please empty your brain below

I had always thought that your practice was to walk up escalators, I assume that not doing so was only for the purpose of conducting this interchange test.(Or has the present excessive heat on the underground got at you).
At Vauxhall you have to get to the platform stairs to find out any train information, I agree better displays as you enter from the tube barriers door would be very useful. There are now lifts at Vauxhall so there has been some improvement there.
I wonder if many people get Southeastern Trains after alighting at Brixton tube, I think for most Brixton would be their destination or they would get a local bus to continue in South London.
What a difference a simple interchange makes! Does anyone know of any websites or apps which show tube interchanges graphically?

You mention 'only mugs follow the official signs' but how do you figure out the shortcuts?

And thanks DG for mentioning twice two of the platforms I use (FCC) as grim and gloomy. 'bout right!

I'm sure geofftech will be along in a minute to plug his app :)

The spiral staircase at Finsbury Park was originally two spiral staircases nestled within each other (double helixes?), and there are occasionally plans to rebuild them as they were, to increase capacity.
At Kings Cross, familiarity with the old layout, before the new lengthy passages (and Northern ticket hall) opened helps. In most instances (except where there is a convenient back passage. Oh matrron), the trick is to follow signs for the Met Line to leave a platform, and then follow those for the line you require. (If there exceptions to this rule I'm sure someone will correct this). This will usually get you where you need to be more quickly, while luggage-bound tourists and other visitors to London struggle along the far more spacious and lengthy approved routes.
[1 minute later]

Here I am!

@Eskimo - really? i thought i'd plugged this to death and everyone knew about it. Will DG remove my spammy plug to my App?

www.stationmasterapp.com

For 3D maps of all the tube stations where you can visualise the shortcuts.
incidentally, at Green Park as long as you're at the correct door position, it's just as quick (and thus less effort) to change lines by going up the escalator to the ticket hall area, then back down the escalator to the line you want. I do this when changing between the Victoria and the Piccadilly all the time rather than walk the corridor.

No interchange at Pimlico? But it's just 5s to change from Southbond to Northbound if you missed your stop at Victoria and want to go back one... i did that once. :-)
"Don't expect anything anywhere near as good from Crossrail."

True, but this isn't the fault of Crossrail. Unlike the Victoria line, none of the stations at which Crossrail will have interchange are well-configured for a cross-platform connection:

Paddington: only the Bakerloo platforms are deep, but they are on a curve and would need rebuilding to be on the outside, which would mean a pretty major station rebuild.

Bond Street, Tottenham Court Road, and Liverpool St: Central line platforms and accesses would need rebuilding to be outside the platforms

Farringdon and Whitechapel: no deep lines for interchange

Canary Wharf: the large station box might have been reconfigurable to have Crossrail platforms built either side, but the Jubilee line would have needed major works.

The disruption caused by the necessary rebuilding would have been considerable, and both the Central and Jubilee lines would have been out of action for some time. Back in the 1960s, step-plate junction tunnels were built around existing running tunnels whilst the trains continued to run; this hasn't been the case since the Jubilee line extension was built in the 1990s (and perhaps earlier).
I see Geofftech has beaten me on Green Park for the Vic-Picc interchange. Via the ticket hall is certainly quick and I once did this from the first Picc from Heathrow to the second n/b Vic in order to avoid a 20 minute wait at F Park. Early morning frequencies on a Sunday are not brilliant. I managed it with wheely luggage in about 100 seconds. A fit, unencumbered DG could undoubtedly do it somewhat quicker.
If I come up from the South Coast the First Capital Connect (ne Thameslink) it's so annoying that you pass though the old Thameslink station before you get to the new shiny one at King's Cross St Pancras.

You can count the number of second it takes on the train to get from the old one ("do not alight here") and realise that you're going to have to walk back all that way to the Victoria Line station.

Which was once almost a cross-platform interchange ("Smile") and is now up an escalator, over mezzanine, up another escalator, out of the ticket barriers, turn left, though the whole width of St P, down the escalator, anlong a very long tunnel, through the ticket barrier, down an long escalator, a tunnel, another tunnel, another tunnel ... are we there yet? ... round a corner, no there's another tunnel and another AND ANOTHER ... and down the stairs.

Every time I think "Why didn't they build a travelator in parallel with the Thameslink tracks?"
"Victoria (Victoria ? National Rail) [2m]"

Passengers (or are they "customers") travelling to Victoria should walk up to the very front (or back from Brixton/Stockwall/Vauxhall) of the train before boarding.

When you get off the train, walk to the far side of the final exit before going through, and walk up the excellators. Have your best, patient "excuse me.. stand on the right" voice ready.
I don't know how many passengers take SouthEastern after exiting the Victoria but the morning flow in the opposite direction is large. 15 years ago hardly anyone alighted at Brixton mainline for the Victoria, now they queue to get down the woefully inadequate exit and staircase. Southeastern ticket inspectors seem to time it just right to meet services that are already delayed...

The number of passengers boarding at Brixton (NR) in the evening peak is far less. I do have lots of memories of tapping my foot impatiently as the tube waited outside Brixton Underground for a platform to spare, knowing I had just a couple of minutes to run up the escalators, through the barriers, past the ticket touts on the staircase, through the queues for the ATM machine outside Sainsbury's, right at the junction, catching a waft of the butcher's shop and trade bins under the viaduct, through the subway and up two flights of stairs requisitioned by smokers, and on to the platform to catch a short-formed Southeastern train.
"Vauxhall (Victoria ? South West Trains) [3m10s] A long escalator, a long passage, and then entry into the back of the station where there appears to be absolutely no guidance as to what mainline trains are leaving when from which platforms. A poor experience."

It's a shame you didn't do it the other way, as I found - via what I thought was an error in Google's travel directions.

Rather than take the slow Thameslink (sorry CCE) trains from Brighton to King's Cross St Pancras and the awful change there (as I mentioned above) or the long walk and suitcase-into-shin experience at Victoria.

Get the fast trains from Brighton, change at Clapham Junction. Pop down the stairs and up to Platform 10 and get one of the 40 trains per hour to Vauxhall.

It's so easy at Vauxhall, down the stairs, follow the "underground sign", though the ticket barrier, straight on, down the stairs, thought the barriers, down the escalator, onto the Victoria line platform... where you can get a seat.

And it's 120 seconds from Victoria where you can give other people who get on looking for a seat a "oh, I've been hear for AGES look".
If you arrive at Vaxuhall and want to know which platform to get, the

National Rail Enquiries app

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=uk.co.nationalrail.google&hl=en

is good. Press "Live Trains" and type in three letters VXH.
Don't expect anything anywhere near as good from Crossrail

As well as Abe's entirely valid comments there is also the issue that putting a convenient interchange between large long trains and small short trains underground in a confined space is a potential recipe for disaster.

As a result the interchange between the Victoria line and Crossrail has been deliberately built to be as inconvenient as possible (Hanover Sq. to Oxford Circus at street level).
It may look like the back door to Vauxhall SWT station, but that is in fact the main entrance. (and to think it was once a showcase - proudly shown off to the Russians when they were planning their first railways: the apocryphal story goes that they copied some elements, including the wording on the entrance: which is why the Russian for "railway station" is "Voksal"

Briantist
To avoid the trek back from "Camden Town South" to the Victoria Line at Kings Cross, I usually switch from "Fleece the Cash Cow" to the Circle Line at Farringdon.

Anon at 0920
I would guess at the reason for this: inbound, by changing at Brixton, you can grab a seat on the tube. Outbound, by chaging at Victoria, you can again grab a seat at the terminus - your chances of getting one at Brixton are slim!

Also, Brixton SER is a less salubrious place to wait for a train than Victoria - but you are unlikely to have a long wait there for a Victoria Line train
You're right but it's incredible how many people now change for the Victoria line at Brixton now compared to 15 years ago when I first commuted on that line. It was almost unheard of then.
@16.07.13 - 10:46 a.m.: I will have to try that, thanks.
I don't know why TFL are still signing the route from the Victoria Line platforms at Kings Cross to the mainline station. I remember when that route first opened I thought it was much longer but assumed it was temporary whilst the buildings works were going on, but now that is done they *still* sign you that way. As others have posted, follow signs for the Met line, then from there to the mainline station, it is much quicker.

I can't help but think that now the Northern Ticket Hall has been built TFL are determined to make sure everyone walks through it!
I always wondered why the in-train maps said "Brixton (100m walk)", yet neglected to mention that St Pancras was 400m away!
You missed the interchange to London Overground and London Midland at Euston (platforms 8-11): up to the Underground ticket hall as for the main concourse, exit through the leftmost gates and turn left, bending to the left then up a short flight of steps leading to the gateline for platforms 8-11.
The Victoria line cross platform interchanges are brilliant if you're going the right way on the other line, but more of a trek if you aren't!










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