On Apr 13, 10:09*pm, wrote:

In article
,
(MIG) wrote:

I don't know if it's related to this, but I can't force the TfL journey
planner to give me a change from Northern to DLR at Bank (eg Kings Cross
to southern end of DLR).

Ticking via Bank it still sends me to London Bridge and Jubilee, and
if I try to trick it with via Shadwell, it sends me to Tower Gateway.

Given that that particular interchange involves walking down a
staircase, there really does seem to be a concerted effort to deny the
existence of Bank, no matter what inconvenience is caused. *Like I've
said before, if all stations were treated like Bank, the whole of
central London LU would be permanently closed.

I discovered when going away on Friday that it's not just the
changing-at-Bank aversion that's a problem here.

I was planning a route from Cambridge to London City Airport on Good
Friday. So I tried the TfL Journey Planner for King's Cross St Pancras to
London City Airport and got a load of weird and wonderful routes all
including the uses of buses, even when I ticked Tube, DLR and NR only.

Then I noticed that King's Cross St Pancras Northern Line and the Jubilee
Line were out all weekend and some of the buses were Jubilee rail
replacements from West Ham to Canning Town. So, aware of the
changing-at-Bank aversion, I tried Bank-London City Airport which came out
simply as expected and King's Cross St Pancras to Bank.

Because of the KXSP Northern Line closure I was offered either Victoria
Line to Euston, then Northern line to Bank [...]

That's the best route - at Euston there's cross-platform interchange
(or at least the deep-level tube equivalent thereof) between the
southbound Victoria line and the southbound Northern line Bank branch,
and the same in the northbound direction. It means one can travel on
one line from Euston to KXSP and then cross the platform and travel
back whilst notionally still going the same direction i.e. northbound
or southbound. Hours of fun. Maybe.


[...] or Metropolitan or Hammersmith
and City (no Circle either this weekend) to Liverpool St and Central to
Bank. It absolutely refused to offer what seemed the best all round option
to me, Met or H&C to Moorgate and Northern from there. I even rang 020
7222 1234 who confirmed this was a perfectly sensible way to go where I
wanted but the web site was absolutely adamant. I had no problems actually
going that way either.

Why?

Coz there are have been escalator works going on this past week
including the weekend. See this TfL press release:
http://www.tfl.gov.uk/corporate/medi...tre/11467.aspx

In particular these bits:

---quote---
[...]
This change is due to escalator works by London Underground at Bank
which will require one of the escalators connecting the DLR platforms
with the rest of the station to be shut down.
[...]
The work will take nine days to complete but by doing it over the
Easter break, the inconvenience of the service reduction will be
limited to just four normal working days before Easter.

The escalator work is due to be completed by Tuesday 14 April, when
full DLR services will be restored to Bank.
[...]
---/quote---


I also passed Barbican in daylight and could see that there is a perfectly
good ex-Thameslink down platform there. So why did their trains not call
there?

Whose trains? Do you mean why did northbound (ex-Moorgate) Thameslink
trains not call at Barbican? Easy - the platform wasn't long enough
for 8-car trains. I believe that in earlier eras ('BedPan' and indeed
pre-'BedPan') the trains in service may not have been as long as this.