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Post by Deleted on Jan 17, 2008 8:40:28 GMT
Last night's journey home involved a change from Met to Northern at Moorgate - or would have done.
I got to the vicinity of the top of the escalator to find lots of people seemingly moving slowly. OK, NR was closed due to a signal failure at Finsbury Park, but it turns out part of the problem is that the escalator was stopped.
Had it broken down or had this action been taken deliberately for some reason? As I find it very difficult to walk down escalators, I got back on the Met and made a street level change at Euston Square/Euston.
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Post by cetacean on Jan 17, 2008 11:24:13 GMT
There's an alternate route to the Northern Line via the NR platforms, which is usually quicker if the Northern Line escalator is busy.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 17, 2008 11:44:22 GMT
It could be a breakdown, staff may have stopped it for safety reasons, or a passenger may have operated one of the emergency stop buttons.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 17, 2008 13:41:15 GMT
There's an alternate route to the Northern Line via the NR platforms, which is usually quicker if the Northern Line escalator is busy. ... but is unusable if, as happened last night, service from those platforms is suspended. |
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Post by Tubeboy on Jan 17, 2008 16:33:55 GMT
It could be a breakdown, staff may have stopped it for safety reasons, or a passenger may have operated one of the emergency stop buttons. ..........A lot of the time for fun. |
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Colin
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Post by Colin on Jan 17, 2008 20:56:47 GMT
Stopping the escalators is a form of 'station control' - or congestion control if you like.
I don't know the layout at Moorgate - I've never been there - but given what's been said so far, my money's on the 'station control' option. Whilst at first glance it may sound daft to suggest that stopping the escalators is a form of control, it really does work.
My experience of this is when there's a closure on the District east of Earls Court - the world & his wife will all pile down onto the Picc to continue their journeys and if the escalators are left in, it really doesn't take long for the eastbound Picc platform to get near to capacity.
Taking out the escalators and making them a fixed stairway slows everyone down and makes the whole thing more manageable.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 18, 2008 8:25:33 GMT
I see... though I can do fixed stairways, I can't really do stopped escalators - the steps are rather high.
If I was in a "no other way" situation, I could do it, but I normally avoid stopped escalators in favour of plain stairs.
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Post by edwin on Jan 18, 2008 10:01:53 GMT
I noticed that in a few stations at night, the central escalators are switched off, King's Cross is one that springs to mind. Is it to save energy and reduce wear and tear for when the escalators aren't needed?
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Post by compsci on Jan 18, 2008 10:39:38 GMT
I tend to feel somewhat giddy on stopped escalators for the first few seconds at least. Probably a result of expecting forward motion, but not getting any.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 18, 2008 11:58:07 GMT
I noticed that in a few stations at night, the central escalators are switched off, King's Cross is one that springs to mind. Is it to save energy and reduce wear and tear for when the escalators aren't needed? I have often wondered about that. After I started walking again, I initially didn't have the confidence to cope with escalators, and at stations where there were only escalators but with one stopped, I would use it as a staircase. It was hard going, but manageable. It was at Kings Cross one night that I found the only way I knew to get from the Picc to the Northern involved an escalator, quite late at night. I waited for the number of people to reduce a little and found it OK, and have preferred escalators ever since. On another occasion, I arrived at the same point to find the down escalator off and both of the others going up. If the middle one had been going down, I would have coped far better. I think part of the reason some escalators are stopped at night may be for the benefit of people who don't cope well with them, and also to save energy. |
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Post by suncloud on Jan 18, 2008 13:13:56 GMT
If one escalator of a pair is taken out of service (e.g. for a fault) the other will normally be set to run upwards and the stationary will be used for down. This is presumably for the twin reasons of gravity helping people down the stopped escalator and for safety reasons by enabling the alighting passengers to leave the platform areas quicker than the boarding passengers arrive.
I'd imagine where 1 out of 3 escalators is stopped, a decision will be made on whether to have 1up/1down or 2 up based on expected passenger flows. I would imagine there may also be consideration to preventing or limiting 2 way traffic on any fixed stairway or stopped escalator.
I've found myself at bank recently in the morning peak. Obviously the peak flow on the Waterloo & City is up from platform, mainly to the street, so they evidentally set both travelators to up and send the few Waterloo bound passengers down the stairs. Not great when you've got luggage with you mind.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 19, 2008 1:59:46 GMT
I noticed that in a few stations at night, the central escalators are switched off, King's Cross is one that springs to mind. Is it to save energy and reduce wear and tear for when the escalators aren't needed? Basically, yes. There's no point running three escalators when there's hardly anyone coming through the station. |
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Post by edwin on Jan 19, 2008 2:15:09 GMT
Thanks for the answers you lot.
It makes sense to have two escalators going up and one going down, since passengers are more likely to walk down a down escalator than an up one, effectively doubling it's capacity... However, the escalators to Holborn on the Piccadilly are always 2 down 1 up!
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Post by Deleted on Jan 19, 2008 2:53:54 GMT
Isn't the reason for having more escalators going up than down in deep-level stations, something to do with Section 12?
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Post by superteacher on Jan 19, 2008 12:29:46 GMT
When I used to use Old Street a few years ago, the 3rd escalator had been out of service for years - it was a non standard installation, and they gave up trying to keep it going until they replaced it in the early to mid 90's. Anyway, the point is that during the morning peak, they ran both remanining escalators in the up direction, leaving downward passengers to use the spiral staircase. Even worse than walking down the stairs to the W&C at Bank!
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Post by suncloud on Jan 19, 2008 13:36:11 GMT
I wouldn't normally complain about the stairs to the W&C, they're not too bad, probably quite fun... If you're travelling light... I was working on the South Coast for a few weeks and I was taking clothes and stuff to last at least a few days...
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