Paddington Tube Exits

NeroWolfe · 18 Sep 2019

I need to get to Sheldon Square Paddington W2. I've read (closed) threads here about the different exits at Paddington and believe the Praed St exit is the one I need (District).

However, I'll be travelling from Kings X so if I get the Circle or Hammersmith & City should I change at Edgware Rd onto the District/Circle and is it cross platform or more complex?

That's assuming the Circle from Kings X is different....

All help and suggestions welcome; thanks.

RailUK Forums

Ianno87 · 18 Sep 2019

Travelling from Kings Cross, any direct train (Circle or H&C) will take you to "Bishops Road" (Platforms 15/16), which is by far the most convenient for Sheldon Square.

No need to change at Edgware Road.

NeroWolfe · 18 Sep 2019

Glad I asked! Thanks Ian.

londonboi198o5 · 18 Sep 2019

Ianno87 said:
Travelling from Kings Cross, any direct train (Circle or H&C) will take you to "Bishops Road" (Platforms 15/16), which is by far the most convenient for Sheldon Square.

No need to change at Edgware Road.

Not all direct trains will go to Paddington (surburban) make sure you board a train that has a destination of Hammersmith

Mag_seven · 18 Sep 2019

Ianno87 said:
Travelling from Kings Cross, any direct train (Circle or H&C) will take you to "Bishops Road" (Platforms 15/16), which is by far the most convenient for Sheldon Square.

No need to change at Edgware Road.

If travelling on the Bakerloo, Warwick Avenue is also close to Sheldon Square.

Hadders · 20 Sep 2019

Unless there's disruption all westbound H&C or Circle Line train from Kings Cross St Pancras go direct to Paddington (H&C) station. Sheldon Square is a short walk away, exit through the barriers and turn right, then go up a set of steps on your left (next to a small Costa Coffee outlet). This brings you out by the canal. Turn left and walk along the canal, under a road bridge and you'll see Sheldon Square on your left.

Metropolitan Line trains also depart from the same platform at Kings Cross St Pancras - don't get one of these!

Dstock7080 · 21 Sep 2019

Hadders said:
Unless there's disruption all westbound H&C or Circle Line train from Kings Cross St Pancras go direct to Paddington (H&C) station.

There are a few scheduled exceptions, probably the point “Londonboi198o5” was making above:

londonboi198o5 said:
Not all direct trains will go to Paddington (surburban) make sure you board a train that has a destination of Hammersmith

Hadders · 21 Sep 2019

Dstock7080 said:
There are a few scheduled exceptions, probably the point “Londonboi198o5” was making above:

I thought all the westbound Circle Line trains went to Hammersmith from Kings Cross, unless there was disruption or planned engineering. I can see the odd exception at the extremes of the day etc but I don't think that's relevant here.

Am I missing something significant?

DavyCrocket · 21 Sep 2019

Hadders said:
I thought all the westbound Circle Line trains went to Hammersmith from Kings Cross, unless there was disruption or planned engineering. I can see the odd exception at the extremes of the day etc but I don't think that's relevant here.

Am I missing something significant?

yes. There are some timetabled trains via High Street Kensington during the daytime too

AlbertBeale · 22 Sep 2019

DavyCrocket said:
yes. There are some timetabled trains via High Street Kensington during the daytime too

It's always great when you see a "proper" Circle train! I almost went out of my way once just to travel on one for old time's sake...

DavyCrocket · 22 Sep 2019

There are trains via King’s Cross St Pancras that go to Ealing Broadway

AlbertBeale · 22 Sep 2019

DavyCrocket said:
There are trains via King’s Cross St Pancras that go to Ealing Broadway

Blimey! When? Clockwise, becoming a District at Tower Hill? Or as an old-style Inner rail Circle, then becoming a District post-Edgware Road? (If so, that must be a rare north-to-west movement at earls Court!)

Dstock7080 · 22 Sep 2019

T172 09.50 Edgware Road pfm.3, 10.22 Tower Hill EB becomes Ealing Broadway, 10.32 King’s Cross, 10.44 Edgware Road pfm.4, 10.59 Earl’s Court, 11.22 Ealing Broadway.

AlbertBeale · 22 Sep 2019

Dstock7080 said:
T172 09.50 Edgware Road pfm.3, 10.22 Tower Hill EB becomes Ealing Broadway, 10.32 King’s Cross, 10.44 Edgware Road pfm.4, 10.59 Earl’s Court, 11.22 Ealing Broadway.

Thanks! Amazing - so having gone round the Circle anti-clockwise from Edgware Rd, it becomes an Ealing Broadway train after Tower Hill, whilst heading in the opposite direction from other EB destination trains at Tower Hill...

As it goes from Tower Hill to Edgware Road, would it be shown on board and on platforms as a District heading to EB, even though it would be at places not served by District trains (and nothing else on those platforms would be for EB). It must confuse visitors - especially - no end.

And they seem to have fixed the signage at Edgware Road - in an attempt to enforce acceptance of the non-circular Circle in people's minds - in a way that assumes fixed uses for each platform ... so how do they un-confuse people when a train like this is in the "wrong" place for its destination?

Dstock7080 · 23 Sep 2019

Now that CBTC has been commissioned at Edgware Road for the first time the platform describers are able to show more than one approaching train and indicate how many minutes each train is away.
It’s now possible to ‘see’ an Ealing Broadway train more than 15mins away.

The platform signage was changed when the District and Circle Line trains swapped centre platforms a couple of years ago.

AlbertBeale · 23 Sep 2019

Dstock7080 said:
Now that CBTC has been commissioned at Edgware Road for the first time the platform describers are able to show more than one approaching train and indicate how many minutes each train is away.
It’s now possible to ‘see’ an Ealing Broadway train more than 15mins away.

The platform signage was changed when the District and Circle Line trains swapped centre platforms a couple of years ago.

What's the rationale for having fixed platforms for the centre (normally terminating) platforms at Edgware Road? And - if they are fixed - why are they fixed that way round now?

Dstock7080 · 23 Sep 2019

AlbertBeale said:
What's the rationale for having fixed platforms for the centre (normally terminating) platforms at Edgware Road? And - if they are fixed - why are they fixed that way round now?

When the "pan-handle" or "tea-cup" Circle service was introduced in December 2009 their trains reversed in pfm.2, District services reversed in pfm.3. Enamel signage was provided to show this.
Previously only District services normally reversed at Edgware Road, alternating between pfm.2 and pfm.3 for each train.
It took until May 2017 for the Circle Line drivers and Union Reps. to get the platforms reversed, as the platform toilet facilities are on pfm.3, and a Circle train takes 69mins to reach their next facilities at Hammersmith, District trains just 30min!

AlbertBeale · 23 Sep 2019

Dstock7080 said:
When the "pan-handle" or "tea-cup" Circle service was introduced in December 2009 their trains reversed in pfm.2, District services reversed in pfm.3. Enamel signage was provided to show this.
Previously only District services normally reversed at Edgware Road, alternating between pfm.2 and pfm.3 for each train.
It took until May 2017 for the Circle Line drivers and Union Reps. to get the platforms reversed, as the platform toilet facilities are on pfm.3, and a Circle train takes 69mins to reach their next facilities at Hammersmith, District trains just 30min!

Aha - so it's for drivers' comfort [fair enough!]; nothing to do with the logic of passengers' journeys. Though I think the new pattern is probably less logical for passengers arriving there heading west and not going in the Hammersmith direction: you're more likely to want to change to a District than a Circle [if it matters to you at all], since if you were going to the southern part of the Circle route you might not be heading into Edgware Road from that direction anyway (hence you have a change you might not otherwise have had, and it's not cross-platform). Coming the other way, perhaps the new pattern, with cross-platform interchange off of a terminating District, not Circle, for people continuing east, is better for similar reasons. Was all this thought through and discussed when the tea-cup switch first happened, I wonder? I think that for clockwise stations preceding Edgware Road - especially at Paddington for laden main line arriving passengers there (who just dived into whatever underground they could easily find) - there ought to be announcements pointing out that to continue journeys beyond Edgware Road you should wait for a District in preference to a Circle, to get a cross-platform interchange at Edgware Road.

Mojo · 23 Sep 2019

AlbertBeale said:
Aha - so it's for drivers' comfort [fair enough!]; nothing to do with the logic of passengers' journeys. Though I think the new pattern is probably less logical for passengers arriving there heading west and not going in the Hammersmith direction: you're more likely to want to change to a District than a Circle [if it matters to you at all], since if you were going to the southern part of the Circle route you might not be heading into Edgware Road from that direction anyway (hence you have a change you might not otherwise have had, and it's not cross-platform). Coming the other way, perhaps the new pattern, with cross-platform interchange off of a terminating District, not Circle, for people continuing east, is better for similar reasons. Was all this thought through and discussed when the tea-cup switch first happened, I wonder? I think that for clockwise stations preceding Edgware Road - especially at Paddington for laden main line arriving passengers there (who just dived into whatever underground they could easily find) - there ought to be announcements pointing out that to continue journeys beyond Edgware Road you should wait for a District in preference to a Circle, to get a cross-platform interchange at Edgware Road.

Given that Circle and District line trains run every ten minutes each, I don’t think anyone, other than wheelchair users, would benefit from waiting for a District line train as opposed to boarding the first train and using the footbridge, advising customers to wait for a certain train would only serve to artificially make journeys longer than they need to be.

swt_passenger · 23 Sep 2019

AlbertBeale said:
...Was all this thought through and discussed when the tea-cup switch first happened, I wonder?

There was a subtle change to the overhead signage on the main concourse at Paddington some time after the T-cup started, the overhead arrows now point to the suburban platforms for H&C and “Circle Line via Kings Cross”, and the Praed St platforms are signed as District & “Circle Line via Victoria”. Of course as you suggest many people will just follow the same route they’ve always used, but it might help a few people avoid a change at Edgware Rd...

edwin_m · 23 Sep 2019

It's a shame they don't put buffer stops at the eastern ends of the two middle platforms at Edgware Road, where trains via High Street Kensington normally terminate, to create a level step-free route for people who don't get a cross-platform interchange. However I suppose they get the same if they cross the platform and make a same-platform change at any of the next few stations. I guess there probably isn't room for the stops and their overruns to modern standards, or they want to keep the operational flexibility in case one of the other tracks is blocked.

AlbertBeale · 23 Sep 2019

edwin_m said:
It's a shame they don't put buffer stops at the eastern ends of the two middle platforms at Edgware Road, where trains via High Street Kensington normally terminate, to create a level step-free route for people who don't get a cross-platform interchange. However I suppose they get the same if they cross the platform and make a same-platform change at any of the next few stations. I guess there probably isn't room for the stops and their overruns to modern standards, or they want to keep the operational flexibility in case one of the other tracks is blocked.

I think that both the middle tracks can access both lines to the east, so can be used to terminate services from the east - which is not uncommon whenever there are disruptions or engineering. I've often noticed times when stuff reverses there from that direction. I doubt they could afford to lose the flexibility.

Ianno87 · 23 Sep 2019

Dstock7080 said:
When the "pan-handle" or "tea-cup" Circle service was introduced in December 2009 their trains reversed in pfm.2, District services reversed in pfm.3. Enamel signage was provided to show this.
Previously only District services normally reversed at Edgware Road, alternating between pfm.2 and pfm.3 for each train.
It took until May 2017 for the Circle Line drivers and Union Reps. to get the platforms reversed, as the platform toilet facilities are on pfm.3, and a Circle train takes 69mins to reach their next facilities at Hammersmith, District trains just 30min!

I found the 2009-2017 arrangement more logical, for the simple reason that if you were at (say) Bayswater and wanted to travel onwards via Baker Street, boarding a *Circle* line train at Bayswater gave you cross-platform interchange to continue on the Circle line (worth it if two trains were close together).

Now you need to board a District train to have cross-platform interchange in the clockwise direction. Not that this fact is ever advertised to passengers!

Dstock7080 said:
Now that CBTC has been commissioned at Edgware Road for the first time the platform describers are able to show more than one approaching train and indicate how many minutes each train is away.
It’s now possible to ‘see’ an Ealing Broadway train more than 15mins away.

I fondly the remember the only time I ever saw *two* trains shown simultaneously on the anti-clockwise Circle line platform at Paddington (Praed Street) - they did not appear until after leaving Edgware Road.

bluegoblin7 · 23 Sep 2019

AlbertBeale said:
I think that both the middle tracks can access both lines to the east, so can be used to terminate services from the east - which is not uncommon whenever there are disruptions or engineering. I've often noticed times when stuff reverses there from that direction. I doubt they could afford to lose the flexibility.

Edgware Road platforms 1, 2 and 3 allow trains to come in from the west and run east.

Edgware Road platforms 2 and 3 allow trains to come in from the west and reverse west.

Edgware Road platforms 3 and 4 allow trains to come in from the east and run west.

Edgware Road platform 3 allows trains to come in from the east and reverse east.

All of these moves are used fairly regularly in disruption and allow services to keep moving. Removing any of the flexibility would very quickly lead to significant delays to Circle, District, H&C and Met services well away from Edgware Road, due to the loss of flexibility to run around trains that are sat down for whatever reason.

Prior to the recent resignalling platform DMIs from Liverpool Street through to Baker Street could and did show Ealing Broadway, and this would also be put up from Edgware Road. The trains themselves would usually show Circle line until Edgware Road, whence it would be changed to Ealing Broadway.

As mentioned, there is one booked daytime train to/from Ealing Broadway, and two more at the extremes of service (albeit one is empty and neither run ‘through’ from the Inner Rail).

The present platform set-up is no more or less confusing or inconvenient for passengers than the previous one, based on practical experience.

AlbertBeale · 24 Sep 2019

bluegoblin7 said:
Edgware Road platforms 1, 2 and 3 allow trains to come in from the west and run east.

Edgware Road platforms 2 and 3 allow trains to come in from the west and reverse west.

Edgware Road platforms 3 and 4 allow trains to come in from the east and run west.

Edgware Road platform 3 allows trains to come in from the east and reverse east.

All of these moves are used fairly regularly in disruption and allow services to keep moving. Removing any of the flexibility would very quickly lead to significant delays to Circle, District, H&C and Met services well away from Edgware Road, due to the loss of flexibility to run around trains that are sat down for whatever reason.

Prior to the recent resignalling platform DMIs from Liverpool Street through to Baker Street could and did show Ealing Broadway, and this would also be put up from Edgware Road. The trains themselves would usually show Circle line until Edgware Road, whence it would be changed to Ealing Broadway.

As mentioned, there is one booked daytime train to/from Ealing Broadway, and two more at the extremes of service (albeit one is empty and neither run ‘through’ from the Inner Rail).

The present platform set-up is no more or less confusing or inconvenient for passengers than the previous one, based on practical experience.

Thanks for clarifying! Very helpful.

urbophile · 24 Sep 2019

When travelling from Euston Square towards Wimbledon, especially with luggage, it used to be easy to get a Circle Line train and change at Paddington (Praed Street): same platform interchange. Changing at Edgware Road often (and now always) involved a trek across the footbridge.

edwin_m · 24 Sep 2019

David Emmott said:
When travelling from Euston Square towards Wimbledon, especially with luggage, it used to be easy to get a Circle Line train and change at Paddington (Praed Street): same platform interchange. Changing at Edgware Road often (and now always) involved a trek across the footbridge.

You could cross the platform to the Circle at Edgware Road then change same platform at Praed Street, or Bayswater which is probably quieter.

NeroWolfe · 24 Sep 2019

Hadders said:
Unless there's disruption all westbound H&C or Circle Line train from Kings Cross St Pancras go direct to Paddington (H&C) station. Sheldon Square is a short walk away, exit through the barriers and turn right, then go up a set of steps on your left (next to a small Costa Coffee outlet). This brings you out by the canal. Turn left and walk along the canal, under a road bridge and you'll see Sheldon Square on your left.

Metropolitan Line trains also depart from the same platform at Kings Cross St Pancras - don't get one of these!

Mission accomplished!! @Hadders your instructions were spot on; thanks

moogal · 30 Sep 2019

AlbertBeale said:
It's always great when you see a "proper" Circle train! I almost went out of my way once just to travel on one for old time's sake...

Not if you wanted to go towards Hammersmith and your train unexpectedly becomes one at Edgware Road... (has happened to me quite a few times now)

USBT · 1 Oct 2019

David Emmott said:
When travelling from Euston Square towards Wimbledon, especially with luggage, it used to be easy to get a Circle Line train and change at Paddington (Praed Street): same platform interchange. Changing at Edgware Road often (and now always) involved a trek across the footbridge.

edwin_m said:
You could cross the platform to the Circle at Edgware Road then change same platform at Praed Street, or Bayswater which is probably quieter.

I thought that at Edgware Road the westbound H&C (and Circle) trains share the island platform with the terminating District. So you could do a cross platform change there. That was my (albeit) one experience.

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