dk1
Veteran Member
From NXEA...
This Tuesday will see the grand opening of the Westfield Shopping
Centre at Stratford. This shopping centre is Europe's largest urban
shopping mall and has hundreds of shops and restaurants. There
is also a multi screen cinema, hotels and a casino. The centre will be
open from 0800 with the shops starting to trade at 1000. There will be
an official opening by Nicole Scherzinger at around 1130 and there is
expected to be between 150,000 and 200,000 people through the centre
on the opening day. It is also estimated that the same number will want
to go to the centre on the following Saturday as well.
All of this poses a significant challenge for us and we have spent a lot of time and effort developing a train plan
that will hopefully cope with the number of passengers we could experience. We are planning that Metro services
to and from Liverpool Street in the AM and PM peaks that are normally empty will be used as passenger trains to/
from Stratford. This will enable us to create a queuing system at Liverpool Street in the area around platforms 11
to 18. In the off peak periods we are keeping trains as long as possible. There are also additional services on the
West Anglia route towards Tottenham Hale from Stratford.
At Stratford station itself we will be deploying a number of additional staff around the platforms and subways to
ensure the safe passage of passengers heading to the shops and our usual flows of commuters. These people
will be strategically located to ensure they are able to react swiftly to the ever changing situation as trains arrive
and the events in the shopping centre finish. Whilst there are no special events planned for the first Saturday of
operation the shopping centre is expecting as many people to attend as the first day.
One opportunity this event does provide is to test some of
our plans for the Olympic Games period. The idea of running
empty trains as passenger services will also happen during
the games and this will be supplemented by longer and
additional trains to deal with the late events at the Olympic
park. Next Tuesday will also provide many outside agencies
the opportunity to monitor how the station, our train service
and our response to incidents will cope under the pressure
similar to the Olympics. It is therefore an opportunity for us
to demonstrate the high level of train service performance
and Customer Service which we deliver each and every day.
This Tuesday will see the grand opening of the Westfield Shopping
Centre at Stratford. This shopping centre is Europe's largest urban
shopping mall and has hundreds of shops and restaurants. There
is also a multi screen cinema, hotels and a casino. The centre will be
open from 0800 with the shops starting to trade at 1000. There will be
an official opening by Nicole Scherzinger at around 1130 and there is
expected to be between 150,000 and 200,000 people through the centre
on the opening day. It is also estimated that the same number will want
to go to the centre on the following Saturday as well.
All of this poses a significant challenge for us and we have spent a lot of time and effort developing a train plan
that will hopefully cope with the number of passengers we could experience. We are planning that Metro services
to and from Liverpool Street in the AM and PM peaks that are normally empty will be used as passenger trains to/
from Stratford. This will enable us to create a queuing system at Liverpool Street in the area around platforms 11
to 18. In the off peak periods we are keeping trains as long as possible. There are also additional services on the
West Anglia route towards Tottenham Hale from Stratford.
At Stratford station itself we will be deploying a number of additional staff around the platforms and subways to
ensure the safe passage of passengers heading to the shops and our usual flows of commuters. These people
will be strategically located to ensure they are able to react swiftly to the ever changing situation as trains arrive
and the events in the shopping centre finish. Whilst there are no special events planned for the first Saturday of
operation the shopping centre is expecting as many people to attend as the first day.
One opportunity this event does provide is to test some of
our plans for the Olympic Games period. The idea of running
empty trains as passenger services will also happen during
the games and this will be supplemented by longer and
additional trains to deal with the late events at the Olympic
park. Next Tuesday will also provide many outside agencies
the opportunity to monitor how the station, our train service
and our response to incidents will cope under the pressure
similar to the Olympics. It is therefore an opportunity for us
to demonstrate the high level of train service performance
and Customer Service which we deliver each and every day.
I am slightly suspicious, though, that it is only the "UK's biggest shopping centre" because of the gigantic casino on the top floor. I will, of course, ignore it, but I do find it slightly offensive that Westfield decide to put a casino in the most deprived areas of London, but didn't put one in a very affluent area of London.