On Jan 29, 1:22 pm, "Mizter T" wrote:
On 29 Jan, 09:27, Walter Briscoe wrote:





In message .com of
Sun, 28 Jan 2007 23:27:41 in uk.transport.london, MIG
writes

[snip]

The way to get from the DLR to the Central is to head up the first big
escalator as directed (towards the front of the arriving DLR), but to
ignore the second escalator and turn right as if to the Northern Line,
after which you will find the direct passageway from the Northern to
the Central which, unlike following the original signs, doesn't take
you over the Central and down again.Is that the route up the spiral
staircase between the Northern and
Central lines? If so, it's unfortunately not shown on the
illustration.

So it seems that at both Green Park and at Bank not following the
signed instructions is the way to go! There's obviously a number of
routes between lines at interchanges, but I'm just trying to think if
any of them are as essential as these two for the savvy subterranean
traveller. (In general I reckon it's a bit out of order to go the
wrong way down a one way tunnel, but that said when you're in a rush
to get the last train I think one can be forgiven for abandoning such
niceties).

Yes, it would be the spiral staircase.

I should mention that my suggested route doesn't involve going the
wrong way down any passages; just following a sign to a different line
from the one you are trying to reach.

The situation is even worse if you are going the other way. To get to
the DLR from the Central, bearing in mind that the DLR is two levels
below, you are directed to start by climbing upstairs to get over one
of the Central platforms. I know they want to separate people out, but
I think it's asking a bit much to make people do that.

I would always head downwards towards the Northern and then cut
across. It's never particularly crowded.

Have you tried feedback to LU/TFL on the extended route?I guess that given the somewhat cramped nature of the spiral staircase
route LU prefers to direct people along a more spacious route instead.
I think that's fair enough.



I think the problem is that they have to provide an alternative route,
so that they can thereby claim to have increased the capacity for the
passageways with the building of the DLR. The fact that no one would
use the new route it if they knew how far it took them out of their
way doesn't seem to figure. They've created a route, albeit a
ludicrous one, and therefore fulfilled the requirement.

I can't be quite sure how the whole thing works in 3D, but I can't see
why they didn't build a staircase down from the Central instead of up,
and then a passageway parallel with the one to the Northern along the
same horizontal route as the current top escalator, leading towards
the existing bottom escalator to the DLR, which is fine.

The long top escalator avoids no stairs. It just goes twice as far
vertically as it needs to, creating the need for another staircase in
the opposite direction, the same height as the one that could have
been in place of the whole thing.