In message , at 09:32:16 on Fri,
4 Mar 2016, Mike Bristow remarked:
This information needs to be available for all possible interchanges
- at KXStP, for example, that's perhaps 6 interchanges just between
the underground lines,[1] never mind the three or four mainline
stations and the street.
If all possible infomation is on the map, then it becomes too complex
to actaully use. There's a difficult balance to get right - and
multiple publications are probably the only sensible way of doing
it. Hence the step-free guide and the information available via
the online journey planner and so on.
As an example, a middle-aged woman with heavy luggage
travelling from Bedford to Walthamstow needs to know that
trudging from St. Pancras International to the Victoria Line
platforms is quite a hike. Does this mean that a map should
not show a connection at St. Pancras? Of course not. It means
that additional information needs to be given. (It also means
that a travelator should have been installed when they re-built
that station)
[1] Vic-Northern; Vic-Pic; Vic-SSL; Northern-Pic; Northern-SSL;
Pic-SSL. Assuming that they're all symetrical (which they won't
be).
Actually, all the interchanges are symmetrical, but there's usually more
than one to choose from in each case.
SSL to the deep tubes only via the traditional Khyber pass and the
original ticket hall (unles you want to try an outboundary connection
via the Northern Ticket Hall).
Northern/Victoria/Picc either by the old routes below the original
ticket hall, or the new routes associated with the northern ticket hall.
There's only one way through the maze that's stepless, though, and that
increases some of the distances involved significantly if you also want
"escaltor-less".
See this rather dated map I did about ten years ago from the plans,
before most of the new things had been constructed:
http://www.perry.co.uk/images/kx-composite.jpg
(The passage to the old KGX/Thameslink station runs south-east from the
yellow spur 80% along the bottom Victoria Line platform.)
The "traffic light" colouring of the passageways indicates how congested
the planners' footfall model expected the final layout to be.
--
Roland Perry