On 3 Jan, 00:14, (Colin Rosenstiel) wrote:
In article
,

(BVETubeTrains) wrote:
As far as I know, Charing Cross wouldn't have been open at all for
trains at twoish in the morning, as the last trains leave some time
around midnight, and dont start till about five.

Not on New Year's morning, though, surely?

--
Colin Rosenstiel

Charing X remained open with regular half hourly services to a variety
of destinations, except the one I wanted as there was no service
between Hither Green and Petts Wood (served from Victoria). The
problem was that you couldn't get into the station because the two
nomimal queues (over and underground) which started half way up the
Strand were actually mostly Underground passengers - when we finally
struggled into CX after an hour queueing it was practically deserted.
Outside, the queues were still several hundred yards long from
Trafalgar Sq, up to nearly the Savoy and then back again.

Rubbish organisation - next time (if ever) I will just stay on the
platform at CX, watch the fireworks, and hop on the train.

MaB

On Jan 3, 9:03 am, MaxB wrote:
On 3 Jan, 00:14, (Colin Rosenstiel) wrote:

In article
,

(BVETubeTrains) wrote:

The
problem was that you couldn't get into the station because the two
nomimal queues (over and underground) which started half way up the
Strand were actually mostly Underground passengers ...

Rubbish organisation - next time (if ever) I will just stay on the
platform at CX, watch the fireworks, and hop on the train.

I don't see how it could be organized to have two separate queues into
CX, for overground & Underground, without punters trying to bypass the
Tube queue by using the shorter overground queue.
There is a usable walkway along Villiers Street, high above the
pavement - could you perhaps have used this?

On 3 Jan, 09:11, Offramp wrote:
On Jan 3, 9:03 am, MaxB wrote:

On 3 Jan, 00:14, (Colin Rosenstiel) wrote:

In article
,

(BVETubeTrains) wrote:
The
problem was that you couldn't get into the station because the two
nomimal queues (over and underground) which started half way up the
Strand were actually mostly Underground passengers ...
Rubbish organisation - next time (if ever) I will just stay on the
platform at CX, watch the fireworks, and hop on the train.

I don't see how it could be organized to have two separate queues into
CX, for overground & Underground, without punters trying to bypass the
Tube queue by using the shorter overground queue.
There is a usable walkway along Villiers Street, high above the
pavement - could you perhaps have used this?

You are quite right but 2 queues WERE set up albeit you had to walk
200 yards up the Strand to get into them. It would have been much
better to have had "BR" access from the Trafalgar Sq side and
underground from the east with any connections between them closed
(there was also a link into the hotel). It is quiet clear that the
numbers of people, twice the forecast overwhelmed many facilities, and
short notice closusures were being made in addition to those
advertised. And, of course, I was only going to CX because Waterloo
East was shut from 2345! Weird.

The density of crowd precluded checking out other options, but every
short cut I attempted was always blocked by police e.g. no access at
all to Westminster Bridge, no access from the north on to Lambeth
Bridge, no access into Parliament SQ from the south, no access into
Whitehall from Horseguards etc etc.

MaxB

On Thu, 3 Jan 2008 01:11:57 -0800 (PST), Offramp wrote:

There is a usable walkway along Villiers Street, high above the
pavement - could you perhaps have used this?

This is the walkway that comes from the footbridge over the Thames, and
had it been open I would have used it but sadly it, like all the other
non-main entrances, was sealed off.

Paul

On Thu, 3 Jan 2008 01:03:18 -0800 (PST), MaxB wrote:

The
problem was that you couldn't get into the station because the two
nomimal queues (over and underground) which started half way up the
Strand were actually mostly Underground passengers - when we finally
struggled into CX after an hour queueing it was practically deserted.
Outside, the queues were still several hundred yards long from
Trafalgar Sq, up to nearly the Savoy and then back again.

Aha, thanks, that makes some sense of the baffling empty trains!

As has been said by others, this surely isn't that difficult to work
around, using completely separate queuing areas and entrances for Tube
and National Rail and blocking connecting passages between the two.

It also makes me wonder why they shut Embankment, Westminster and Temple
Underground stations. Why would you want to direct all the Tube and Rail
passengers to the same place? A recipe for the disaster that ensued.

It's also quite depressing how little those queuing tube passengers must
know about the geography of central London and the tube network. I
wished I had been an Underground user that evening because I knew I
could always head to another station nearby, whereas with the closure of
Waterloo East, Charing Cross was the only place to catch my train
without trekking to London Bridge.

I suppose the narrow focus of the majority of tube users was further
evidenced when we walked past the hordes waiting outside Waterloo
Underground station and headed for Southwark Underground, which you
could just about see from the same spot as you could see the hordes!

Rubbish organisation - next time (if ever) I will just stay on the
platform at CX, watch the fireworks, and hop on the train.

Of course! That is actually an excellent idea. If I lack any better
plans myself next year I might just join you

Paul