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Euston: a five point plan
As at 6th November 2024 22:16 GMT
 
Euston: a five point plan
Posted by Mark A at 14:13, 4th October 2024
 
Said five point plan includes Network Rail having the advertising board go dark while its impact is reviewed.

More from IansVisits.

Mark

https://www.ianvisits.co.uk/articles/euston-station-is-turning-off-the-mega-sized-advertising-boards-76065/

Re: Euston: a five point plan
Posted by Timmer at 15:17, 4th October 2024
 
This is very embarrassing for Network Rail to have the Transport Secretary order them to make changes to the elements of Euston that were clearly failing. The writing’s been on the advertising board for a long time that things needed to change. Euston, as a mainline terminus is not fit for purpose.

Not against advertising at stations, but removing the previous departure board and replacing with a huge advertising board was asking for trouble and an insult to passengers who had to endure in your face advertising whilst being crammed in like sardines at times of disruption.

Some point to the large advertising boards at Waterloo. Indeed there are, but Waterloo is a much bigger station and there’s still plenty of departure boards at various points of the station.

The replacement departure boards at Euston that replaced the main departure board are a joke.

Let’s hope Network Rail can implement this five point plan before GWR and its passengers rock up starting on the 17th of November. I still have my doubts about GWR using Euston.

Re: Euston: a five point plan
Posted by TaplowGreen at 15:43, 4th October 2024
 
This is very embarrassing for Network Rail to have the Transport Secretary order them to make changes to the elements of Euston that were clearly failing. The writing’s been on the advertising board for a long time that things needed to change. Euston, as a mainline terminus is not fit for purpose.

Not against advertising at stations, but removing the previous departure board and replacing with a huge advertising board was asking for trouble and an insult to passengers who had to endure in your face advertising whilst being crammed in like sardines at times of disruption.

Some point to the large advertising boards at Waterloo. Indeed there are, but Waterloo is a much bigger station and there’s still plenty of departure boards at various points of the station.

The replacement departure boards at Euston that replaced the main departure board are a joke.

Let’s hope Network Rail can implement this five point plan before GWR and its passengers rock up starting on the 17th of November. I still have my doubts about GWR using Euston.

This is getting interesting now - Louise Haigh has said "for too long, Euston station simply hasn't been good enough for passengers".........will Hendy be writing to Keir Starmer demanding that she be sacked for criticising Network Rail?

Re: Euston: a five point plan
Posted by simonw at 16:23, 4th October 2024
 
Bravo, but is she going to stop at Euston? And will she and NR/Great Briish Rail) get the money over 10-15 to plan and implement the fixes needed?

Re: Euston: a five point plan
Posted by bradshaw at 17:48, 4th October 2024
 
Data from NR suggest that these boards may have helped the situation.
Heat maps of population density before and after suggest a reduction in crowding
https://www.mylondon.news/news/transport/controversial-euston-station-advertising-board-30072290

Re: Euston: a five point plan
Posted by Mark A at 10:23, 5th October 2024
 
If those are single snapshots, they will have been cherrypicked. The concourse will be a very dynamic environment over time. What NR needed to do there is supply animations + maps aggregated to indicate a month's worth of passenger positions.

Also, those two images are puzzling, they state similar numbers of passengers on the concourse, but given the colour coding it's difficult to stir the first one up and imagine that it's the same number of people.

Also, it's surprising that the exact position of the new boards isn't more easily discernable.

Mark

Re: Euston: a five point plan
Posted by Electric train at 08:09, 6th October 2024
 
There are a number of factors in my personal view that cause problems at Euston
  • Delays and cancellations to train services, this causes crowding problem at all London main stations but perhaps not as acute as Euston
    HS2 has reduced the size the capacity, number of entry and exits
    The new PIS boards being in the centre of the concourse and their viewing and size angle not being as goo as the old large across above the platform barrier which in my mind was clearer to see.

Dealing with the cancellations and delays is the key one, the completion of HS2 station is the only way that the capacity of Euston can be improved or with limited benefit convert the old parcels deck to the main concourse, the main problem with this it remote from the Tube and busses, or a cheaper option is erect a temporary roof over and enclose the outside concourse area

Re: Euston: a five point plan
Posted by TaplowGreen at 08:33, 6th October 2024
 
Just been watching a report on BBC Breakfast with Simon Calder at Euston who confirmed that the screen has been switched off.

Re: Euston: a five point plan
Posted by ChrisB at 21:45, 6th October 2024
 
It was switched off the day they published that plan. Only for a 'review', mind.

Re: Euston: a five point plan
Posted by Timmer at 20:02, 7th October 2024
 
According to the Telegraph, Network Rail are adamant that it won’t be displaying train departures when it’s switched back on. They may not have much choice.

Re: Euston: a five point plan
Posted by ellendune at 20:39, 7th October 2024
 
According to the Telegraph, Network Rail are adamant that it won’t be displaying train departures when it’s switched back on. They may not have much choice.
So how are passengers supposed to find out where there train is then?

Re: Euston: a five point plan
Posted by ChrisB at 20:42, 7th October 2024
 
The current boards are still working

Re: Euston: a five point plan
Posted by TaplowGreen at 06:44, 8th October 2024
 
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/euston-station-s-huge-advertising-board-switched-off-in-five-point-plan-for-improvement/ar-AA1rHv7b?ocid=msedgntp&pc=U531&cvid=87a2b4e64d8743cc8c0153df196568c7&ei=7

BBC London reporting on Euston this morning, interviewing customers who are expressing concern about safety, overcrowding, late platform announcements and consequent stampedes etc

Re: Euston: a five point plan
Posted by grahame at 07:28, 8th October 2024
 
BBC London reporting on Euston this morning, interviewing customers who are expressing concern about safety, overcrowding, late platform announcements and consequent stampedes etc

Network Rail has been forced to turned off a large advertising board at London’s Euston station as part of a five-point plan to improve the station. The review was ordered by Transport Secretary Louise Haigh.

Network Rail, which owns the station, has been criticised for converting the main concourse departure board into a large advertising screen, with smaller train information boards installed.

There's the question of "does the station have the capacity overall" and the question "are there pinch points in terms of time, place, and flow that need to be dealt with".    Changing times mean that I am *not* at Paddington anything like as often or as at busy times as I used to be,  but the use these days of multiple displays at each side of The Lawn, and repeaters on the bridge to the Hammersmith and City, have broken the crowd into a smaller chunks.   The late calling of trains there, with a resultant flow which I will describe as a rush but not quite a panic, has been a concern.   

Modern trains, with intensive utilisation, perhaps means that the railway operation is so slick it no longer gives the passengers sufficient time to get to them.   And a late, or quick, operational change can be fine by rail but cause chaos in the station.

The Saturday before last I was the passenger who joined the 15:32 Pilining that was said to be headed at the time for Penzance (not the only Pilning user; it dropped off too - another story) but as we approached Temple Meads, we were told that out train was to become the 16:00 to London, and that an alternative would be provided.  "But it will be just across the platform - we'll arrive at platform 13 and the onward train will be waiting at platform 15".   Good - but incorrect.  We pulled in to platform 8 I think it was - country end of different platform - and you could see the crowds lined up waiting for their London train on platform 13.   Big apologies from our train manager and I wondered what the scene was like in the subway and on the staircases as hundreds of passengers flowed each way; there was quite a load on the  Cardiff - Penzance, and the Bristol - London left a few minutes late and with the majority of seats taken - standing from Bath.

Re: Euston: a five point plan
Posted by ChrisB at 12:34, 8th October 2024
 
Back to Euston where the Secretary for Transport said in a Radio5Live interview just after 0800 that Hs2 final destination will be confirmed shortly (around the time of the budget), so looking likely to go to Euston.

If it does, then the work around expanding Euston will likely continue & this problem may be alleviated as part of those works.

Re: Euston: a five point plan
Posted by grahame at 13:06, 8th October 2024
 
...  so looking likely to go to Euston.

I still wonder if in a parallel universe it might not have gone into St Pancras where all those Superfast trains from Paris and Brussels could reverse and continue their flight to Solihull with a brief stop at Wormwood Scrubs for connections to Hereford, Fishguard, Paignton and Penzance.

Re: Euston: a five point plan
Posted by ChrisB at 14:32, 8th October 2024
 
With a blank canvas to start with, anything would be possible.

With the St Pancras station hotel, still potentially possible if you were to flatten it.

Re: Euston: a five point plan
Posted by ChrisB at 15:15, 15th October 2024
 
From the Guardian

Letters - Euston, we have a problem. But HS2 can solve it

A new London Euston terminus could be worth the £4.8bn, write David Thrower and Prof Ian Wray. Mike Ferenczi has a plan for private funding, and Francis Bown says let’s rebuild the arch

Nils Pratley is far too pessimistic and negative (Euston is a problem without a good solution, 7 October). The lessons from the HS2 Euston saga are that: 1) as a nation we should decide what we want; 2) we should stick to that plan and get on with it, without incessant changes involving lawyers and circuitous consultations; and 3) ultimately, you get what you pay for.

St Pancras, King’s Cross and Paddington didn’t come cheap in the 19th century. But no one today is going around saying they were bad schemes and they should have settled for a collection of tin shacks. Waterloo in the late 19th century was an utter mess, but the directors of the London and South Western Railway had the courage to visit the US, check out best practice there, and do a total rebuild, though they did compromise by using part of an existing roof (eventually knocked down for Eurostar) for their platforms 16 to 21. Today’s Euston is popularly remembered for the loss of the Euston arch, but the real mistakes were the concrete-slab roof over the platforms (no development above them but no natural light either) and the mean and cramped concourse and hopelessly inadequate London Underground hall. Euston would certainly have to be rebuilt even without HS2, and probably still cost between £1bn and £2bn.

Spending £4.8bn for a new Euston with 10 new HS2 platforms would be pretty much the going rate. And if it is done well, it will be good for another century.
David Thrower
Stockton Heath, Cheshire
Prof Ian Wray
Oxton, Wirral

In the 1980s, I bought shares in Eurotunnel (now Getlink SE, which runs LeShuttle), tempted by the promise of nearly free travel to France for a car and my family. I think I invested £400 at the time, a big chunk of my student savings, and I had a long time to wait as it was only in 1994 that the tunnel opened, and that I could enjoy on return trip every year for €1 each way. I benefited from this perk for 10 years, a much greater benefit and pleasure than gains in the wildly fluctuating share price.

A similar scheme could be used to raise private funding for HS2. Many UK residents could be happy to invest in it for the promise of free or cheap and fast travel. Say £1,000 invested to purchase HS2 shares with the perk of one return trip per year for £1 each way, for five years? I would be keen to participate.
Mike Ferenczi
London

The extension of HS2 into Euston would transform an expensive white elephant into a useful part of our rail system (Transport secretary ‘seriously looking at’ extending HS2 rail line to Euston, 9 October). It also presents the opportunity to turn a nightmare of a station into one of which we could be proud. Nothing would mark this more effectively than the rebuilding of the Euston arch, the beautiful Doric propylaeum designed in 1837 by Philip Hardwick. Its unnecessary demolition in the 1960s was an act of wanton vandalism, approved by Harold Macmillan simply to demonstrate his commitment to things modern. But most of its sandstone blocks, located in the East End, are recoverable and in good condition, and the Euston Arch Trust has practical plans for its reconstruction. It could stand as a magnificent symbol of the nation’s pride in the renewal of its railways.
Francis Bown
London


Edit note: ChrisB, I've added just one character at the very beginning of your post, to make your link work. CfN.

Re: Euston: a five point plan
Posted by grahame at 10:38, 29th October 2024
 
From The Standard

‘Euston rush’ could be on its way out as early train boarding introduced

Some services at Euston will start boarding 20 minutes before departure to try and tackle overcrowding at the busy station

Re: Euston: a five point plan
Posted by GBM at 10:48, 29th October 2024
 

‘Euston rush’ could be on its way out as early train boarding introduced

Some services at Euston will start boarding 20 minutes before departure to try and tackle overcrowding at the busy station

Surely that has to be common sense?
The earlier the better at all termini. 

Re: Euston: a five point plan
Posted by ChrisB at 17:07, 29th October 2024
 
If it's that simple, why has it not been implemented many moons ago?

Re: Euston: a five point plan
Posted by Timmer at 17:45, 29th October 2024
 
If it's that simple, why has it not been implemented many moons ago?
Operational convenience?

Re: Euston: a five point plan
Posted by Fourbee at 11:32, 30th October 2024
 
I was trying to think of reasons why and thought you could probably get away with fewer staff checking tickets and turnaround cleaners with the current scrum. Set swaps can be last minute without turfing everyone off (though of course that still happens). Can't think of anything else.

In Virgin days they used to text you the platform number before it appeared on the departure board if you'd booked through them.

 
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