I thought I'd start a separate thread to see what people think about
the chaos that so many people now face at Bank station.

I really don't understand why it has been deemed necessary to close
the passages between the Northern Line/DLR and the Central Line. There
are no escalators on one of these routes and the escalators on the
other route (the one signposted from the DLR) have all just been
replaced. For those of you who haven't been to the station since the
31st March, these two pairs of escalators have been made 'up only' and
all passengers leaving the DLR or Northern Line (and not interchanging
between the two) now have to leave the station all the way to street
level. The situation in the Northern Line ticket hall has become
chaotic with police on site in case it all kicks off I imagine. I did
notice the other morning though that the passage to the Waterloo and
City Line was open (one way only) so with a long, long walk it is
actually possible to avoid the mayhem above in that direction at
least. Few people are aware of this though. All DLR passengers have to
go to the DLR via the Northern Line platforms and Northern Line trains
weren't stopping there the other morning due to overcrowding.

Personally I think it would have been safe to keep the Central to
Northern Line/DLR link open. It surely couldn't be any worse than what
is happening now. If it didn't work they could then revert to the
current plan.

What really annoys me though is the fact that this set up is here to
stay till August 2009. If Bank and Monument are to be separated for a
while, they should surely be able to replace all the escalators in
less than a year and a half. Can't they do them all at once? The
leaflet issued by the pleasant but not very informed PR staff at Bank
last week said this was the first phase of a number of projects that
will provide 'quicker journey times'. Maybe they're installing a
helter skelter to take you from the Central to the Northern replacing
the existing spiral staircase. I hope so!

For those of us currently suffering with the 3 car enhancement work on
the DLR, this has made east-west travel a real pain in the bum. We
can't interchange to the Central or District/Circle Lines any more
and, from June, Tower Gateway closes for a year so we won't even have
that option. I notice the leaflet only provides info on North/South
buses as if the powers have be have forgotten that anyone would want
to travel west of Bank!

Is anyone else as frustrated as I am by all this?!?!

In addition, the link from Waterloo-City to Central Line is closed - for
what purpose, as there were no escalators to refurbish. It is necessary to
use the travelator/stairs to surface level and then take the (not working)
escalator back down to platform level.



wrote in message
...
I thought I'd start a separate thread to see what people think about
the chaos that so many people now face at Bank station.

I really don't understand why it has been deemed necessary to close
the passages between the Northern Line/DLR and the Central Line. There
are no escalators on one of these routes and the escalators on the
other route (the one signposted from the DLR) have all just been
replaced. For those of you who haven't been to the station since the
31st March, these two pairs of escalators have been made 'up only' and
all passengers leaving the DLR or Northern Line (and not interchanging
between the two) now have to leave the station all the way to street
level. The situation in the Northern Line ticket hall has become
chaotic with police on site in case it all kicks off I imagine. I did
notice the other morning though that the passage to the Waterloo and
City Line was open (one way only) so with a long, long walk it is
actually possible to avoid the mayhem above in that direction at
least. Few people are aware of this though. All DLR passengers have to
go to the DLR via the Northern Line platforms and Northern Line trains
weren't stopping there the other morning due to overcrowding.

Personally I think it would have been safe to keep the Central to
Northern Line/DLR link open. It surely couldn't be any worse than what
is happening now. If it didn't work they could then revert to the
current plan.

What really annoys me though is the fact that this set up is here to
stay till August 2009. If Bank and Monument are to be separated for a
while, they should surely be able to replace all the escalators in
less than a year and a half. Can't they do them all at once? The
leaflet issued by the pleasant but not very informed PR staff at Bank
last week said this was the first phase of a number of projects that
will provide 'quicker journey times'. Maybe they're installing a
helter skelter to take you from the Central to the Northern replacing
the existing spiral staircase. I hope so!

For those of us currently suffering with the 3 car enhancement work on
the DLR, this has made east-west travel a real pain in the bum. We
can't interchange to the Central or District/Circle Lines any more
and, from June, Tower Gateway closes for a year so we won't even have
that option. I notice the leaflet only provides info on North/South
buses as if the powers have be have forgotten that anyone would want
to travel west of Bank!

Is anyone else as frustrated as I am by all this?!?!

Is anyone else as frustrated as I am by all this?!?!

A LOT of people are for sure!

Not only the interchanges are crippled, but even regular trains don't
stop during peaks because of the overcrowding...

And 14 months just to replace 4 escalators???

On 3 Apr, 19:53, wrote:

I thought I'd start a separate thread to see what people think about
the chaos that so many people now face at Bank station.

(snip)


For those of us currently suffering with the 3 car enhancement work on
the DLR, this has made east-west travel a real pain in the bum. We
can't interchange to the Central or District/Circle Lines any more
and, from June, Tower Gateway closes for a year so we won't even have
that option. I notice the leaflet only provides info on North/South
buses as if the powers have be have forgotten that anyone would want
to travel west of Bank!


I do have to say that apart from anything else I'm really rather
surprised that the DLR are closing Tower Gateway for a year whilst all
this upheaval is all happening at Bank - it seems like it would have
been ideal to encourage people to use Tower Gateway instead of Bank to
access the DLR, and hence take the strain off the (almost severed)
Bank/Monument station complex.

Could the reconstruction of Tower Gateway for three-car trains really
not have waited? Else the escalator replacement at Bank waited until
Tower Gateway was rebuilt and reopen? Or was there just a lack of co-
ordination - communication, even - between the planners at LU and the
DLR?

Meanwhile Bank certainly looks like it is best avoided. Dare I suggest
that there are perhaps a number of other ways of approaching journeys
that require interchange at Bank - if you or anyone else woul like to
share you travel dilemmas here then I'm sure that the combined minds
of utl may be able to come up with some alternatives. Who knows, some
of the suggestions might even be vaguely useful...

wrote:
I thought I'd start a separate thread to see what people think about
the chaos that so many people now face at Bank station.

I really don't understand why it has been deemed necessary to close
the passages between the Northern Line/DLR and the Central Line. There
are no escalators on one of these routes and the escalators on the
other route (the one signposted from the DLR) have all just been
replaced. For those of you who haven't been to the station since the
31st March, these two pairs of escalators have been made 'up only' and
all passengers leaving the DLR or Northern Line (and not interchanging
between the two) now have to leave the station all the way to street
level.

Not quite. The escalator link between the southern end of the Northern Line
platforms and the western end of the (District/Circle) platforms at Monument
is still open.

--
Richard J.
(to email me, swap 'uk' and 'yon' in address)

I must admit I did notice that these escalators were still open
yesterday afternoon - in that case though, why cause so much chaos in
the rest of the complex when the only escalators that can be being
replaced are probably the least crowded i.e. the ones from the DLR to
the westbound District/Circle Linees. Also, why do they headline the
project as 'splitting Bank and Monument stations' when they quite
clearly aren't?

This morning TFL appear to have shown some common sense and opened up
the steps and passageway to the Central Line from the top of the Bank
side DLR escalators, albeit in one direction only. This seems to have
relieved congestion considerably though matters were probably helped
by the fact that the DLR was only running trains from Island Gardens
and Mudchute so not so many passengers were coming into the station.
Not sure if the spiral staircase route down to the Northern Line/DLR
was also open as I had to run for a train and didn't notice.

In addition, the link from Waterloo-City to Central Line is closed - for
what purpose, as there were no escalators to refurbish. It is necessary to
use the travelator/stairs to surface level and then take the (not working)
escalator back down to platform level.

They reopened it today.

On 4 Apr, 23:36, alex_t wrote:

In addition, the link from Waterloo-City to Central Line is closed - for
what purpose, as there were no escalators to refurbish. It is necessary to
use the travelator/stairs to surface level and then take the (not working)
escalator back down to platform level.

They reopened it today.

I think it might just be opened up for the busy periods - at least
that's what I experienced yesterday when I passed through Bank at
different times of the day. Additionally the direct link from the
Northern & DLR to the Central only opened up when rush hour was
beckoning - otherwise passengers from the Northern heading from the
Central seemingly had to go up the one-way escalators to the Lombard
St ticket hall, pass through the gates, then go to the main gateline
above the Central line (in the middle of the circle) and re-enter the
station.

Why various routes only appear to open at peak times is another
question - but that seems to be what is going on.

On Apr 5, 10:55*am, Mizter T wrote:
On 4 Apr, 23:36, alex_t wrote:

In addition, the link from Waterloo-City to Central Line is closed - for
what purpose, as there were no escalators to refurbish. It is necessary to
use the travelator/stairs to surface level and then take the (not working)
escalator back down to platform level.

They reopened it today.

I think it might just be opened up for the busy periods - at least
that's what I experienced yesterday when I passed through Bank at
different times of the day. Additionally the direct link from the
Northern & DLR to the Central only opened up when rush hour was
beckoning -

My mind is starting to boggle a bit.

The justification for closing the passageways is to prevent
congestion due to passenger flows getting diverted that way due to
the escalator works, and yet they reopen the passageways at the
busiest times.

If the logic was correct in the first place, surely the rush hour is
the worst possible time to open the passageways and, if they can cope
in the rush hour, why inconvenience everyone the rest of the time?

There is more to this story than people whingeing about their personal
inconvenience without seeing the bigger picture, and more and more
people must be realising that TfL came up with the wrong answer, even
if they followed all laid-down procedures and modelling processes to
the letter.

The decision-making process that could lead the the current bizarre
solution is worthy of an investigation.