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Post by Deleted on Jan 7, 2014 19:22:32 GMT
Coming home via Bank station tonight there were announcements that the interchange passageway between the W&C and other lines would be closed next week, Mon-Fri, 0600-1000 for an 'Operational Trial'.
Does anyone know what the purpose of this trial is?
As a lay person, this seems completely bonkers, as in the morning peak the gateline and travelators are already a major bottleneck, even with some of the passengers filtering off down the interchange passage. With that closed, it'll only make it worse!
At the moment, if one of the gates is out of action, you can spend more time queueing to get out of the station than you did on the train (not helped by staff refusing to open the manual gate to relieve the crush, as used to happen a few years back).
Is it anything to do with the Embankment escalator work causing passengers to re-route via the W&C? The line has seemed noticeably busier in the morning/evening peaks the last two days and staff have had to restrict the access to the platforms in the evening peaks.
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Post by sawb on Jan 7, 2014 19:35:06 GMT
If it is to do with Embankment, surely the restrictions would be put on tonight during engineering hours, as Embankment doesn't close to Northern and Bakerloo lines until start of service tomorrow?
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Post by crusty54 on Jan 7, 2014 20:52:40 GMT
Bank suffers from some bonkers ideas on passenger movement.
The most annoying is the closure of the DLR access from the Northern Line stairs at peak times.
Having to walk around to the next entrance causes trains to be missed and 7+ minute waits.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 12, 2014 21:55:28 GMT
A poster has appeared on Bank platforms stating that the closure is due to the construction work on the new (Wallbrook) entrance to the station, which will feed directly into the W&C platforms.
As the passageway is only closed during the morning peaks, it can't be the heavy construction work itself (as surely, even if that could only be done part time, it'd be done at the quietest time of the day rather than the busiest).
Maybe the closure is to test how well the gateline copes when the entire morning peak flow has to pass through it! I'm guessing the answer will be "not well". Guess I'll find out tomorrow morning!
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Post by crusty54 on Jan 13, 2014 20:25:40 GMT
The new entrance/exit will be at the opposite end of the W&C platforms.
Hardly a reason to shut the link in peak periods.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 13, 2014 23:49:17 GMT
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Post by norbitonflyer on Jan 14, 2014 13:51:41 GMT
duplcate post deleted
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Post by norbitonflyer on Jan 14, 2014 13:54:05 GMT
It's part of the development of the new Walbrrok building opposite Cannon Street NR station, and will indeed connect with the bufferstop end of the W&C station. Which is a shame, as a quick calculation reeveals that the platforms could be made double-ended quite easily, reducing congestoin and maki8ng a mahjor safety contribution, by connecting the far end into Mansion House's ticket hall.
The Walbrook development is quite independant of the plans to upgrade the rest of Bank statoin, which includes a new entrance further down Cannon Street towards Monument, and a widened circulation area for the Northern Line obtained by building a new Southbound platform tunnel. This will gve three entrances to Bank station along Cannon Street, and potentially a very long walk if you use the wrong one.
Althouhg the walbrook entrance would be handy for Cannon Street NR station, it will only give direct access to the W&C, and if you are on a cannon Street train and want to go to Waterloo you are better off changing at London Bridge.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 23, 2014 18:04:42 GMT
But the Walbrook entrance will be helpful to allow the likes of me to get to and from the W&C and then walk to my place of work next to the Thames.
When they had the passageway shut they were anouncing it was to test this ahead of the planned works so, as littleredtrain said, I think they want to assess the impact on crowding at peak times before deciding the best way of completing the Wallbrook entrance works. Based on my usual commute most people are exiting Bank from the W&C and not connecting, so they probably wanted to confirm that and whether the gateline could cope.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 23, 2014 20:00:33 GMT
I didn't get much chance to sample the height of the rush hour with the passageway shut, as twice that week South West Trains decided to deliver me to Waterloo >30mins late. However, the days I did go through at rush hour, it wasn't as bad as I expected. The Bank gateline is a bit of a bugbear of mine. There was never originally a gateline there, and it was shoehorned into the rather cramped space during the late 90s. Because it is so close to the platforms, there isn't room for passengers to spread out as they get off a train, so there's always a surge of people hitting the gateline every time a train unloads in the morning peak. This often leads to people from the back of the train having to queue for 2/3 minutes to get through, a bit daft when the train trip is only 4mins! Until a few months ago, the staff used to reduce the pressure by opening the manual gate and letting passengers with paper tickets pass through with just a visual inspection. Any tickets/Oysters that didn't work the barriers were also dealt with at the manual gate. Now, however, the gateline staff keep the manual gate closed except for luggage/pushchairs etc and make everyone go through the automatic gates. Also, they use Oyster to tap anyone without a working ticket through one of the gates, which means that gate gets blocked while the dodgy ticket/Oyster is checked. Add to that the fact that one of the automatic gates is often out of order, and things get pretty crowded down there! I have mentioned this to TfL several times, but never got a useful response back. In the evening peak the gates cause further problems, with passengers blocking the end of the travelators whilst they get tickets out/work out which gates are set to entry/exit and just generally mill around. Hopefully the new entrance will alleviate a lot of these problems, though it would be nice if they could put an automatic wide gate in place of the manual gate, to ease congestion. (Hmm.. maybe this post should be in Rant Area instead  |
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Post by Deleted on Jan 24, 2014 10:39:16 GMT
I didn't get much chance to sample the height of the rush hour with the passageway shut, as twice that week South West Trains decided to deliver me to Waterloo >30mins late. However, the days I did go through at rush hour, it wasn't as bad as I expected. The Bank gateline is a bit of a bugbear of mine. (Hmm.. maybe this post should be in Rant Area instead I agree that the gateline can be a pain and have also noticed the staff not being as willing to let people through the manual gate recently. I also find that (as with all gates) people are pretty bad at understanding that you can't tailgate or some poor sod will get blocked when it is not their fault. It is a tight space, but I am not sure where they could put the gates and not cause issues for those only wanting the W&C rather than changing to another line. The new Walbrook entrance should help take a lot a lot of entry/exit traffic away if properly signed. This morning I actually noticed more people than I thought do change to other lines at Bank, but maybe it is no more than say 40% of the average train load in the am peak. |
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