The Quincunx
Member
It irritates me that the announcements say "Please use the lifts provided." Provided what?
"please use the lifts with large baggage".
As in : Please have all tickets ready for inspection.If it starts with "Please" then you can ignore it. Any sign or announcement that starts with "please" is a polite request and not an instruction.
Doesn't the safety of the multiple people on the escalator still take priority someone losing a case on the escalator has the potential to kill or seriously injure someone.What about those people who suffer from claustrophobia and so find taking lifts very difficult?
Or is that one of those groups that authority apparently deems acceptable to ridicule and shame, in this supposedly 'inclusive' society we have nowadays?
Doesn't the safety of the multiple people on the escalator still take priority someone losing a case on the escalator has the potential to kill or seriously injure someone.
Elizabeth line can average 3-5 passengers per square metre in the peaks going towards Heathrow. I think someone with claustrophobia would struggle with that
Personally they should have those trolley filters near the escalators like they have at Heathrow. They are a visual indicator to take the lifts.
No, it is a very easy question. Don't get me wrong, I advocate for accessible travel for all - but your discomfort for all of a 20 second journey from concourse to platform does not preside over safety rules and measures. Now I've worked in hands-on safety critical roles both on and off the railway, and I'm telling you now - if you can't handle being told how to safely use heavy machinery, which an escalator absolutely is, you shouldn't be using it. I've dealt with enough people at theme parks trying to flout the rules for the sake of comfort or convenience, and life just doesn't work that way. Sorry.That's not an easy question, as all sorts of things *could* happen. Should I have to be deeply uncomfortable/nervous doing something I really don't want to do, possibly hundreds of times, to mitigate a very small risk that one day I accidentally do something silly on an escalator?
For example, should we check that people have had breakfast before getting on an escalator, in case they faint and injure someone? Only a couple of years ago, I saw someone topple over backwards on an up escalator at Birmingham New Street, presumably due to fainting (or worse), which could have caused carnage, as people are usually a lot heavier than luggage. (Fortunately they appeared to be ok, as were the people they fell on).
A request. You don't have to have them ready, but you will be delayed at the barrier if you have to search your pockets for it when you get to the barrier.As in : Please have all tickets ready for inspection.![]()
I've only used the Paddington EL lifts once so I can't recall them – how does one pass through a ticket barrier / validate their Oyster card if the same lift runs from street level to platform without an intermediate stop at the ticket hall? Have I just missed a ticket validator on the EL platforms?The main ones from street level are particularly busy as they stop at 3 levels (street level, mainline Station level and the EL level)
Sorry, when I said EL level, I meant ticket hall. Appreciate i wasn't very clear.I've only used the Paddington EL lifts once so I can't recall them – how does one pass through a ticket barrier / validate their Oyster card if the same lift runs from street level to platform without an intermediate stop at the ticket hall? Have I just missed a ticket validator on the EL platforms?
I seem to remember having to take two lifts the last time I used them.
I don't live in the UK so I don't see the problem.The camera/screen idea sounds daft and pointless. I'm tempted to set a challenge to myself to take increasingly large luggage items on the escalators there and photograph myself on the screen. I wonder if I could borrow a piano from work?
You mean like abiding to the speed limit on roads in case you kill someone?Should I have to be deeply uncomfortable/nervous doing something I really don't want to do, possibly hundreds of times, to mitigate a very small risk that one day I accidentally do something silly on an escalator?
Have also been stuck in a long queue to exit the EL at Paddington; like you i carried my bike onto the escalator due to otherwise missing my connection.The lift provision at Paddington EL is not adequate for the number of users.
The main ones from street level are particularly busy as they stop at 3 levels (street level, mainline Station level and the EL level) the walk from street level to the escalators is about 300 metres so people often take the lift instead.
I've waited longer than 10 minutes for a lift from street level so ended up using the escalator with my bike as otherwise would have missed the train.
I'd love to know if they assessed whether people might want luggage selfies making the issue worse! (e.g. this system and screen going viral and becoming the last item on a tourist's to do list in London)It would be really interested to see the impact assessment completed to use this scanning equipment.
You mean like abiding to the speed limit on roads in case you kill someone?
It’s obviously a rule they’re trying to implement for the sake of other passengers’ safety.
It only takes a small amount of conscientiousness and time to mitigate the risk.
This “public shaming” is no different in mechanism to the laws we have in this country… if you break the law you are punished and it is publicised in all the media. No one bats an eyelid at that. If you stand in front of the yellow line on a platform, best believe I’ll shame you with the train horn to be in a position of safety.
So what difference is a very local screen reminding people to take the lift on behalf of other passengers.
It could, after all, kill someone. I don’t think it’s a hard choice. And you always have the option of getting a car, bus or taxi to your destination if you don’t like being shamed for not following safety advice laid out in the terms and conditions of purchasing your ticket.
The condition of use of the ticket is to abide by whatever the TOC says in terms of health and safety.Bloody hell calm down. A condition of your ticket isn’t queuing half 15 minutes for a lift for a journey that takes 45 seconds by escalator.
And blowing the horn when someone is stood behind the yellow line is madness (unless the train isn’t stopping). The whole point of the yellow line is to maintain a position of safety when high speed trains pass through, not as a tool to abuse customers who step forward as their train approaches.
As clearly laid out in NRCoTThe word "escalator" doesn't appear in the NRCoT, so where exactly is it laid out that you mustn't take luggage on the escalator?
There should really be more than 1 lift.
Also I'm pretty sure people bring suitcases onto the escalators in airports, mind you they aren't massive bags. Why wouldn't they do the same campaign there? Unless they already do.
I know EL isn't gwr or nr but at Paddington mainline and some gwr stations (i know of Slough and maidenhead) there is an automated message played by the staircases to advise people to use them safely and signs on every step saying to not run or use mobiles on the staircaseProbably because there are less incidents with luggage at the airport and this is identified at Paddington as an incident hotspot.
Seeing as “more lifts” isn’t a short-term (it probably isn’t a medium or even long-term feasible) option, then mitigation through various methods has to be the answer.
I know EL isn't gwr or nr but at Paddington mainline and some gwr stations (i know of Slough and maidenhead) there is an automated message played by the staircases to advise people to use them safely and signs on every step saying to not run or use mobiles on the staircase
I know EL isn't gwr or nr but at Paddington mainline and some gwr stations (i know of Slough and maidenhead) there is an automated message played by the staircases to advise people to use them safely and signs on every step saying to not run or use mobiles on the staircase