"Brimstone" wrote in message
...
wrote:
Brimstone wrote:
wrote:
These sort of things make me laugh.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/4227212.stm

Strangely enough it doesn't mention Leicester Sq so I assume that
that station is equally overcrowded and can't cope. Perhaps Ken
could introduce a congestion charge or even pay for escalators.


You'd make yourself look less of a prat if you had bothered to read
the article and to understand it.
Ok my understanding is that TfL are encouraging passngers not to use
Covent Garden tube at the weekend due to overcrowding.
Covent Garden is the busiest tube station that is exclusively served
by lifts.
TfL are encouraging passengers to use Charing Cross, Embankment and
Holburn (but strangely not Leicester Sq).


The opening paragraph states "Transport chiefs are urging people to
reduce congestion at Covent Garden Tube station by using other forms
of travel".

Is my understanding ok, what have I not understood?

If your level of understanding is such why does the story make you laugh?


I would imagine he's laughing at the irony of London Underground (sic:
that's what the news story says) saying "don't use one of our own stations
at busy times" - although, I agree it's for very good reasons. Really it's
admission that the Covent Garden market area is so popular that the
out-of-date lifts (as opposed to escalators) in the station can't cope.

Leicester Square is probably the closest station to Covent Garden market
after CG station itself, so the fact that it's not mentioned suggests that
it is also very busy, though it has escalators rather than lifts, IIRC, so
at least it can handle the number of people better. Don't give Ken ideas
about financial penalties to discourage people-congestion at busy stations
;-)

The ideal solution would be escalators. I presume the fact that the lifts
have survived so long is an indication that the site isn't suited to the
extra horizontal space required for escalators and that conversion would be
seriously costly in terms of the building/tunnelling work involved.