In message ,
Martin Underwood writes

The ideal solution would be escalators. I presume the fact that the lifts
have survived so long is an indication that the site isn't suited to the
extra horizontal space required for escalators and that conversion would be
seriously costly in terms of the building/tunnelling work involved.

The TfL 5-year plan announced "major works to relieve congestion" at
Covent Garden "by 2007" - but didn't say what these will be. It won't be
escalators, given the time-scale. My guess is that it will be to enlarge
the street-level ticket hall by converting adjacent property (or perhaps
by reviving the old plan of a second hall on the north side of Long
Acre, possibly with additional lifts). This would be worthwhile, since
the present ticket hall is far too small and adds considerably to the
congestion around the lifts.

I have often thought that the rebuilding of the opera house and the
entire north-west quarter of the piazza in the late 1990s would have
been an ideal time to have added escalators to the tube station - a new
station entrance could quite possibly have been included on the corner
of James Street and the new development.

But I'm sure cost is the real issue - if the £500M for the Victoria
redevelopment is any guide, putting in escalators at Covent Garden would
probably cost more than the entire redevelopment of the Opera House (and
that was astronomic!).

--
Paul Terry