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[email protected] · January 17th 12, 01:25 PM posted to uk.transport.london

In article ,
(John Salmon) wrote:

"Roland Perry" wrote in message ...

remarked:

One of the changes they've made in the last year or two (I can't say
exactly when) was to rope off a corridor across the old concourse in
front of the departure board. I suppose that directs people towards
the newish stairs down to the tube station, but it does reduce the
number of people filtering through the waiting crowds.

You have misunderstood the purpose of that corridor. If you look
carefully you can see that it was created because the route between the
halves of the train shed near the platform ends has been gated off so
there is otherwise no route to the barriers opposite platforms 0-4 from
the ends of the other platforms.

Hmm, why would you want to get to platforms 0-4 *from* platforms
5-8, without first standing around in the crowd waiting to see
which platform you want? Although that's a bit recursive, because
until the platform's announced you don't know you need to head for
p0-4.

I don't see much need for a "bypass" there for passengers catching
trains who happen to be near platform 8 when their number is
called, but it's heavily used by people leaving p0-4.

I agree with Roland's interpretation here - I mainly use that
'bypass' to exit from the lower-numbered platforms towards the Travel
Centre/newish underground entrance, and I think it was 'created' (or
'signed', to be more accurate) at around the same time as the 0-5
barriers became operational.

It allows cross-traffic which used to use the area across the platform ends
before a gate blocked the route.

Nitpick: the two sides are 0-5 and 6-8, not 0-4 and 5-8.

I couldn't recall the precise arrangement so I was trying not to be too
specific.

--
Colin Rosenstiel