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How likely will Farringdon become the bottleneck of the London railway network when Elizabeth Line opens?

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Horizon22

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Sorry if I've been unclear: possibly my views have evolved in response to the well-informed debate on this forum.

Farringdon is likely to be an extremely popular interchange. My main point is that I think there will be a surprising number of people interchanging there who are not familiar with the rail system and may well have mobility problems: far more that is usually seen at a more typical Tube interchange like say Oxford Circus. Farringdon will be more like a London Rail Terminus than a normal tube station in this respect. I just hope that TfL's passenger flow modelling and customer assistance planning has taken this into account.

My reasoning is that there are a large number of origin-destination pairs in SE England where anyone specifing "Minimum Changes" or "Step Free" into Journey Planners will be given an itinerary via Farringdon. Even if it would be quicker to go via the Circle Line, or get a fast train to Kings Cross, or change again at OOC to head West.

(And when you say "nobody is going to be dwelling on the platforms long", I've known someone who has waited nearly an hour on the platform at Ely for the train to Cambridge, because all the trains before then were destination London. Yes, really. This is going to happen at Farringdon as well, especially on the westbound platform where the signage will say something like "Next trains from this platform: Heathrow, Paddington, Heathrow, Maidenhead, Heathrow, Reading, Heathrow, ..." Let's hope the old dears going to Reading have somewhere to sit down.)

Ah I see - well there will always be passengers unsure of what happens when a new railway opens. That being said, lots of passengers experience new journeys all the time and so long as signage and passenger assistance is available and sufficient then this will be no different.

As for "nobody dwelling on platforms" well unfortunately there's only so much you can do! You raise a fair point about people not being aware of fast trains from Paddington and hopping on the next available Crossrail service. In this regard, it depends what journey planners suggest. That being said the Tube runs through destinations in C. London to far flung places, so I don't think its a major issue.
 
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spinba11

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On the tube platforms at Farringdon some parts are step free to train but at other parts there’s a massive gap that I can’t get across in my chair and I do pretty big gaps with no problem.

Rant time.

I can foresee a problem with the lift layout. People who are on the southbound TL platform who can but are unwilling to because it’ll take longer won’t go up to the ticket hall and down the escalators to the EL they’ll use the lifts which means more wear and tear and when they do stop working it will be wheelchair users etc who’ll be stuck but the people who were using them instead of going up and over will start going up and over. Rant over
 

Busaholic

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On the tube platforms at Farringdon some parts are step free to train but at other parts there’s a massive gap that I can’t get across in my chair and I do pretty big gaps with no problem.
I'm glad you mention gaps, which can be as much of a problem to those of us with mobility problems short of using wheelchairs, and not so necessarily evident to other passengers. My MS still enables me to walk unsteadily with a stick but 'picking my feet up' or taking a long stride (or stride of any sort) is quite impossible and might quite easily lead to my falling, never a good thing for me, let alone near live railway lines!
 

greyman42

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On the tube platforms at Farringdon some parts are step free to train but at other parts there’s a massive gap that I can’t get across in my chair and I do pretty big gaps with no problem.
Yes, i have seen pushchairs get wedged in some of the gaps.
 

edwin_m

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The question is what the gap is in the middle part of the train where the accessible doorways are. If wheelchair users board at other doorways they may find it difficult to alight at their destinations.
 

londontransit

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The question is what the gap is in the middle part of the train where the accessible doorways are. If wheelchair users board at other doorways they may find it difficult to alight at their destinations.
It all depends and even if there is an accessible ramped section not everyone can use these as this example shows Youtube.
 

Dr Hoo

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It all depends and even if there is an accessible ramped section not everyone can use these as this example shows Youtube.
Having watched the linked video I am still none the wiser. The 'body cam' angle from what I presume was a wheelchair-using passenger didn't really suggest that there was much of a 'gap'. It seemed to be at the 'level hump' area and there is even a 'gap filler'. Can anyone explain why a special 'level ramp' had to be deployed as shown towards the end?

Obviously if such incidents occur regularly at Farringdon on both Thameslink and the Elizabeth Line once the station becomes recognised as an otherwise handy route for mobility impaired passengers there may be problems with extended dwells, creating the bottleneck feared by the OP.
 

317 forever

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Highly unlikely anyone going Reading - Farringdon will stay on Crossrail all the way - another change at Paddington will be far quicker and less waiting.
They might even prefer to use the Hammersmith & City / Circle Lines from Paddington to Farringdon rather than CrossRail. The journey won't take much longer and any saving be offset by these platforms being quicker to reach from Paddington mainline than CrossRail platforms.
 

Nunners

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They might even prefer to use the Hammersmith & City / Circle Lines from Paddington to Farringdon rather than CrossRail. The journey won't take much longer and any saving be offset by these platforms being quicker to reach from Paddington mainline than CrossRail platforms.
I think Crossrail will be around 5 minutes faster. It will also be up to twice as frequent. I'd get Crossrail as long as they haven't made it miles away from Paddington main line
 

swt_passenger

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I think Crossrail will be around 5 minutes faster. It will also be up to twice as frequent. I'd get Crossrail as long as they haven't made it miles away from Paddington main line
It’s odd because for years, (well ever since the Circle line “Tea Cup” changes), people here have usually been quick to point out how difficult it is to get to the H&C platforms…
 

Nunners

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It’s odd because for years, (well ever since the Circle line “Tea Cup” changes), people here have usually been quick to point out how difficult it is to get to the H&C platforms…
The problem is, the H&C platforms are physically in the main station, so it makes the diversion much more obvious
 

coppercapped

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The problem is, the H&C platforms are physically in the main station, so it makes the diversion much more obvious
The Crossrail platforms are underneath Eastbourne Terrace parallel to the side of the station and the entrance to them is where the old Hansom Cab/taxi drop-off used to be right beside the original Booking Hall.

If the Victorians could manage it on foot then so can we... ;)
 

matt_world2004

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I suspect most people going from the gwml to farringdon will do so via crossrail and not get off at paddington
 

Horizon22

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They might even prefer to use the Hammersmith & City / Circle Lines from Paddington to Farringdon rather than CrossRail. The journey won't take much longer and any saving be offset by these platforms being quicker to reach from Paddington mainline than CrossRail platforms.

Again unlikely. If they’re coming in a fast train from Reading the transfer time to the Elizabeth line station cia the H&C will be similar (and the margins are so small it depends on what carriage you are in). Once the new development at Paddington Square opens it might be even easier.
 
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