On 1 Nov, 23:55, "Paul Scott" wrote:
Apparently (BBC teletext refers) the station closed for two hours today
because of Westfield related overcrowding.
I hadn't seen that when I asked in an earlier post about the effect on the
local stations of the centre opening, but I always suspected that of the
various options for travel the Central Line platforms would be the weakest
link...

I wonder if the fall back position will be to make the station exit or
entrance only a la Covent Garden or Camden Town, with pax directed to White
City where the platforms are relatively huge compared to Shepherds Bush?


There's a BBC News online story here about this...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/7704113.stm

The story also covers the somewhat inevitable traffic jams on the
roads in the area, including a slip road that was closed to control
congestion.

FWIW here's a few stats- there are 60,000 visitors expected every day,
60% of whom are expected to come by public transport, and there are
4,500 car parking spaces (which are not free).

As well as the possibility of continuing problems of overcrowding at
Shepherd's Bush Central line station, the other public transport issue
that instantly springs to mind is how much extra strain the shopping
centre will put on passenger services down the West London Line
(bearing in mind the newly opened Shepher's Bush WLL station), in
particular at peak times when trains are already rammed full. And I
suppose there could be an issue with higher levels of traffic
congestion playing havoc with bus services in the area.

Of course it's still early days and because people are nuts they want
to go and pay homage to the gods of consumerism at the new shiny shiny
temple of shops right away. Of course it's probably best to just wait
until the initial furore surrounding the centre's opening dies down
and things become more settled before trying to identify what long-
term issues traffic heading to and from the centre might present.