On Feb 27, 9:38 am, "
wrote:
On Feb 27, 7:15 am, Offramp wrote:



On Feb 27, 2:00 am, Mizter T wrote:

On 27 Feb, 01:05, Paul Weaver wrote:

On Feb 26, 10:43 pm, Tim Woodall wrote:

The barriers at Euston platforms 8-11 cannot cope with the volume of
people trying to get through them.

I've not been stuck as far back as you seem to be -- most of the
trains I get from LBZ to EUS in peak are fast ones, arrive outside of
the locals, or I get off at Harrow (which is hard work), but last time
I took a train (packed 09:40 arriving c.10:10 into Euston, first
offpeak from MKC and north I believe), it took me 5 minutes to get
from the back of the train to the waiting overground ~10:17 departure
for stations north on platform 9.

http://www.woodall.me.uk/img_00000010.jpeg
is a still from my bike camera (sorry the quality isn't very good but
gives some idea, especially if you already know the layout of these
platforms.)

What camera?

Mr Woodall appears to have a nifty video camera attached to his bike.
I don't know whether it is intended for the purpose of capturing
evidence of bad driving, but it certainly has in one particular
instance that Tim relays to the uk.rec.cycling newsgroup (UIVMM the
incident occurs on Pentonville Road travelling east down towards the
Angel) - see the thread here (includes a link to the recording):

http://groups.google.co.uk/group/uk....frm/thread/ee4...

/me just been shaken by an earthquake. In Bedfordshire. Shocking.

But in London I felt nothing! I was however in a car when it was
supposed to have happened, we were a bit perplexed when suddenly at a
quarter past one we started to hear reports of this tremor on the
radio. We may have been a little distracted around the time of the
tremor by an inebriated gentleman who's bus hailing technique was that
of standing in the middle of the road nowhere near a bus stop
gesticulating wildly whilst the bus swerved around him. That said, I
would suggest that in London at least it is fairly easy to drop one's
guard and become distracted from watching/listening/feeling out for an
earthquake. But from now on I'll be on full alert, those pesky tremors
won't catch me unawares!

A distinctly and disappointingly unshaken Mizter T!

I followed the link but I couldn't see anything about an earthquake. I
saw a video of a road, though.

Sorry, but that's nothing at all to do with the Earthquake. That's
just an example of my bike camera (and a particularly bad bid of
driving)

Perhaps caused by an earthquake?

On 27 Feb, 09:38, " wrote:

On Feb 27, 7:15 am, Offramp wrote:

On Feb 27, 2:00 am, Mizter T wrote:

On 27 Feb, 01:05, Paul Weaver wrote:

On Feb 26, 10:43 pm, Tim Woodall wrote:

The barriers at Euston platforms 8-11 cannot cope with the volume of
people trying to get through them.

I've not been stuck as far back as you seem to be -- most of the
trains I get from LBZ to EUS in peak are fast ones, arrive outside of
the locals, or I get off at Harrow (which is hard work), but last time
I took a train (packed 09:40 arriving c.10:10 into Euston, first
offpeak from MKC and north I believe), it took me 5 minutes to get
from the back of the train to the waiting overground ~10:17 departure
for stations north on platform 9.

http://www.woodall.me.uk/img_00000010.jpeg
is a still from my bike camera (sorry the quality isn't very good but
gives some idea, especially if you already know the layout of these
platforms.)

What camera?

Mr Woodall appears to have a nifty video camera attached to his bike.
I don't know whether it is intended for the purpose of capturing
evidence of bad driving, but it certainly has in one particular
instance that Tim relays to the uk.rec.cycling newsgroup (UIVMM the
incident occurs on Pentonville Road travelling east down towards the
Angel) - see the thread here (includes a link to the recording):

http://groups.google.co.uk/group/uk....frm/thread/ee4...

/me just been shaken by an earthquake. In Bedfordshire. Shocking.

But in London I felt nothing! I was however in a car when it was
supposed to have happened, we were a bit perplexed when suddenly at a
quarter past one we started to hear reports of this tremor on the
radio. We may have been a little distracted around the time of the
tremor by an inebriated gentleman who's bus hailing technique was that
of standing in the middle of the road nowhere near a bus stop
gesticulating wildly whilst the bus swerved around him. That said, I
would suggest that in London at least it is fairly easy to drop one's
guard and become distracted from watching/listening/feeling out for an
earthquake. But from now on I'll be on full alert, those pesky tremors
won't catch me unawares!

A distinctly and disappointingly unshaken Mizter T!

I followed the link but I couldn't see anything about an earthquake. I
saw a video of a road, though.

Sorry, but that's nothing at all to do with the Earthquake. That's
just an example of my bike camera (and a particularly bad bid of
driving)


I think Offramp was merely being irreverent rather than confused!

On 27 Feb, 09:54, " wrote:

(snip)

I'd really like to have some way of having my oyster card (or ticket
if you're a season ticket holder) flagged to hold the barrier open for
a few seconds more - five seconds would be all it would take. I know
this _could_ be abused but there's enough regular cyclists who are
using these barriers every day (I see the same 5 or six on my train
every morning) and we're recognised by at least some of the staff as
regular cyclists so it could be something like getting a form and then
getting one of the barrier guards to sign that you are a regular
cyclist and then getting some sort of flag put on your ticket (of
course, this all presupposes that the gates are even capable of having
an extended opening - I know they can stay open with the right ticket
but I don't know about a longer opening.)

Tim.


Interesting idea though I think the potential for abuse means that it
would be a non starter. I suspect that other issues such as safety (or
at least perceived safety) might come into it as well.

It sounds like the gateline staff at Euston should be somewhat more
discriminate in who they allow through the side gate - staff at other
stations are more insistent on this. Otherwise I suppose one should be
philosophical about the delay, given the time subsequently saved by
cycling - to be fair it sounds like you are already of this mindset,
along with being courteous and hanging back from the throng with your
bike.

On 27 Feb, 09:34, " wrote:
On Feb 26, 11:42 pm, Offramp wrote:





On Feb 26, 10:43 pm, Tim Woodall wrote:

The barriers at Euston platforms 8-11 cannot cope with the volume of
people trying to get through them.

http://www.woodall.me.uk/img_00000010.jpeg
is a still from my bike camera (sorry the quality isn't very good but
gives some idea, especially if you already know the layout of these
platforms.)

This is about 07:25 (I arrived on the 07:01 from Watford Junction) so
this isn't the peak of the rush hour. Later trains you cannot get a seat
at Watford Junction unless you're lucky, let alone Harrow and
Wealdstone.

I'm approximately at the back of the crowd, there aren't that many
people behind me. But a fair few must have already gone through the
barrier before I got there because I sit at the extreme Northern end of
the train and unfold my bike before I walk down the platform.

Was it like this a year ago?

Don't know. A year ago I was regularly going swimming and came in on
the 06:27 from Watford and there's no problem of crowding at Euston.
One of these days I'll give up my extra half hour in bed and start
going swimming again.

There's another train that arrives at approximately the same time.
Today it arrived just as I was getting to the barrier. I suspect
yesterday it arrived before my train so I think that's two train loads
of people you can see. Certainly when it's just my train it's not
usually that bad by the time I've got down to that end of the
platform.

Cannon Street has gone from one of the worst to one of the best
arrangements. I actually complained a few years ago, because they had
about twenty staff blocking the exit from the narrow platform 1 - 2
doing ticket checks, and two trains arrived in succession. It took me
five minutes to get through, despite being in the front coach, and it
was very scary with about a thousand people crowding behind me. I
thought that the checkers should have shown discretion and seen that
they were creating a hazard.

Now, there is an area that people from several platforms can spill out
into before going through the barriers, so it doesn't matter which
platform the crowd arrives at at any given time.

The trouble with those platforms at Euston is that there is no
physical room to open it out.

On Feb 27, 11:34*am, Mizter T wrote:
On 27 Feb, 09:54, " wrote:





(snip)

I'd really like to have some way of having my oyster card (or ticket
if you're a season ticket holder) flagged to hold the barrier open for
a few seconds more - five seconds would be all it would take. I know
this _could_ be abused but there's enough regular cyclists who are
using these barriers every day (I see the same 5 or six on my train
every morning) and we're recognised by at least some of the staff as
regular cyclists so it could be something like getting a form and then
getting one of the barrier guards to sign that you are a regular
cyclist and then getting some sort of flag put on your ticket (of
course, this all presupposes that the gates are even capable of having
an extended opening - I know they can stay open with the right ticket
but I don't know about a longer opening.)

Tim.

Interesting idea though I think the potential for abuse means that it
would be a non starter. I suspect that other issues such as safety (or
at least perceived safety) might come into it as well.

It sounds like the gateline staff at Euston should be somewhat more
discriminate in who they allow through the side gate - staff at other
stations are more insistent on this. Otherwise I suppose one should be
philosophical about the delay, given the time subsequently saved by
cycling - to be fair it sounds like you are already of this mindset,
along with being courteous and hanging back from the throng with your
bike.

In my view the main problem with the barriers at Euston is that there
is not enough space between the ticket gates and barrier at the end of
Platform 9 and 10. This means that people get jammed up before they
even reach the gates and so the exit gates on one side or the other
don't see so much use; there is also no easy route for anyone trying
to get onto a train. For example, if my train arrives in Platform 11
very few people will be using the gates on the platform 8 side (and
vice-versa). Then, as has already been said above, people using the
manual gate just get in the way, when they have no need to be using
it.

Finally, there is the problem of a ticket gate (or two) that is Oyster
only. So you get people getting to the gate and then realising that
they can't use it with their paper ticket, causing more distruption as
they push in to the next one. A bit more effort by Network Rail to fix
these might help things, as would moving the barriers at the end of
Platform 9 and 10 back a bit and shortening the platforms (the
platforms are 9-10 coaches and so the full length isn't used anyway).
A more radical solution would be to add some barriers in the dividing
wall between platform 8 and the bottom of the slope upto the
concourse, but that might be expensive.

On 27 Feb, 12:23, Andy wrote:
A more radical solution would be to add some barriers in the dividing
wall between platform 8 and the bottom of the slope upto the
concourse, but that might be expensive.

Isn't part of the problem that you have one set of barriers for the
platforms directly opposite another set to get into the tube station?
I'd think you could increase capacity by moving the NR gateline to be
much nearer the concourse (I think it's wider there), leaving the tube
gateline open to the platforms directly.

You could also have trains stop at Queen's Park to relieve pressure on
the terminus, like Finsbury Park does for King's Cross.

U

--
http://londonconnections.blogspot.com/
A blog about transport projects in London

On 27 Feb, 12:35, Mr Thant
wrote:
You could also have trains stop at Queen's Park to relieve pressure on
the terminus, like Finsbury Park does for King's Cross.

You'd be better off doing so at Willesden Junction, if it had its
platforms again. Much better connections to be had there.

On Feb 27, 12:35*pm, Mr Thant
wrote:
On 27 Feb, 12:23, Andy wrote:

A more radical solution would be to add some barriers in the dividing
wall between platform 8 and the bottom of the slope upto the
concourse, but that might be expensive.

Isn't part of the problem that you have one set of barriers for the
platforms directly opposite another set to get into the tube station?
I'd think you could increase capacity by moving the NR gateline to be
much nearer the concourse (I think it's wider there), leaving the tube
gateline open to the platforms directly.


I did think about putting that suggestion in. The trouble is that the
layout of the underground ticket office / gateline doesn't really lend
itself to having the flow coming down the steps leading directly to
the tube platforms, as the underground ticket office is on the
opposite side to the entrance from platform 8-11. You would also have
to lose or move the London Midland ticket office. I think that it
could be made to work for passengers coming from the underground to
platforms 8-11, but not vice-versa.

I also think that the Queens Park idea has some merit, it will be
interesting if this happens if the London Overground DC line services
are diverted away from Euston in the future.


You could also have trains stop at Queen's Park to relieve pressure on
the terminus, like Finsbury Park does for King's Cross.

U

--http://londonconnections.blogspot.com/
A blog about transport projects in London

On 27 Feb, 12:47, Jamie Thompson wrote:
On 27 Feb, 12:35, Mr Thant
wrote:

You could also have trains stop at Queen's Park to relieve pressure on
the terminus, like Finsbury Park does for King's Cross.

You'd be better off doing so at Willesden Junction, if it had its
platforms again. Much better connections to be had there.


But of course it doesn't have any platforms, nor any remnants of the
old platforms. Queen's Park has platforms already standing and ready
for use.

Past comments here have suggested that timetabling requirements would
mean stopping at QP would be quite awkward.

On 27 Feb, 13:11, Mizter T wrote:
On 27 Feb, 12:47, Jamie *Thompson wrote:

On 27 Feb, 12:35, Mr Thant
wrote:

You could also have trains stop at Queen's Park to relieve pressure on
the terminus, like Finsbury Park does for King's Cross.

You'd be better off doing so at Willesden Junction, if it had its
platforms again. Much better connections to be had there.

But of course it doesn't have any platforms, nor any remnants of the
old platforms. Queen's Park has platforms already standing and ready
for use.

Past comments here have suggested that timetabling requirements would
mean stopping at QP would be quite awkward.

For the future, when everything gets sent to Camden or the Bakerloo, I
keep on suggesting a new crossover to the east of Queens Park and a
service from Euston doing South Hampstead, Kilburn High Road, Queens
Park, Wembley, Harrow, Wembley, Watford and wherever. That would save
two stations losing a service to Euston, and it could replace current
semi fasts. They'd be out of the way till Queens Park, from where
they'd take an existing semi fast path.

It seems to me that putting in a crossover in the meantime, in
anticipation of the change, could be used to allow stopping at Queens
Park and then getting out of the way via the electric tracks to avoid
holdups. The electric tracks aren't exactly overused from Euston to
Queen's Park after all.