In message
, at
10:17:19 on Sun, 9 Nov 2008, Mr Thant
remarked:
On 8 Nov, 16:05, Roland Perry wrote:
Talking of which, I went through T123 Underground station earlier today,
and the automatic barriers were taped off, with everyone having to take
a scenic tour of the booking office to get to the escalators. It wasn't
clear why

The signs say "escalator closure trials".

I think the closure was a success. Now they can declare the trial over.

I think the station has two
sets of escalators - one beyond the ticket office for people going
in, and one before the ticket office for people leaving, which have
their own gateline that exits directly onto the airport corridor.
Everyone was being sent via the latter.

We went down the escalator I think you'd normally expect to, but the
gateline from the corridor to the escalator was closed, and an entire
360 degree trip round the ticket office hall was required. The centre of
the hall is a maze of queue-control barriers, but they were shut and
therefore unable to be used as a short-cut.
--
Roland Perry