On Jul 9, 7:24*am, MIG wrote:

On 8 July, 23:24, Neil Williams
wrote:

On Thu, 8 Jul 2010 06:31:45 -0700 (PDT), Andy
wrote:

The exit is to the north east, from the top of platforms 8 and 9,
where the bridge takes a bend between spans 3 and 4, the exit goes
straight on(ish). It comes out by the canal and ultimately leads to
Bishop's Bridge Road. It is one of the reasons that there has to be a
barrier on the bridge, if barriers are used, as the pathway is
currently rather narrow.

Ah, I looked and saw it today. *Must have disregarded it last time as
it looks like a bit of a building site entrance!

There is something circular about this. *Because of overcrowding,
there has to be an extra exit, but because of the extra exit, there
has to be a barrier that creates overcrowding.

(Or was there always an exit that way? *I can only remember going
through the main station, but maybe I never needed to go the other
way.)

The exit (the northern one for Harrow Rd) has been around since long
before the new gates were installed last year (or whenever it was) -
so afraid your argument falls at the first hurdle!

I can't quite recall exactly what the arrangement was in days or yore,
but I think this northern exit used to form part of the cab road that
ran through Paddington - I think there was direct access off the old
Bishop's Bridge into the cab road, which then used the ramp down to
the wide island between platforms 8 & 9 before continuing across what
is now the concourse and onto the ramp that leads up to Praed Street.

I'm not sure if there was any pedestrian access next to the cab road
in those days, as the cast iron bridge it uses (which now forms part
of that northern exit) is quite narrow - nor am I sure whether or not
there was any other pedestrian exit up this way.

There did used to be a direct entrance onto the H&C line platforms
from Bishop's Bridge too - I'm not sure when this fell out of use, it
may have even been before the H&C line tracks and BR tracks on the
approach to Paddington were disentangled in the 60's. The current
emergency exit bridge between the H&C island platform and platforms
13/14 is I believe a remnant of this.

I dunno whether there were ever any thoughts about connecting the new
Bishop's Bridge to a re-opened exit for the H&C line in the same
location, but if there were then they were obviously never progressed.

On Fri, 9 Jul 2010 01:56:21 -0700 (PDT), Mizter T
wrote:

I can't quite recall exactly what the arrangement was in days or yore,
but I think this northern exit used to form part of the cab road that
ran through Paddington - I think there was direct access off the old
Bishop's Bridge into the cab road, which then used the ramp down to
the wide island between platforms 8 & 9 before continuing across what
is now the concourse and onto the ramp that leads up to Praed Street.


That is also my recollection.

Bruce wrote on 09 July 2010 10:53:35 ...
On Fri, 9 Jul 2010 01:56:21 -0700 (PDT), Mizter
wrote:

I can't quite recall exactly what the arrangement was in days or yore,
but I think this northern exit used to form part of the cab road that
ran through Paddington - I think there was direct access off the old
Bishop's Bridge into the cab road, which then used the ramp down to
the wide island between platforms 8& 9 before continuing across what
is now the concourse and onto the ramp that leads up to Praed Street.

That is also my recollection.

Mine too, and it wasn't just cabs on that road. I often used to drive
down the ramp from Bishop's Bridge, park on the road between platforms 8
& 9 and meet friends arriving by train from the west.
--
Richard J.
(to email me, swap 'uk' and 'yon' in address)

On Sat, 10 Jul 2010 11:22:44 +0100, "Richard J."
wrote:
Bruce wrote on 09 July 2010 10:53:35 ...
On Fri, 9 Jul 2010 01:56:21 -0700 (PDT), Mizter
wrote:

I can't quite recall exactly what the arrangement was in days or yore,
but I think this northern exit used to form part of the cab road that
ran through Paddington - I think there was direct access off the old
Bishop's Bridge into the cab road, which then used the ramp down to
the wide island between platforms 8& 9 before continuing across what
is now the concourse and onto the ramp that leads up to Praed Street.

That is also my recollection.

Mine too, and it wasn't just cabs on that road. I often used to drive
down the ramp from Bishop's Bridge, park on the road between platforms 8
& 9 and meet friends arriving by train from the west.


I did that once in the mid-1970s, driving my VW Beetle to meet my
girlfriend off a train from Bristol, but I think by the late 1970s it
was taxis only.

On Jul 10, 12:22*pm, Bruce wrote:

On Sat, 10 Jul 2010 11:22:44 +0100, "Richard J."
wrote:

Bruce wrote on 09 July 2010 10:53:35 ...
On Fri, 9 Jul 2010 01:56:21 -0700 (PDT), Mizter
wrote:

I can't quite recall exactly what the arrangement was in days or yore,
but I think this northern exit used to form part of the cab road that
ran through Paddington - I think there was direct access off the old
Bishop's Bridge into the cab road, which then used the ramp down to
the wide island between platforms 8& *9 before continuing across what
is now the concourse and onto the ramp that leads up to Praed Street.

That is also my recollection.

Mine too, and it wasn't just cabs on that road. *I often used to drive
down the ramp from Bishop's Bridge, park on the road between platforms 8
& 9 and meet friends arriving by train from the west.

I did that once in the mid-1970s, driving my VW Beetle to meet my
girlfriend off a train from Bristol, but I think by the late 1970s it
was taxis only.

Was driven through there in the mid/late 80's, though that doesn't
mean it wasn't supposed to be taxis only! (Can't recall if it was or
wasn't.)

On Sat, 10 Jul 2010 05:26:23 -0700 (PDT), Mizter T
wrote:
On Jul 10, 12:22*pm, Bruce wrote:
On Sat, 10 Jul 2010 11:22:44 +0100, "Richard J."
wrote:
Mine too, and it wasn't just cabs on that road. *I often used to drive
down the ramp from Bishop's Bridge, park on the road between platforms 8
& 9 and meet friends arriving by train from the west.

I did that once in the mid-1970s, driving my VW Beetle to meet my
girlfriend off a train from Bristol, but I think by the late 1970s it
was taxis only.

Was driven through there in the mid/late 80's, though that doesn't
mean it wasn't supposed to be taxis only! (Can't recall if it was or
wasn't.)


I have a habit of ignoring vehicle restrictions and have ended up in
all sorts of strange places as a result - mainly bus stations. ;-)

I suppose the IRA bombing campaign against London targets would have
done a lot to change traffic arrangements such as that at Paddington.
Sadly, the Islamist threat that replaced it makes it all the more
important to keep road vehicle flows out of stations. :-(

On Sat, 10 Jul 2010 14:12:57 +0100, Bruce
wrote:

I suppose the IRA bombing campaign against London targets would have
done a lot to change traffic arrangements such as that at Paddington.
Sadly, the Islamist threat that replaced it makes it all the more
important to keep road vehicle flows out of stations. :-(

Yet there are road vehicle flows in a few stations still - Edinburgh
Waverley for one.

Neil
--
Neil Williams in Milton Keynes, UK
To reply put my first name before the at.

"Mizter T" wrote

I can't quite recall exactly what the arrangement was in days or yore,
but I think this northern exit used to form part of the cab road that
ran through Paddington - I think there was direct access off the old
Bishop's Bridge into the cab road, which then used the ramp down to
the wide island between platforms 8 & 9 before continuing across what
is now the concourse and onto the ramp that leads up to Praed Street.

I'm not sure if there was any pedestrian access next to the cab road
in those days, as the cast iron bridge it uses (which now forms part
of that northern exit) is quite narrow - nor am I sure whether or not
there was any other pedestrian exit up this way.

There did used to be a direct entrance onto the H&C line platforms
from Bishop's Bridge too - I'm not sure when this fell out of use, it
may have even been before the H&C line tracks and BR tracks on the
approach to Paddington were disentangled in the 60's. The current
emergency exit bridge between the H&C island platform and platforms
13/14 is I believe a remnant of this.

You're right about the cab road coming from Bishop's Bridge down the ramp
and along platforms 8/9. In the far distant past there was also a cab road
down platforms 10/11.

When I was working for BR (WR London DMO) in 1967 I recall a reference to
Paddington E Booking Office which I was led to believe was the one on
Bishop's Bridge, but that it had closed some little time before. The
rearrangement of the tracks, moving the westbound H&C to from 13 to 15
happened later in 1967.

If the peak congestion is intolerable, the only quick fix I can think of is
to instigate a one-way system to and from platforms 13 - 16. One way via
platform 12 and the other way via the bridge. There would be people for whom
this would be inconvenient. It might also be possible to have the whole of
the bridge within the gated area, with gates removed from the bridge and put
at the foot of the stairs on platforms 1 and 6 - 9.

Peter

On Fri, 9 Jul 2010 11:09:59 +0100, "Peter Masson"
wrote:

If the peak congestion is intolerable, the only quick fix I can think of is
to instigate a one-way system to and from platforms 13 - 16. One way via
platform 12 and the other way via the bridge. There would be people for whom
this would be inconvenient. It might also be possible to have the whole of
the bridge within the gated area, with gates removed from the bridge and put
at the foot of the stairs on platforms 1 and 6 - 9.

This was my proposal, pretty much, though that other exit is an issue.
The easier short-term one, as practiced by LM, is just to open the
barriers in the peaks and use them off-peak only, taking the very
slight revenue hit in favour of good customer service and safety
management.

The disused bridge to 13-14 may well be of use here - perhaps this
could be the exit and the main one the entrance. But I'm sure I read
about existing overcrowding issues on those platforms as well.

Neil
--
Neil Williams in Milton Keynes, UK
To reply put my first name before the at.

On 10 July, 00:58, Neil Williams
wrote:
On Fri, 9 Jul 2010 11:09:59 +0100, "Peter Masson"

wrote:
If the peak congestion is intolerable, the only quick fix I can POthink of is
to instigate a one-way system to and from platforms 13 - 16. One way via
platform 12 and the other way via the bridge. There would be people for whom
this would be inconvenient. It might also be possible to have the whole of
the bridge within the gated area, with gates removed from the bridge and put
at the foot of the stairs on platforms 1 and 6 - 9.

This was my proposal, pretty much, though that other exit is an issue.
The easier short-term one, as practiced by LM, is just to open the
barriers in the peaks and use them off-peak only, taking the very
slight revenue hit in favour of good customer service and hI safety
management.

The disused bridge to 13-14 may well be of use here -

Indeed, otherwise you would still have the over-crowding on the stairs
to/from platforms 15/16; which are woefully inadequete for bi-
directional passenger flows.

The problem with restricting it to one direction-only during the peaks
is that the queues often build up right back to the barriers and this
in turn slows down everyone coming up the stairs, in short it must be
a nightmare to manage, especially when there is
A) disruption to tfl services
B) disruption to fgw services
C) passengers with tickets that don't work the barriers properly

Any of the above, and it's really not pleasant, surprise surprise!

Hopefully, the plan in the long term will be either an extra bridge,
or widening of existing infrastructure and an extra set of stairs; no
idea if that's the official plan tho.