One-way systems - good and bad

[island]

At some stations I'm curious as to whether it might work to reach over and tap my Oyster on the other side of the barrier and walk through a ticket barrier 'backwards', or whether it'd be counted as a tap out (I intend to pay, but not perform some sort of bizarre dance to get to the correct side of a platform)

Oyster pads on ticket gates ”know” which direction they’re facing, so if you do this (unless you have a Travelcard valid at that station) you’d get a maximum journey charge for touching out with no corresponding touch in, and a second one upon touching out at your eventual destination.

You’d also be committing an offence under the Railway or TfL Byelaws (whichever it is that applies) by passing through a ticket barrier otherwise than in the correct manner.

 

[Bikeman78]

I’m happy for you up north. Personally I’ll be happy when the silly situation at Clapham Junction comes to an end!

What have they done at Clapham Junction?

 

[Peter Mugridge]

What have they done at Clapham Junction?

The subway is not available to change platforms - yet you can enter the station that way, or exit it that way, so the stairs are still in use in both directions.

To change platforms, however, you must use the footbridge...

 

[Skimpot flyer]

I’m happy for you up north. Personally I’ll be happy when the silly situation at Clapham Junction comes to an end!

Ditto. I saw some people scraping off the badly-worn white vinyl ‘road markings’ on the footbridge the other week. Alas, it was only so they could be replaced with new ones ...

 

[Cdd89]

The subway is not available to change platforms - yet you can enter the station that way, or exit it that way, so the stairs are still in use in both directions.

Don’t forget 100 Covid marshalls (that’s an exaggeration... but only just) at every platform and stairwell shouting at people to comply with the system!

 

[Crossover]

The subway is not available to change platforms - yet you can enter the station that way, or exit it that way, so the stairs are still in use in both directions.

To change platforms, however, you must use the footbridge...

How do they stop people changing platforms via the subway if they are using the subway for entrances and exits?

 

[Peter Mugridge]

How do they stop people changing platforms via the subway if they are using the subway for entrances and exits?

There's a marshall at the top and bottom of each staircase keeping their beady eyes on people...

 

[Skimpot flyer]

Don’t forget 100 Covid marshalls (that’s an exaggeration... but only just) at every platform and stairwell shouting at people to comply with the system!

If you’re switching from Oyster to paper tickets at Clapham Junction, the one-way system is an absolute pain.
If you get off a train on, say, Platform 11, you could previously go down to the subway, turn left and tap out on the yellow validator located before the gateline, then double-back to get back up to platform 13.
Now, however, you are expected to turn right when you reach the subway*, or risk the wrath of the hi-viz jacket squad.
So your only option is to go up to the footbridge, along to the staircase down to Platform 17 (which is very narrow), down to the platform and tap out on the reader located thereon. Job done, you think... until you walk along said platform to the staircase down to the subway... and find it marked ‘no exit to subway’ (and you get shouted at, if you attempt to use it).
So you are forced go back the way you came.
This means instead of one descent, a short walk, and one ascent, it’s now ascent/longer walk/descent/tap-out/ascent/longer walk/descent!!!

*the subway itself is one-way only, in the high number platform to low-numbered platform direction

 

[johntea]

It should save me some panting !

Haha, I think Usain Bolt has competition based on my sprint from Platform 0 to Platform 17A last week!

 

[Bikeman78]

There's a marshall at the top and bottom of each staircase keeping their beady eyes on people...

Do they check tickets? Otherwise, how can they possibly know your intentions once you've gone down the stairs? I tend to use the footbridge anyway. Much more room than the crmaped subway.

 

[Cdd89]

Do they check tickets? Otherwise, how can they possibly know your intentions once you've gone down the stairs? I tend to use the footbridge anyway. Much more room than the cramped subway.

You can’t go up to any* of the platforms from the tunnel, or walk toward higher numbered platforms; all stairs are down only and the tunnel is one way.

*You can go up to platform 1 (which is the only platform accessible from the Grant Road entrance) and then access the overbridge from there, which is at least useful for connecting from NR to the Overground. They don’t like you doing it but there’s not much they can do once you’ve reached the gateline and turn left instead of exiting.

 

[yorksrob]

Haha, I think Usain Bolt has competition based on my sprint from Platform 0 to Platform 17A last week!

That's a long trip even without the one way system !

 

[GodAtum]

At East Croydon it's a bit silly, there's a separate entrance/exit, but everyone mixes on the platform ramps

 

[Peter Mugridge]

You can’t go up to any* of the platforms from the tunnel, or walk toward higher numbered platforms; all stairs are down only and the tunnel is one way.

The stairs from the platform 13 + 14 and 15 + 16 islands to the subway are marked for up and down - I haven't checked any of the rest yet.

 

[_toommm_]

Nice to see Leeds station has finally got rid of it’s one way system this week.

 

[Jamiescott1]

The one way police have made an appearance at Marylebone trying to enforce their one way system. They're being ignored by about 50% of people

 

[Cdd89]

The one way police have made an appearance at Marylebone trying to enforce their one way system. They're being ignored by about 50% of people

Yes I saw them there today. Having to enter via Harewood Street is a significant detour, as is trying to access the Bakerloo line from the national rail platforms. The system is incredibly micro-managey and the silly thing is it’s not that large a station in the first place.

 

[Jamiescott1]

Yes I saw them there today. Having to enter via Harewood Street is a significant detour, as is trying to access the Bakerloo line from the national rail platforms. The system is incredibly micro-managey and the silly thing is it’s not that large a station in the first place.

I ignore them to be fair. Once they got the security guard who chased me through the gateline and told me to go back and go the right way round, he also told me that he hopes I miss my train.

As per most one way systems in stations, its badly thought out and encourages grouping together of people, crowding and makes social distancing harder

 

[RomeoCharlie71]

As per most one way systems in stations, its badly thought out and encourages grouping together of people, crowding and makes social distancing harder

In fact I think that's the case for most, if not all one way systems, in stations or not. The one-way system in my local Tesco last year was a nightmare as nobody wanted to overtake each other when they were picking stuff off the shelf.

 

[timothyw9]

In fact I think that's the case for most, if not all one way systems, in stations or not. The one-way system in my local Tesco last year was a nightmare as nobody wanted to overtake each other when they were picking stuff off the shelf.

I just used to speed past everybody in shops last year. One way systems make no sense in convenience shops (Tesco Express etc) where you might only be going in for one or two items.

Manchester Piccadilly still hasn't got rid of it's one way system. I'd say it wouldn't be so bad if the Entrance was on the left and the exit on the right (from the perspective of walking from the approach road).
Come to think of it though I don't think it makes any sense whatsoever existing. The entrance route has all the shops along it, so you end up with people going the other way through it. I could see it working in some stations but Piccadilly has a fairly big open concourse, so a one-way system doesn't really do anything.

 

[johntea]

They've decided to stick a queue barrier up smack bang in the middle of the main bridge now at Leeds as there is no way the public can be trusted not to walk into each other(!)

I walked down the 'wrong' side on purpose, something like this surely must frustrate visually impaired passengers too!

 

[johnnychips]

Nobody is bothered any more. Maybe it’s masks, maybe it’s a realisation that outdoor spread is unlikely, maybe people have had enough. They have removed some tape at Sheffield today, while at Doncaster some repairs to the subway mean that people have to pass each other less than a metre apart - shock, horror! It’d be nice if they started putting the seats back in the bus interchange as well - it’s not as if you have to sit next to some if you don’t want to.

 

[AlterEgo]

Nobody is bothered any more. Maybe it’s masks, maybe it’s a realisation that outdoor spread is unlikely, maybe people have had enough. They have removed some tape at Sheffield today, while at Doncaster some repairs to the subway mean that people have to pass each other less than a metre apart - shock, horror! It’d be nice if they started putting the seats back in the bus interchange as well - it’s not as if you have to sit next to some if you don’t want to.

I haven't seen an enforced one way system in a shop for a while now.

 

[Kite159]

I haven't seen an enforced one way system in a shop for a while now.

The only shop one way systems I came across in the last few months of 2020 tended to be in Co-Ops. Which was enforced with cages placed to block access.

 

[Richard Scott]

The only shop one way systems I came across in the last few months of 2020 tended to be in Co-Ops. Which was enforced with cages placed to block access.

Local co-op still has one. It gets ignored!

 

[_toommm_]

Nobody is bothered any more. Maybe it’s masks, maybe it’s a realisation that outdoor spread is unlikely, maybe people have had enough. They have removed some tape at Sheffield today, while at Doncaster some repairs to the subway mean that people have to pass each other less than a metre apart - shock, horror! It’d be nice if they started putting the seats back in the bus interchange as well - it’s not as if you have to sit next to some if you don’t want to.

Maybe because as a nation we’ve finally realised there’s no harm in passing someone in the street or walking past someone, so long as the other person doesn’t cough at you directly in the face and you’re unlucky enough to breathe in at the same time.

 

[Bantamzen]

I ignore them to be fair. Once they got the security guard who chased me through the gateline and told me to go back and go the right way round, he also told me that he hopes I miss my train.

As per most one way systems in stations, its badly thought out and encourages grouping together of people, crowding and makes social distancing harder

Personally I would have responded that he was getting reported, and that I hoped he'd lose his job!

 

[Skimpot flyer]

The one-way system at Finsbury Park is still in place, and still extremely nonsensical. A friend who commutes from New Barnet to Holloway Road (on the Piccadilly Line) now has to travel on an earlier mainline train solely because of the one-way system.
For those unfamiliar with what they’ve put in place, people alighting from a London-bound train now have to exit the station at street level, into a bus station, turn left, walk in a busy street under the railway bridge, turn left again - passing through a second bus station on the ‘down’ side of the railway - then left again to enter the recently opened tube ticket hall, down a long passageway and only then down a flight of stairs to the southbound Piccadilly/Victoria lines.
Before this lunacy, she had a very short walk from NR platform to a spiral staircase to access the southbound Piccadilly/Victoria lines.
She timed a recent walk via the one-way system and says that by the time she’d re-entered the station, she would normally already be in the lift at her destination, two stops away on the tube!!
Not only is this route a long detour, it takes her past a lot of other people, whereas the route down the spiral staircase would normally result in her passing at most 2 or 3 people coming up the staircase.
She is minded to just ignore the one-way system.... but can’t, because the spiral staircases are closed-off with metal grilles pulled across!

 

[Hadders]

The one-way system at Finsbury Park is still in place, and still extremely nonsensical. A friend who commutes from New Barnet to Holloway Road (on the Piccadilly Line) now has to travel on an earlier mainline train solely because of the one-way system.
For those unfamiliar with what they’ve put in place, people alighting from a London-bound train now have to exit the station at street level, into a bus station, turn left, walk in a busy street under the railway bridge, turn left again - passing through a second bus station on the ‘down’ side of the railway - then left again to enter the recently opened tube ticket hall, down a long passageway and only then down a flight of stairs to the southbound Piccadilly/Victoria lines.
Before this lunacy, she had a very short walk from NR platform to a spiral staircase to access the southbound Piccadilly/Victoria lines.
She timed a recent walk via the one-way system and says that by the time she’d re-entered the station, she would normally already be in the lift at her destination, two stops away on the tube!!
Not only is this route a long detour, it takes her past a lot of other people, whereas the route down the spiral staircase would normally result in her passing at most 2 or 3 people coming up the staircase.
She is minded to just ignore the one-way system.... but can’t, because the spiral staircases are closed-off with metal grilles pulled across!

I totally agree. It's an absolutely nonsensical system. I timed it at 8 minutes to change from National Rail to the Victoria Line last week (and I was in the optimum position on the train for a speedy exit!). I've regularly done this interchange in under a minute. The signage is very poor as well.

What is laughable is that the stairs to the Underground platforms are two-way! So there is an elaborate one-way system to keep people apart only for it to all fall apart as you go down the steps onto the platform. You couldn't make it up.

If a one-way system needs to be in place then there are two spiral staircases to each underground platform from the National Rail under-passage (currently closed). I might be missing something really obvious here but one up, one down would be much better than the current farce.

 

[Skimpot flyer]

I totally agree. It's an absolutely nonsensical system. I timed it at 8 minutes to change from National Rail to the Victoria Line last week (and I was in the optimum position on the train for a speedy exit!). I've regularly done this interchange in under a minute. The signage is very poor as well.

What is laughable is that the stairs to the Underground platforms are two-way! So there is an elaborate one-way system to keep people apart only for it to all fall apart as you go down the steps onto the platform. You couldn't make it up.

If a one-way system needs to be in place then there are two spiral staircases to each underground platform from the National Rail under-passage (currently closed). I might be missing something really obvious here but one up, one down would be much better than the current farce.

Totally agree. Not allowing the spiral staircases to be used AT ALL is impossible to justify. Plus the lifts, opened to great fanfare before the pandemic, are closed off, too, making an accessible part of the station inaccessible once more!!