please empty your brain below

Until capital punishment is restored, anyone standing on the left on an escalator should be transported to Australia...
We need to go the opposite direction - introduce a third 'line' on the very left for extraordinarily fast walkers, like, for instance, myself. It's not just those standing on the left that annoy me, but also 3/4 of those who use the left side correctly.

dg writes; Discussed previously, elsewhere.
"As it is, all you need to remember at Holborn for the next six months is this...
• When you arrive at the bottom of the main escalators, you can always walk up the left-most 'up' escalator." (DG)

Sorry, I'm confused. I thought you said we had to stand on the left-most escalator, but that we could sometimes walk on the others - have I missed something? If even the DG exclamation baffles me there is no hope for the real thing! That said, I'm one of the annoying people with guide dogs who block the whole escalator wherever they are and in which ever direction they're travelling, so this doesn't make a huge difference to me.
These proposed changes risk confusing accepted practice at other stations, so I don't think they are a good idea.

I'd prefer the announcements to be along the lines "As the station is busy, would those who can, please walk up the escalators on the left. Thank you."

No harm in encouraging a bit of exercise for those who are willing.
@Gerry: "....transported to Australia." Funnily enough, in Australia you stand on the left of the escalator and walk on the right !
I'm surprised that they don't put up those overhead signs they use on Motorways.

It's a bit like that research that showed putting a large pillar in front of a fire exit actually enables crowds to get out faster - the pillar breaks the crowd into two streams.
If everyone who has wailed and gnashed their teeth about this, actually walked up the escalator at Holborn in the first place, there would be no trial as the escalators would be at full capacity with walkers.

But as there will always be a walking up escalator I don't see anything to complain about other than the slight complexity of finding your correct escalator!
what an absolute mess
@Andrew Boden, surely the slight complexity of trying to find the walking lane will just lead to people frantically milling around at the base of the escalators? At least until they get used to it.

This change will stress me out as well, DG. I've always been a walker, as I view it as an excellent source of exercise (sometimes my only exercise of the day when I have an unusually long day at the office) In some ways, I'm surprised TfL aren't doing the opposite in this day any age, and encouraging people to walk. I can see it now... "Walking up this escalator burns 26 calories".
Matthew - commuters will get used to it very quickly. After all, most travel at the same time every day. They don't need to know that things change during the day.

I would argue though that it doesn't matter how many calories it would burn off, few people will ever walk up at Holborn. It's just too big
Even if everybody who could walk walked, the research shows that standing on both sides still delivers more people up the escalators (because of the greater amount of space people leave between one other when they're walking up).
Wouldn't it make more sense to have the non-bi-directional centre escalator as the walking one all the time? Signage could be set better...

Despite only rarely being in London, when forced to use escalators elsewhere I always keep left and try to walk. If anyone is standing in the way a Brian Blessed-esque voice booms "Can't you read!?!?" in my head...
DG indeed. But I am thinking of it another way. If everyone walked up, no one would have spotted the empty left side of the escalator and decided they could use the space better!
It's a staff disciplinary matter if you're caught using stairs in First Group premises without holding a handrail such is their obsession with H&S.
If the lanes were separated on approach to the escalator, more people might choose the fast left lane, even if it means then walking up the escalator. As it is, the approach gets congested for everybody, partly because of non-walkers switching to the right lane just before the escalators. So the time saving to be had by walking is limited to the climb. Introducing lane separation on approach would make walking more attractive and nudge more people to do that - surely a good thing.
@Robert Johnston
"I thought you said we had to stand on the left-most escalator, but that we could sometimes walk on the others - have I missed something? "

I think your confusion is because DG's photo is taken from the top of the shaft, and the leftmost escalator seen in that picture is indeed the always-standing one. But seen from below, as they would be by someone about to use them, this is the one on the right. The one you can walk up is the leftmost of those currently going up (which will actually be one of the middle two, because the one on the extreme left, as seen from below, is always going down)
Having routed my commute through Holborn this morning, I can report the following:

• It isn't working.
• There are no obvious signs at the foot of the escalators other than the grinning projected lady.
• The grinning projected lady repeats a variety of phrases, including "Hold the handrail" and "Please stand on both sides of this escalator" (so isn't necessarily saying something informative when you arrive)
• The phrase "Please stand on both sides of this escalator" isn't helpful when spoken by someone standing inbetween two escalators.
• The blue signs up the edge of the right hand escalator are now electronic, so are being used to display a variety of short messages, including "Hold the handrail", "Stand on both sides" and simply "Stand".
• It would be clearer if the blue electronic signs included arrows, to indicate which of the two escalators to either side they apply to.
• There was no sign on the escalator you were still allowed to walk up to indicate it was the escalator you were still allowed to walk up.
• People were still walking up all three 'up' escalators.
• It isn't working.

Of course I could have walked through at a different time and seen something different, so don't read this as a definitive report. But the set-up lacked human input, and appeared over-complicated and under-explained.
This reminds me of Braess' paradox, where closing a road or tunnel actually improves flow of traffic. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Braess'_paradox

Didn't those signs that say "Stand on the right", used to be in French and German back in the 60s and 70s? Prenez a(u) droit and er......
I like the 'motorway signs' suggestion. Showing a climber pictogram and 'walk up' for the speedy lane and a stander pictogram and 'ride up' for the others. The issue isn't the height of the escalator but the scale of congestion at the foot of it. Another location that would benefit from this is Bank on the exit from the DLR toward the Central line.
Singapore also has standing on the left which is confusing for a Londoner but in the Far East most people seem content to ride up...
The simplest way to enforce this is, when it starts to get busy, a member of staff stands on the left of the escalator. Like motorway jams, this will create a blockage that lasts until the traffic dies down.
I hope the experiment fails. It's too complicated (which escalator(s) and when) and it will encourage people to stand on the wrong side elsewhere; try getting to the top floor of a department store in your lunch hour when numpties and tourists block the way !

Similarly, any idea which introduces more irritating aural pollution should be strangled at birth.

I'm normally a model traveller, but I'd be sorely tempted to walk up just to buck the system...
The easiest way to increase escalator capacity is to increase speed. To overcome H&S issues I propose that passengers are invited to attend High Speed Escalator training, and on completion are awarded an 'Escaleaper' endorsement on their oyster. This would allow them through a special gate on to a dedicated high speed escalator.
Interesting! I exited at Holborn on Saturday and noticed the double row of blue footprints at once on the far right 'up' escalator and thought 'oh-ho! It's official now'. Didn't notice any of the other 'helpful hints' that DG mentioned though!!

Being a Saturday morning though, everyone still stood on the right and no one walked up the left at all.

However, the crush at the top was just as awful as ever - too few exit gates and people stopping in front of them looking for their tap out card of choice (Think ahead people! You know you're nearly at the top, get the card out ready!!).

Once through the barrier there's always the crush of people putting their cards away again, mingled with those queuing for the machines, which basically forms an effective barrier between the gates and the station exit!

I can only imagine the horror on a weekday commute!
Surely the most logical solution would be to have 1 escalator for 'walkers' & another 1 for 'standers'?
Must dogs still be carried?
Nicholas - Singapore has standing on the left? I lived there four years and don't recall that. Are you talking about the MRT in rush hour?
And you can see how important the 'stand on the right' debate is because there have been well over 20 replies to this in less than 12 hours.
We mustn't forget that this rule when applied to 'down' escalators would certainly slow things up. For obvious reasons many more people walk down escalators.
A very interesting post DG. Using a reductio ad absurdem approach it is obvious capacity is increased by standing on both sides because in the extreme there might be nobody walking or indeed standing)on the left. Perhaps better instructions might be 'Standing on both sides' or 'Standing on right only', thus avoiding the imperative or the pedantically unclear 'Stand on both sides'.
I fully understand the human reaction to what actually is a very sensible way of inconveniencing a minority for the greater good. Out here in the sticks, with roads/lanes with no pathway, I am still amazed at the number of people who choose to walk with their back to the traffic direction, despite all that the Highway Code says! We need a Highway Code for the Underground given how busy it is now.
"upon which will be placed "a talking projection of a staff member". Projections are cheaper than real staff, and they smile all the time..."

My heart sank when I read this - I detest these 'hologramatic' people. Having to see one of those is worse than the trial! The question is, whoever thought they wouldn't be irritating as hell?

Re the trial, I don't understand the ridiculous array of instructions. Though not technically correct, surely "Stand both sides" plastered over everything would be the most clear way of doing it. Rather than mixing in a load of "Hold the handrails" etc, which doesn't get the message across?
Chris,

We mustn't forget that this rule when applied to 'down' escalators would certainly slow things up

For the individual once he has reached the escalator maybe. But having people stand both sides increases capacity. It is no different in the down direction. That is why at Victoria in the morning the single escalator to the Victoria line normally has standing on both sides.

Whilst I can see LU trying to get us to change our behaviour in such a formal way may be news it has been a case of "please stand on both sides" for years at Victoria. It is largely self-enforcing as it only takes one person to obey it in order to get on the escalator earlier to force everyone behind to comply. With the numbers using it, it is almost impossible to get to the point where people can walk down until the morning peak period is cleared.
The Telegraph has a useful animation on this http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/03/22/the-simulation-that-proves-standing-only-escalators-work-on-the/

But as Andrew said, if more people did walk in the first place, they wouldn't even be trying this.

and Mike at some congested areas with short escalators, they are telling people to walk up both sides. I regular here it on the escalators to leave the DLR at Bank (heading towards central line).

But a clear announcement of due to the station being busy please stand on both sides would be clearer.
You want frustration? Try the escalator from the southbound Thameslink platform at St Pancras on a Saturday morning when a full train has just disgorged its load of tourists with cases from Luton Airport, who then ignore the "use the lifts signs", along with families "up for the day".
Then the disembodied voice says "You are approaching the end of the escalator, please step off". Sometimes I'm tempted to try to stay on. Mutter, mutter.
Interesting they haven't used the variable message signs of the type that have appeared on the escalators at Euston instead of the fixed "Keep Right" signs (and I noticed somewhere else but can't remember where...)
My, all these comments. DG you have certainly hit on a hot topic today
Here in Bristol it seems 'stand both sides' (whether that applies to people individually - as they are larger here - or pairs) is the default setting. Try asking anyone to move aside so you can walk and you might as well be speaking a foreign language (and the locals will treat you with the same respect they would a foreigner - such as someone from London).
Can't we try compulsory 'walk both sides' escalators? Surely that will have and even greater throughput?
The solution is simple...

Close the Disused Dangleway, re-install it at Holborn and call it the Emirates Express Escalator !
If you're going to make the Dangleway a useful alternative to an escalator, surely the thing to do would be to extend it into the tube station at the southern end and provide cross platform interchange with the Jubilee Line?
"To the right, to the right"..
"Stand on each side" seems to be the phrase needed, just as 'Pass along the platform' encourages use of the full length. IF you want people to think they're being addressed individually.
Re:Cornish Cockney: I reckon Saturday users of Holborn are disproportionately "newbies" compared to the regular (M-F) morning peak crowd. I kind of think that's what station managers are for, y'know, adjusting their approach to the different make up of the crowds, but I may be deluded or wrong about that.

It does sound as though TfL need to think through the consequences of delivering ~30pc more people into that awkward little space at the top of the escalators, though. and onto the pavement outside, into the herds of ppl waiting to cross the road.

My facetious suggestions: put in a lift or re-open British Museum.

I'm in favour of people trying creative ways to help the Underground cope with passenger growth & regard the Holborn experiments as the way to go. I hope the people responsible pick up the feedback in these comments & in the article.

It may be that the new TCR will take a bit of pressure off poor old Holborn when it reopens fully (including the Elizabeth Line) if people are getting off one stop early or late to dodge the builders at TCR.
Victor Vectis yes!!! Non dog owners are forced to roam underground, looking for a way out that doesn't involve an escalator. This is getting easier as more stations are 'step free'(whatever that means; I generally prefer steps to remain where they are set, with the obvious exception of escalators).
@Jon there's quite a lot wrong with the model behind that animation. Still, *presumably* six months' worth of data will tell us something about passenger flows at Holborn and there'll be lots of discussions about people's feelings.
I went through Holborn at peak time today.

The hologram lady was useless as you couldn't hear what she was saying due to noise of the escalators and the crowd generally, and I walked right past her.

Everyone also seemed to be ignoring the rules ad they seemed to be operating as normal.
It's failed already.

The Telegraph's video shows the walking escalator has 11% more capacity than the standing one, 89 vs. 80 passengers per minute.
I hate this new edict. It's in keeping with using the hard shoulder on motorways, another false economy. When there is an emergency, it will turn into a huge disaster instead of a smaller, albeit still sad, tragedy. The same thing will happen with economising on water usage and using motorway hard shoulders. All will result in humanitarian disasters, followed by predictable hypocrisy and "Oh we never thought of that." When things are used to their maximum capacity, the smallest problem will become a catastrophe. There should always be spare capacity and maintainability in every system that is of any importance, let alone life and death critical.
Perhaps it is a stealth fitness drive. Apparently the average commuter is so bloody-minded that today they're walking up an escalator that was too long to walk up yesterday, because TfL tells them they can't.
Reading this has given me the urge to do something I have not done over over 40 years - run down an escalator
the wrong way!
The BBC video has a reporter saying "But it's quicker". The Telegraph video has big caption saying "It's Faster". Both completely incorrect. You get MORE people through, but that doesn't mean it's faster/quicker. Idiots.

(Will be popping down to do my own video for Londonist tomorrow)
Geofftech - the argument is that it is faster for everyone on average, although for those who previously walked up it is likely to be slower. I am surprised by the result, and it only makes sense to me if the base didn't clear at all during rush hour, as otherwise the surge of people walking off the tube and straight up the escalators would provide additional capacity that the simply standing would not provide (e.g. starting from an empty escalator by the time 10 standers had got on 20 walking would have managed it).
Messiah - Yes, "the base didn't clear at all during rush hour", this was precisely the issue.
As I understand it, the argument was made about throughput - how many people can you get up the escalator per minute, which is maximised if everyone stands (walkers are faster, but they take up more space per person).

That said, I wonder if it might be faster for everyone, from arriving at the platform to exiting the station, if the walkers avoid some waiting time in the scrum at the bottom.
If the escalators were called M, G and E, like other transport installations, we might understand it better!
So once again TfL have shot themselves in the foot by (a) announcing one thing in advance and doing something different on the day, and (b) getting bamboozled by the hologram salespeople into using a completely absurd way of communicating with users (reminiscent of hiding "next train" indicators behind the furniture).
'Tass Mavrogordato, CEO of inmidtown, said... '

An absolutely brilliant spoof by DG !

But how did he manage to hack the official TfL website??
http://districtdavesforum.co.uk/thread/26082/holborn-stand-on-left-trial?page=4 has some further insights.
Walking is evidently quicker than standing, but if you can get more people on the escalator at a time the queues will be shorter. But it also means the escalators will be delivering people to the top faster, so the queues are transferred to the ticket gates instead.

It is quite common for people to end up standing on both sides of the down travelator at Bank, and again I think this is encouraged to avoid overwhelming the gateline (which is at the bottom)
I always walked up but never do now, this is because once I just tripped whilst walking and hit my shoulder very hard against the edge of the tread - you will never know quite how painful that can be unless you experience it and I'm not sure my shoulder has ever recovered from that - so standing and handrail holding every time now!
The only bit I don't like is that it seems you are not allowed to walk even if no-one is standing in front of you.
Does someone at TfL actually want this to fail?
MTR use "hold the handrail" all the time in HK. It's not at all annoying.
Tuesday rush hour update:
• Everyone was behaving normally, standing on the right and walking on the left, except for one suspicious-looking young woman in a bright pink beanie hat standing on the left, and blocking the passage of those climbing behind her.
• If I were using a plant to stop people walking up the escalator, I'd make them wear a bright pink beanie hat to make identification easier.
@Victor Vectis

No, The bylaw governing this was relaxed in 2011 for guide dog partnerships specially trained to use escalators safely. There is however a strict protocol to follow, approaching the escalator, stopping the "traffic" for several seconds in order to build up a space in front, and then stepping on, holding that space all the way to the end. The idea is that there should be sufficient space for the dog to walk off naturally, lifting it's Paws and therefore not imperilling them on the comb at the end.
No one will read this far down, but, further to Adrian's suggestion, a walking only escalator has great potential. They could even turn it off to save power. Or build some stairs...

@AS, I never took it as meaning you weren't allowed to walk if there was space (just as you can do on any escalator anywhere else), only that there is no longer a reserved lane for you to do so, and you thus lose the right to tut loudly at people standing in front of you.
My late dad remembered his retiring headmaster offering this advice, which he was frank about having nicked from LT:
"Stand on the Right - and let others pass you!"
So for a normal tube escalator I've never thought the "walk on the left" rule made much sense, so instead I stay on the right unless I'm passing someone slower, and use the left part of the escalator as an overtaking lane.

With the Holborn trial, it doesn't seem like walking could itself be a problem, it's leaving the space free for others to walk that may be wasteful. Once someone is on the escalator and has free space in front of them surely there's no reason for them not to walk if they want to?
Wednesday rush hour update:
• "Welcome to Holborn", said the grinning projected lady, not especially helpfully.
• This morning's overhead announcements told commuters to stand on both sides of the first and second escalators, but that they could still walk up the third one.
• BUT they didn't say this was counting from the right hand side.
• You'd normally expect counting from the left, surely.
• People were still walking merrily up all three escalators.

There was an extra announcement at Warren Street this morning: “To ease congestion please walk up the escalators ”.
Made a video about it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cX11cxeW6hA
Friday rush hour update:
• I travelled through a bit later, during the peak hour of passenger traffic.
• "Important announcement," said the grinning projected lady. "Please stand on both sides of the escalator."
• Nobody was standing on both sides of the escalator, because that would be greedy.
• But people were standing on either side of the two designated escalators, making good use of the available space, preventing the usual pile-up and queues at the bottom.
• People were still walking up the third escalator, as intended, and nobody had been so confused they'd stood and blocked it.
• The system appeared to be working perfectly.


Conclusion: The standing trial is a success in the morning rush hour, but seemingly completely unnecessary at other times.
Sunday morning update:
• The grinning projected lady is switched off.
• There are no announcements.
• There is only one up escalator. It is not busy.
• Nobody is standing or walking on the left hand side.

Monday rush hour update:
• The experiment continues.
• This morning a member of staff has been deployed at the foot of the escalators to bark at passengers arriving from the platforms.
• "Please stand on both sides of the escalators," he says.
• Outcome: people are standing on both sides of the escalators.
• Advantage: it's clear from where he's standing that the rule doesn't apply to the third escalator.
• Disadvantage: people standing on the escalator are turning round to scowl down at him with disdain.
• "Welcome to Holborn," says the grinning projected lady.











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