance is about the same
as the length of the travelator at waterloo, and an escalator between
the levels of the lines would reduce that (going to the northern line
directly would be the shortest route, although you would probably need
to go through the old lift shafts. At the moment, if you want to go
south on the charing cross branch of the northern line, you either need
to walk the distance to euston or warren street, or change at both
kings cross, and euston, which is hardly convenient if you have lots of
heavy luggage, or difficulty walking far for some other reason.

Hampstead - The North London line passes to the south, and is a very
useful line as otherwise you need to go back into central london if you
want to go somewhere east or west. If they put an exit from the
southern end of the platforms, it would meet the North London line at
Rosslyn Hill. Although this is comparably quite far south from the
northern line platforms, Hampstead is the deepest tube station in
london, and so the escalator distance from it would be the longest (and
due the length, they would probably be split into stages, pushing the
exit even further to the south).

Mansion House - The Waterloo & City line runs directly under here, and
the platforms for bank are closer to here than they are to bank, so why
did they never build an escalator connection between the bank platforms
and Mansion House (admittedly this would make bank station somewhat
bizarre - if you went from the waterloo & city line platforms to
monument via the central line, and then took a circle/district line
train to mansion house, you would get back to the same waterloo & city
line platforms, even though you have gone through an intermediate
station (cannon street)).

Morden - Tramlink, and other lines, pass half way between morden and
south wimbledon, which is a reasonably large gap anyway. A station
where they meet would provide useful interchange, enabling a more
direct connection to the district line (via tramlink/foot/bus etc.) and
it is odd that one was not put in here originally.

Paddington - Currently, there is an extensive walk between the circle &
bakerloo platforms, and the hammersmith ones. This could have been
resolved by an escalator from the northern end of the bakerloo line
platforms which would connect fairly directly with the hammersmith
platforms. Also, the circle and bakerloo platforms could be brought
much closer together by a short passage from the eastern end of the
circle line platforms. I am very curious why neither of these things
were ever done.

Shepherd's Bush - There already seems to be a staff exit at the east
end of the platforms (over a bridge), so are they considering a public
exit at the east end to connect to the new station planned for the West
London Line.

Shoreditch High Street - The new East London Line station will be
directly above the central line, near some half built WWII bunker
tunnels. I have always been puzzled why they never built a station here
in the first place on the central line, and now it would make a useful
interchange as well.

St Pauls - The west end of the platforms is quite close to the City
Thameslink station, so I am surprised that no link was made, especially
when there are already partly constructed WWII bunker tunnels from the
west end of one of the platforms. Alternately, I am also surprised that
they never considered a station at Holborn Viaduct on the original
central line, which would also have provided such a connection, since
this is quite a busy area, and the gap between St Pauls and Chancery
Lane is quite large.

Walthamstow - With a small extension to the victoria line, it would
meet the central line near woodford, making the journey to/from
Walthamstow from/to the east much simpler, rather than needing to go
via oxford circus (ignoring buses/private transport), which is a bit
silly.

West Ruislip - Connecting this station up to a new station on the
metropolitan would mean that you could make the connection to Uxbridge
quite easily, rather than needing to use local transport instead, or
having to go via acton, which is ridiculous.

White City - They are building a new station on the Hammersmith & City
line nearby, which could be connected up if they slightly extended the
platforms a bit south, and replaced the (very) ugly station building
with (a more useful) one towards the southern end of the site.