please empty your brain below
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Ah.... one of my favorite pet peeves. The seeming deliberate concealment of any helpful directional signage at subways and airports. Yes... leaving the poor unsusepcting traveler on their own!
They do a bang-up job of it here in Seattle, where even after living here 30 years, I could NOT find the well concealed entrance to the inderground bus tunnel, even after 10 minutes of walking to and fro. In this case the thoughtful city planners have disguised the key signage within an alcover not visible from the street and further disguised it as art. Brilliant! Good luck to the Chinese visitors hoping to actually get there.
And at the Sea-Tac airport I was amsed when a visitor from India had hiked half a mile though the concourse in the dark only to arrive at the unattended kiosk ticket station and ask me if I had change for a $100 bill, so he could pay. (sorry indeed not!). That meant that he had to hike almost another full mile all the way back to the main terminal and back to find change... poor fellow. I imagine those people behind the desk who schemed it all up are undoubtedly happy.
john | Homepage | 13.10.14 - 3:21 a.m. | #
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Covent Garden and Leicester Square are not the closest pair of stations; they're the closest pair of stations that are on the same line. Euston and Euston Square are closer, for example. And even on the same line, Rotherhithe and Canada Water are closer together, and they used to be on the Underground although that line has now been transferred to the Overground.
Mike Scott | 13.10.14 - 7:20 a.m. | #
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I hope you don't get out at Leicester Square instead. On Saturday evening just gone it took me over 5 minute to exit LSW from the ticket concourse to street. One of the exit/entrances was close due to 'water ingress' and the whole station was crowded and felt dangerous. Liecester Square is already overcrowded itself.
The two closest stations in terms of distance on the same line is Charing Cross and Embankment on the Northern Line.
Also, the lifts at Covent garden are "re-opening" next month.... just for the Christmas period. Then, at the beginning of next year, they'll partial close the station again as they refurbish the OTHER two lifts at the station. There are four in total, and they've only done two so far!
Geofftech | Homepage | 13.10.14 - 8:14 a.m. | #
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I may be wrong on this, but I'm sure I recall reading that whilst the street level entrances to Embankment and Charing Cross are the closest together on the system, Leicester Square to Covent Garden in the shorter distance platform to platform.
dg writes: You are not wrong :)
BruceTenmile | 13.10.14 - 8:44 a.m. | #
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It seems you have to have had your training at Ikea to 'work' at the mentioned desk at TfL Towers. Of course, if you like shopping (after a massive trail around a aircraft hanger sized shed) you'll enjoy such diversions.
B | 13.10.14 - 8:57 a.m. | #
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I would shut some of the very near stations, Convent garden station could be shut. South Ealing and Northfields are also very close, not sure which one to shut here but probably South Ealing.
On surface tracks a walkway could be built alongside the track to link the station that had closed to the nearest open one.
Money saved closing Convent Garden could be used to improve Leicester Square station to increase capacity.
Some stations on the Paris metro are also very close.
Now what took dg to Convent Garden, I wonder if it was to see the art work building with no apparent support to it.
John | 13.10.14 - 9:07 a.m. | #
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I think the shortest distance between stations is on the Docklands Light Railway. Can't remember which ones but seem to remember the train barely starts before it stops. Do I get first prize?
Bernie | 13.10.14 - 9:32 a.m. | #
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Bernie - West India Quay and Canary Wharf on the DLR are only a sneeze apart, but they're probably worth keeping open because you need to take a long diversion to get across the dock at ground level.
Baldassaro | 13.10.14 - 9:52 a.m. | #
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It's can be amazing how difficult it is to notice direction signs. The first time I went to Tate Modern from Southwark station I was very uncertain until half way there I noticed that every lamp post was brightly painted to give directions.
The second time I went the signs were obvious. Tfl could try the same idea for Covent Garden and hopefully most people are more observant than I am.
Martin | 13.10.14 - 9:57 a.m. | #
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@ Martin - given the general population, I doubt it. Even if TfL put up a sign saying "Follow the *bright coloured* lampposts for Covent Garden"!
Oooh look, the Spellcheck doesn't like 'Covent'!
Bronchitikat | Homepage | 13.10.14 - 11:08 a.m. | #
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Speaking of which, the worst offender in misguiding passengers is the Bakerloo line announcement at Regent's Park to change for bus services to ZSL London Zoo.
Greg | 13.10.14 - 11:22 a.m. | #
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"Covent Garden could be shut"
It could in terms of distance, but not so easily in terms of capacity. The displaced from Covent Garden would have to go somewhere, and the alternatives themselves vary between crowded and very crowded.
A simpler approach would be to change its name. Calling it Long Acre or Neal Street breaks the message that it is necessarily the best or only way of getting to Covent Garden.
marek | 13.10.14 - 11:23 a.m. | #
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Off to see that 'ruin' art installation at Covent Garden, DG?
Kim | 13.10.14 - 12:17 p.m. | #
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One of the great ironies of all this is that Holborn station is recognised as one of the most overcrowded and there are proposals for a relief scheme for Holborn in the 2020s.
This is one of the reasons some of the emphasis is at weekends. It is not so much that Covent Garden is busier. It is that Holborn is quieter.
For the reasons Marek gives you couldn't shut Covent Garden. Indeed I will suspect it will be vital in a few years time if they need to temporarily close the Piccadilly Line platforms - either for Holborn station works or New Tube for London platform improvements to the station in the form of platform edge doors.
Going to Holborn? Use Covent Garden instead.
Pedantic of Purley | 13.10.14 - 12:30 p.m. | #
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I think there was a plan to close South Ealing station some time ago and you can see what appears to be a walkway alongside the tracks to nearby Northfields. I vaguely recall some legal loophole kept it open. I'm sure others will provide more accurate details.
ActonMan | 13.10.14 - 12:39 p.m. | #
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Visited Covent Garden (on foot) last weekend. I've been away from the West End for a while (frequenting the South Bank & East End) and was shocked by the crowds. I've never had to walk in the roads so much to avoid the zombie speed walking. I shall be helping TfL out by avoiding Covent Garden altogether!
martxw | 13.10.14 - 2:43 p.m. | #
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Good post - definitely worth highlighting the chaos about to be caused at Tottenham Court Road & the Central line being closed there for most of 2015! Was ok when the Northern Line was shut, with Goodge St taking the strain, but Holborn & Oxford Circus surely won't be able to handle the extra traffic that easily?!
MarcB | 13.10.14 - 4:10 p.m. | #
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Simple solution. Rename Covent Garden station to Long Acre. Rename Leicester Square to Leicester Square for Covent Garden West. Rename Holborn to Holborn for Covent Garden East.
Alan Burkitt-Gray | 13.10.14 - 7:42 p.m. | #
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rename Covent Garden to Midtown, charge developers for it and then watch as the crowds melt away
will | 14.10.14 - 12:54 p.m. | #
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I'm intrigued by the style of the signs, which don't look like LU corporate ones and do jar a bit, at least to me with my slight OCD tendency. When similar ones appeared at Stratford I thought they had been put up without asking LU by the Olympic Park people or Network Rail, but I'm wondering now if it's an attempt to make them stand out. The standard signs can end up looking so much a part of the station that you don't realise you're actually meant to read them!
Andrew S | 15.10.14 - 1:17 p.m. | #
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Andrew S - LU have put similar signs across the network. As memory serves there's some at Waterloo (for South Bank) and Kings Cross St Pancras (for British Library). There might be some at London Bridge for Borough Market but I can't remember.
Andrew Bowden | Homepage | 17.10.14 - 1:43 p.m. | #
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Can I proffer Mansion House and Canon Street as my half remembered fact about the closest stations together, and the shortest train time.
matthew | 23.10.14 - 4:05 p.m. | #
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