On Wed, 22 Oct 2003 21:54:33 +0100, "Nicholas F Hodder"
wrote:

Can anyone explain why Liverpool Street tube station was closed this morning
(at least for westbound Central Line trains)?

They said it was because of overcrowding, but when I asked Tube staff where
the overcrowding was, they said it was on the Central Line platforms. If
trains don't stop at the platform, how will this ease overcrowding? Surely
it makes things worse.

I think that a number of routes are under pressure because of the
Northern Line problems and the Vic Line was seriously disrupted at
Oxford Circus yesterday. Liverpool St was closed temporarily to people
entering it. The platforms would be full and believe me when platforms
get completely full the last thing you want is more people trying to
push onto them while others are trying to get off.

The risks are - people may fall off the platform or be pushed / fall
under a train. Also people may just be crushed by the crowd and small
children may get trampled. Finally if the congestion became too severe
you get people blocked back to the escalators thus preventing people
from leaving them thus resulting in a pile up of people on the
escalator.

Therefore the staff would stop people entering the station until trains
had cleared the backlog and then people would be allowed back in in a
controlled fashion. Happens every single day at Victoria because it is
just too small for the huge volumes of people using the station.
--
Paul C


Admits to working for London Underground!