On 10 Nov, 23:02, Charles Ellson wrote:
On Sat, 10 Nov 2007 13:28:13 -0800, Mizter T
wrote:

On 10 Nov, 21:00, "Zen83237" wrote:

(snip)

I replied to a post further up then found this one. I was at Wembley Central
yesterday and found the station layout very bizarre. I didn't see ant oyster
readers and they routed the Watford train into the northbound platform,
dickheads.

Kevin

I don't think Wembley Central was ever really designed to be used as
it is now. The DC line platforms have always had a very regular
service (both Watford- Euston and Bakerloo) and hence at some point in
the fairly recent past were gated. I'm not sure whether the other
platforms were ever in regular use before the current Southern service
(which started back in Connex South Central days and originally
extended up to Rugby). I'm also unsure of how many of these services
called at Wembley Central at the beginning - this service certainly
calls there more often nowadays than it did.

Lastly unless there were radical changes then platforms 3-6 could not
easily be brought within the gateline at Wembley Central - the
passageway the platforms are accessed from (through doors that are
otherwise locked out of use) is a public passageway that provides
access to offices and shops that (I think) would otherwise not have
access. I guess one way of facilitating this would be to divide the
passageway up, but apart from any other issues given the pretty
infrequent service these extra platforms receive I suspect it just
wouldn't be worth it.

A trip down onto those platforms is certainly a somewhat bizarre
experience, I must say - it's a bit of a forgotten dingy hole, made
stranger when a fast Pendolino speeds through on the adjacent fast
lines and the whole underground space suddenly experiences a sudden
vortex of rushing wind. The kind of out of the ordinary unpolished
transport experience that's quite entertaining, in my books at least!

The current layout originates from what would have been appropriate
for the 1948 Olympics (i.e. as little obstruction as possible between
the Main Line platforms and the street) and at that time would no
doubt have had a sizeable amount of station staff allocated; IIRC the
booking office(s) was/were closer to the street before the current one
was built. Since then however the 1960s Station Square (which also has
access from side roads other than Wembley High Road) has been bolted
on top of the platforms without any attempt to maintain the convention
of all platforms being within one boundary. So the LNWR and LMS
probably had the design right but BR buggered it up by doing things on
the cheap (plus ca change.....). The new footbridge at the London end
goes some way to curing the 1960s bodge but unfortunately it is at the
opposite end of the station to the booking office and barriers so only
gets used on event days when extra staff are drafted in.


Thanks, that all helps me to make sense of the current arrangement. I
guess that in the 60's perhaps BR failed to foresee any future usage
of the main line platforms other than for Wembley event day specials.

I'd presume that the tenants of Station Square would be most unwilling
to lose unfettered pedestrian access across the covered footbridge
corridor and be forced to use the side streets. I suspect they might
also not be spectacularly keen on losing a portion of that corridor so
it could be enclosed to become part of the fare-paid area.

The whole of the station arcade (including the covered corridor in
question) and the Station Square is all very grotty, taken in
combination it's all a pretty sorry state of affairs. Dare I suggest
that this could all get remedied some day with a welcome offer from a
property developer to knock down Station Square and build something
nicer. I guess there could be some less drastic ways of remedying the
whole situation too, like a spot of heavy cleaning and a determined
attempt at beautification.