The staircases down to platform level seem rather narrow at the moment;
are they putting an escalator in behind the hordings?

kytelly wrote:
The staircases down to platform level seem rather narrow at the moment;
are they putting an escalator in behind the hordings?

I think they are putting another lift in - the whole thing will be a
mirror image of the exit stairs.

Simon

The staircases down to platform level seem rather narrow at the moment;
are they putting an escalator in behind the hordings?

I think they are putting another lift in - the whole thing will be a
mirror image of the exit stairs.

The new opening has all been a bit of an anti-climax now it's opened. The
location of the ticket machines in the new hall seems ill thought out,
right by the gate line and obstructing the main flow from the old ticket
hall. It also seems the fashion to put tube maps in places where they
obstruct the flow (ground level corner entrance to the new ticket hall).
The walk from the new ticket hall towards old going up to surface level
puts you in conflict with those coming from the old ticket hall towards the
new one.

I guess it'll all get much better once you can connect directly instead of
between the two ticket halls. At the moment it's a bit of a daily nightmare
in both directions

D

Dave Plumb wrote:
The walk from the new ticket hall towards old going up to surface level
puts you in conflict with those coming from the old ticket hall towards the
new one.

In addition to all your very valid comments, the signs are pretty awful
too. Plenty of people get confused coming in from the street level, not
realising you go down the stairs on the immediate left and round to get
to the gates. Okay, it IS obvious when you know but clearly not obvious
enough for those that don't, with people walking down to a closed off
section, to double back on the steps they DO see. Coming out of the
gates to go up to street level isn't any clearer if you want to go to
St Pancras (or platforms 9-11 at Kings Cross) so you'll probably walk
through and either battle your way through those wanting the other
underground lines, or come out at the front of Kings Cross and have to
walk back for StP, or through all the people in the entrance of KX!

Also, I hate to repeat myself because I got slaughtered last time, but
the gates are slow and fail regularly. In the end, staff will often
open them up to clear the queues in both directions. For such new
equipment, their acceptance level of paper tickets and oyster cards is
terrible. The only advantage is the increased number of gates that can
be fitted in, but the lack of speed must more than cancel this benefit
out. I live in hope that a few subtle changes can fix these issues, and
will be carried out in due course.

Jonathan

Jonathan Morris wrote:
Dave Plumb wrote:
The walk from the new ticket hall towards old going up to surface level
puts you in conflict with those coming from the old ticket hall towards the
new one.

In addition to all your very valid comments, the signs are pretty awful
too. Plenty of people get confused coming in from the street level, not
realising you go down the stairs on the immediate left and round to get
to the gates. Okay, it IS obvious when you know but clearly not obvious
enough for those that don't, with people walking down to a closed off
section, to double back on the steps they DO see. Coming out of the
gates to go up to street level isn't any clearer if you want to go to
St Pancras (or platforms 9-11 at Kings Cross) so you'll probably walk
through and either battle your way through those wanting the other
underground lines, or come out at the front of Kings Cross and have to
walk back for StP, or through all the people in the entrance of KX!
(snip)

It seems particularly bad now that the bottom part of Pancras Road is
shut. The signs to St Pancras hadn't been covered up and were pointing
the wrong way - the current route seems to be up the steps to the front
of King's Cross, then round to the left and a rather tortuous set of
routes through the building site. (Of course, then there's the added
hassle of needing to walk all the way under St Pancras to the new MML
platforms.)

As a semi-regular KXSP user, I like to think I'd be able to help some of
the bewildered groups of tourists standing around wondering where on
earth they should be going, but I generally only just have a clue
myself. The signage better be good when the Northern ticket hall is in
place, otherwise it'll be labyrinth chaos! I wonder whether
Barbican-style lines-on-the-floor might be a good idea.


--
Dave Arquati
Imperial College, SW7
www.alwaystouchout.com - Transport projects in London

On 30 Jul 2006 16:10:07 -0700, "Jonathan Morris"
wrote:

Also, I hate to repeat myself because I got slaughtered last time, but
the gates are slow and fail regularly. In the end, staff will often
open them up to clear the queues in both directions. For such new
equipment, their acceptance level of paper tickets and oyster cards is
terrible. The only advantage is the increased number of gates that can
be fitted in, but the lack of speed must more than cancel this benefit
out. I live in hope that a few subtle changes can fix these issues, and
will be carried out in due course.

I don't know about the failure rate, but I have to agree about the
speed. On previous gates,you can touch your Oysteron the target and
walk through without breaking stride. You can't on these, unless ypu
walk very slowly.

--
James Farrar
. @gmail.com

James Farrar wrote:
I don't know about the failure rate, but I have to agree about the
speed. On previous gates,you can touch your Oysteron the target and
walk through without breaking stride. You can't on these, unless ypu
walk very slowly.

It is very annoying, and when the queue backs up by the ticket
machines, it does get messy. Mind you, everyone wants to use the first
two gates and if you 'go wide' you can often get an empty gate further
along if the station isn't totally snarled up.

The lifts seem to be out of service a lot of the time too, going by the
number of times it's mentioned in my daily email service bulletin from
TfL. How can a brand new lift be failing so often? I don't blame LUL
but surely a contractor somewhere is being given a severe earbashing on
that?

Jonathan

wrote:
kytelly wrote:
The staircases down to platform level seem rather narrow at the moment;
are they putting an escalator in behind the hordings?

I think they are putting another lift in - the whole thing will be a
mirror image of the exit stairs.

These stairs will, I hope, become less crowded when the direct
passageway between the Met/Circle/H+C platforms and the top of
Pic/Vic/Northern escalators is (re)-opened. Any news on when that will
happen?

PaulO

Paul Oter wrote:
wrote:
kytelly wrote:
The staircases down to platform level seem rather narrow at the moment;
are they putting an escalator in behind the hordings?

I think they are putting another lift in - the whole thing will be a
mirror image of the exit stairs.

These stairs will, I hope, become less crowded when the direct
passageway between the Met/Circle/H+C platforms and the top of
Pic/Vic/Northern escalators is (re)-opened. Any news on when that will
happen?

Yeah I have to say it seems an awful lot of upheaval for not *much*
more capacity. Also you'll still have the Piccadilly and Northern
passenger flows colliding at the bottom of the escalators. And when are
they going to get rid of the portcabins that were the temp LUL ticket
office? They rather hide the new steps down.

James Farrar wrote:

On 30 Jul 2006 16:10:07 -0700, "Jonathan Morris"
wrote:

Also, I hate to repeat myself because I got slaughtered last time, but
the gates are slow and fail regularly. In the end, staff will often
open them up to clear the queues in both directions. For such new
equipment, their acceptance level of paper tickets and oyster cards is
terrible. The only advantage is the increased number of gates that can
be fitted in, but the lack of speed must more than cancel this benefit
out. I live in hope that a few subtle changes can fix these issues, and
will be carried out in due course.

I don't know about the failure rate, but I have to agree about the
speed. On previous gates,you can touch your Oysteron the target and
walk through without breaking stride. You can't on these, unless ypu
walk very slowly.


I like the older gates that whack open and shut - there's no waiting
about with those at all! Of course at rush hour you then end up with
everyone concertina-ing into the person in front of them when the
person who's at the gates has a problem with their ticket and can't get
them to open, but I find that quite amusing anyway!