Shenanigans at Stratford..

No, but I imagine customers told they can't use their habitual route will be none too pleased!

Yep - turns out that's exactly what it was. Changing from the Jubilee line to the eastbound Central, routed left up the stairs from the subway rather than right, which then promptly caused a bottleneck of people queuing for the Shenfield train vs. the masses trying to get to the Central line. I'm a South Woodford denizen, so wanted the far end of the platform too. Ho hum!

Seems the public are not keen on the revised arrangements judging on Twitter reaction.

Testing it off peak would be pointless, as the flow of passengers would not be sufficient to evaluate its effectiveness as the busiest of times.
Secondly, testing it at another station would also be pointless, as no two stations have the same passenger flows.

you are not going to solve congestion problems at Stratford without seriously expensive (and likely disruptive) remodelling of the station. About the only thing I can think of that would actually work completely would be new east-west platforms. The only way this could be would be either a third level of platforms (over or under) or above the southern end of the Jubilee line platforms (and the concourse outside the station too).

I've not experienced these passenger routes yet (but I might tomorrow), but it sounds like they have just moved the points of conflict between passenger flows from the subway to the platforms - which is not going to either solve the problem or feel safe.

Anything which transfers congestion to platform level is a non starter. Can't see the situation being allowed to continue.

Not only Crossrail but the advent of thousands and thousands of workers in the new offices and academic facilities under construction. Still given TfL is moving its HQ to Stratford the "powers that be" will experience first hand the current nightmare that many more thousands of people will exacerbate. It's rather ironic, given the huge sums expended at Stratford over the last 20 years or so, that the place still doesn't work properly with far too much vertical movement for interchange and entry / exit and circulation areas (the eastern link corridors) that might as well be filled with tumbleweed for all the use they get.

While I understand your Crossrail remark I think the reality will be more nuanced and very hard to predict because there are so many factors in play as to how people make their commuting decisions plus lots of external factors like housing, population levels etc etc. It may be that Central Line users remain on the Central Line as it will be marginally more "comfortable" without the mass interchange to / from Crossrail (once the eastern tunnel link is opened in May 2019).

I wonder if Stratford's congestion has worsened since it was moved into Zone 2/3 in January? I've not been there for ages so have no feel for whether it's got worse or not.

Definitely there is a need for proper platforms shelters and a heated waiting room on 9/10; I cant understand why such do not exist. The present day bus stop shelters are woefully inadequate, especially when one bears in mind that passengers may need to wait 20+ minutes before their train arrives. The present day situation is a disgrace.

re: the experiment, there is a solution which passengers from the Jubilee Line who want the front of an eastbound Central Line train can adopt that would make life better for them.

Step 1) Go to platform 3a
Step 2) When a westbound central Line train arrives, use it as a walkway and crossover to platform 3. After all, it opens its doors on both sides
Step 3) walk to the eastern end of the platform and use the new eastern subterranean passageway to reach the eastbound platforms!

Quite why the new eastern subterranean passageway does not reach platform 3a or the older station building is beyond me. It would help if this walkway was extended to plug the gap.

re: platforms 6/8, these are much wider at the eastern end than they used to be. This became possible after the station was rebuilt with just 3 through tracks for fast trains - rather than the previous 4. The track for platform 8 was realigned and the platform widened.

What could help reduce congestion at the western end of this platform is for the access stairs which point west to be realigned to come up through the never used track bed at platform 7 with the present day stairway closed / converted to platform space. In addition, the rest of the disused trackbed could be converted to become part of the platform with passengers who want Crossrail trains encouraged to wait here. (a row of seats along the platform edge and signs advertising the seating will help encourage people to use this space!) At present the trackbed is just an eyesore waste ground.

Stratford also needs pink Oyster readers at the eastern end of the NLL platforms, so that passengers who use the new eastern subterranean passageway to interchange to platforms 3 - 11 dont have to walk along the NLL platform to use the pink card readers. There have been times when I've had to miss a NLL train because I needed to use the pink reader and the train could not wait for me to do this.

Simon

Simon - quite agree with all those suggestions, except the train walkway ruse. The tides of humanity might mean you get carried on to Mile End!
The station needs more and better signposted yellow oyster readers, too, for people coming off GA trains with paper tickets and wanting to continue by LU/Overground.
The shelter situation on 9/10 is diabolical, ditto 10A, and the 10A train describer (only one of them) is well concealed from most of the platform.

The replacement for the buildings would probably be rows of columns. Think neyagness means that the buildings on the island platforms, which at one time included a BTH cafeteria, are too wide, reducing the space between them and the platform edge to almost dangerous proportions.
The time to do this would be when the current overhead line replacement programme reached Stratford (I'm assuming it wasn't fone 15yrs ago, but may be wrong)

He specifically says to replace the canopies.

You could remove the offices and toilets without doing this.

They have been working on the overheads at Stratford recently. Any such work would be completed much more quickly than replacing the canopies.

Having worked inside the rooms recently I don't think so. There are staff toilets.

A new control room would be needed for Crossrail.

The station needs a lot of remedial work but I doubt if the years of shoddy Railtrack/Network Rail work will ever get made up.

not as much renewed as updated with new lighting etc.

Glass roof would take a lot of supporting.

There are light weight materials as used at Crystal Palace station.

If a glass roof can span St Pancras it should be possible for one to span Stratford given modern technology. Other materials may be cheaper though.