On 2 Nov, 11:03, Mr Thant
wrote:

On 2 Nov, 04:29, Paul Corfield wrote:

(snip)

I opted to go home via
the Central Line and while the station wasn't packed the obvious
contrast was between the relatively spacious ticket hall and all the old
cramped facilities down below. *The fact everyone spills on to the e/b
platform when heading for the trains doesn't help matters and obviously
the reverse applies for exit.

This might be something you know more than me about, but AFAIK the
whole scheme was planned around TfL paying for "below ground works"
that would give you lifts and a new passageway parallel to the
platform that would take people to the other end. They decided it was
looking way too expensive, and that's why we're where we are.


Vague shades of the abandoned plan for rebuilding Holloway tube
station in connection with the new Arsenal stadium at Ashburton Grove
- though in that instance there wasn't any notion that above ground
and below ground works would be funded differently, instead Arsenal
handed over the agreed amount for transport improvements under the
section 106 agreement and TfL then decided that rebuilding Holloway
Road would be far too expensive so the money would be spent on other
local projects (I think the new entrance and redeveloped bus concourse
and stands at Finsbury Park station were funded out of this pot, as
will be the upcoming Highbury Corner improvements.)

On Sun, 2 Nov 2008 03:51:41 -0800 (PST), Mizter T
wrote:

I also wonder why the Police (presumably the BTP) asked for the
station to close as opposed to LU staff deciding on this action
themselves

Because my experience is that the BTP have no idea as to the safe
operation of a railway. LUL staff presumably do, and as such would
not IMX have ordered closure quite as soon.

Neil

--
Neil Williams
Put my first name before the at to reply.

"Mizter T" wrote

However the best way to approach it from south London is surely by
train or tube, though not at rush hour! The London Overground WLL
service will take you up there from Clapham Junction, and come
December (unless I've got this muddled) trains going up the WLL from
will be starting from East Croydon stopping at all stations via
Norbury and Balham (I forget - is this service going to become more
frequent than hourly?).

Another alternative of course is simply not to go to Westfield, and
instead to go elsewhere - south of the river Croydon, Bromley and
Kingston instantly spring to mind as large shopping destinations.

Though South-east London doesn't have any one-change train journey to
Westfield. They can however drive (or get a bus) to Bluewater.

If you go by train to Greenhithe for Bluewater (nice new modular station)
with a through ticket to Bluewater you transfer on Fastrack Route A. This
has a bizarre [1] system whereby you must obtain a ticket from the bus stop
ticket machine before boarding. Even if you have a through (rail issued)
ticket you have to use the bus stop ticket machine to obtain a zero fare bus
ticket. On Friday three teenage girls didn't understand this, but, excellent
service, the bus driver got out and showed them how to do it.

[1] At least if you have a (physical) travelcard, or a Freedom Pass (or
indeed a concessionary travel pass issued by a local authority anywhere in
England) you don't need to obtain a bus ticket before boarding a central
London Bendybus.

Peter

On Nov 2, 1:48�pm, Mizter T wrote:
On 2 Nov, 12:51, " wrote:



(snip)

The fact that the main road leading to the shopping centre from the
South, Holland Avenue or whatever it's called is being dug up, with
narrow lanes (actually one lane, thanks to idiot parking at week-ends)
meant that last week-end, even BEFORE the shopping centre opened there
was traffic tailbacks right the way down to High Street Kensington.
This will mean it is virtually impossible to get to the shopping
centre by car from South London, unless one wants to queue for an hour
or so!

There's a simple solution to this - bring a camping gas stove and cook
yourself a full English Breakfast in your car whilst you wait in the
traffic jam.

Is the "idiot parking" on Holland Road merely residents doing what
they are allowed to do at weekends according to the parking
restrictions?

Of course there are other ways to approach Westfield by car from the
south, such as by joining the A40 Westway at Paddington or by coming
up through Putney, Fulham and Hammersmith. (There are also ways
through the back-streets of Chelsea that avoid the Earl's Court one-
way system, though they're somewhat complex.)

However the best way to approach it from south London is surely by
train or tube, though not at rush hour! The London Overground WLL
service will take you up there from Clapham Junction, and come
December (unless I've got this muddled) trains going up the WLL from
will be starting from East Croydon stopping at all stations via
Norbury and Balham (I forget - is this service going to become more
frequent than hourly?).

Another alternative of course is simply not to go to Westfield, and
instead to go elsewhere - south of the river Croydon, Bromley and
Kingston instantly spring to mind as large shopping destinations.

Or just don't go shopping!

Mizter T,

I made the comment merely as an observation.

I accept your final sentence in its entirety - I hardly ever do any
shopping and when I do it's mostly online.

I have and want nothing to do with Westfield or any other shopping
centre.

I was merely en route from Fulham (where I live) to Cambridge for a
long week-end, which was made considerably shorter by the traffic
jam! I will certainly avoid the area like the plague in future.

The "idiot parking" was a parked German-registered car which
prevented the "narrow lanes" operating, creating a 1-lane bottleneck
at the pinch point where road works begin, so what should have been 2
narrow lanes was actually reduced to one lane for that car-length.

Marc.

On 2 Nov, 11:01, Paul Corfield wrote:

On Sat, 1 Nov 2008 23:55:30 -0000, "Paul Scott"
wrote:

Apparently (BBC teletext refers) the station closed for two hours today
because of
Westfield related overcrowding.
I hadn't seen that when I asked in an earlier post about the effect on the
local stations of the centre opening, but I always suspected that of the
various options for travel the Central Line platforms would be the weakest
link...

A check of the daily report shows one of the escalators failed and then
the Police asked for the station to be closed. *When the escalator was
returned to service the station reopened. *I think that places a
different emphasis on events.


The BBC now has the defective escalator story:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/7704797.stm

"Mizter T" wrote in message
...
|
|...
|
| However the best way to approach it from south London is surely by
| train or tube, though not at rush hour! The London Overground WLL
| service will take you up there from Clapham Junction, and come
| December (unless I've got this muddled) trains going up the WLL from
| will be starting from East Croydon stopping at all stations via
| Norbury and Balham (I forget - is this service going to become more
| frequent than hourly?).
|

The service in the December 2008 timetable will be hourly (off peak and
weekend). However, there seem to be two pathways each hour allowed between
the West London Line platforms 16 and 17 at Clapham Junction and the
Brighton Lines. The revised service uses the alternate path to the one
currently in use, so those of you who use this link will find your departure
times from Clapham Junction radically different in a few weeks. The other
path appears to be left unused for the time being, which as this service is
being transferred from "fast" to "slow" lines will result in one 10-minute
gap in each hour in the "stopping" service between Clapham Junction and
Balham, compared to the current service which is a minimum 6 minute
interval. So it seems the potential exists for two trains per hour each way
if demand justifies it.
--
- Yokel -
oo oo
OOO OOO
OO 0 OO
) ( I ) (
) ( /\ ) (

"Yokel" posts via a spam-trap account which is not read.