Cross-platform interchange at Euston/generally

[starlight73]

May 15, 2024 5:38:01 GMT jimbo said:

I just noticed that the Victoria Line is linked with the Charing Cross branch of the Northern Line at Euston, when it provides cross-platform interchange with the Bank branch.

About the tube map at Euston… it makes it look like interchange between the Bank branch and Victoria line is hard, and you can only do it by going all the way to the Charing Cross branch and back!

Maybe this is deliberate - to encourage people to change at Kings Cross because Euston has overcrowding problems.

I remember reading somewhere that the problem with cross platform interchanges is that there’s less space to “store” passengers - especially on the Victoria line where the platforms are narrow.

And that was another reason why the Jubilee and Elizabeth lines avoid cross platform interchange in central London, aside from it being simpler

Edited to add photos:

Former layout of Euston:

 

Current layout of Euston:

[/img][/div]

[spsmiler]

That change looks as if it is to show the out of station interchange

[croxleyn]

The dotted line was added some time ago to indicate an under 10min walk (May 2019, Grand Ma's Dream, but it's not in the latest map key): it does not mean that it is an OSI, although most are. And lots of OSIs aren't shown but nevertheless useful.

[starlight73]

I'm now doubting myself - maybe the change was to add Thameslink at St Pancras?

[Chris M]

The change in the layout of the Victoria line at Euston happened with the July 2022 map. The major change in that edition was the straightening of the Thameslink line through Zone 1, but the whole thing was resized as well.

[brigham]

What a bodge!
King's Cross is simplified, but Euston now resembles a spider!

[spsmiler]

It would look neater as a four corner box with one line in each corner plus the Overground on the left side.

[d7666]

I must keep an eye out on the internal vacancies lists for these jobs come up that people obviously have to constantly twiddle circles and lines around Euston and other places.

[starlight73]

Jul 17, 2024 14:36:03 GMT spsmiler said:

It would look neater as a four corner box with one line in each corner plus the Overground on the left side.

I agree! E.g. connecting the Victoria line blob to the Bank branch one. Maybe they didn't do that because:

1. They want to decrease people changing between the Northern line (Bank branch) & Victoria line at Euston

2. Possible design standard: e.g. having the blobs radiate out from a "central blob" is considered clearer

3. The blobs for the Victoria & Bank branch lines couldn't be aligned vertically

[alpinejohn]

Jul 17, 2024 21:39:45 GMT starlight73 said:

Jul 17, 2024 14:36:03 GMT spsmiler said:

It would look neater as a four corner box with one line in each corner plus the Overground on the left side.

I agree! E.g. connecting the Victoria line blob to the Bank branch one. Maybe they didn't do that because:

1. They want to decrease people changing between the Northern line (Bank branch) & Victoria line at Euston

2. Possible design standard: e.g. having the blobs radiate out from a "central blob" is considered clearer

3. The blobs for the Victoria & Bank branch lines couldn't be aligned vertically

I am intriqued by your first item - Is this a new issue?

Back in my West Finchley commuting days I routinely took the first south bound train and if it was a Bank branch would swap to the Victoria at Euston - if it was a CharingX I changed at Warren Street - and did the same changes in the opposite direction.

I rarely found these changes problematic (busy yes) but once you worked out which coaches in trains tended to arrive with space - I usually was able to board the first train even at peak hours.

Whilst I defer to the stylistic expertise on here - I rather doubt fiddling with the blobs will make any substantive change in travel patterns for most commuters.

[Chris M]

I too doubt that changes to the map make substantive changes to commuters' travel patterns - after all how many of them actually look at the map regularly? However it could have a significant impact on tourist's travel patterns, although less so now in the age of online journey planners. Whether there are sufficient numbers of tourists interchanging between the Victoria and Northern to make a substantive difference I don't know, but given that it is a plausible route between King's Cross and Charing Cross/Waterloo it's not impossible.

[starlight73]

Yes I think you’re right to doubt that it would have an effect on commuter patterns. I think it was me joining up two unrelated things in my head - seeing the map changes, and reading articles like this one about tube overcrowding

TfL has named the 17 London Underground stations set to face chronic overcrowding and measures such as regular closures and one-way systems by the 2030s, should Crossrail 2 fail to go ahead …
1. Euston [no surprise]

[brigham]

I almost wish I hadn't read that.

Within three years of London's latest (and most costly) New Tube so far, they are not just clamouring for the next one, but making ominous 'warnings' of dire consequences should they not get it.

When is it going to stop? We need to boost facilities in places where they are lacking, which does NOT, by any stretch of the imagination, include London.

[trainwizard]

Jul 20, 2024 8:05:37 GMT brigham said:

When is it going to stop? We need to boost facilities in places where they are lacking, which does NOT, by any stretch of the imagination, include London.

Once again, it's not a zero-sum game. You can very easily improve transportation in all areas of the country, in those lacking connections AND in those with existing infrastructure but a rapidly growing population. You can build a tram system in West Yorkshire so Leeds' population of 800,000 people no longer live in the largest city in Western Europe without a mass transit system, AND you can build an underground line in London so it's population of 9 million people aren't at risk of dangerous overcrowding on their daily commute.

[brigham]

In the same vein, you can build a major new railway to link the whole of the North of England to the South, AND build a new high-speed link between two major cities which already have surplus capacity, such as London and Birmingham.
You can. But nobody does!