Reading Station improvements

[whole diary]

[broadgage]

They don't stop from what I saw, they run at a slower speed than normal, but then speed up as someone triggers a beam as they get on.  As far as I can see they either run at about half or full speed, it's not that easy to gauge by eye.

But it's a fairly common feature nowadays, I'd be surprised if people haven't used them elsewhere without even noticing.

Paul

Yes, they run at reduced speed if unused for a few minutes. When a person steps on to the escalator it gradually ramps up to full speed and remains at full speed for a few minutes before slowing again, unless someone else gets on.

[swrural]

My system seems safer to me.  It may even save more energy.

[paul7575]

No-one would approach the stopped escalator, they'd just assume it was broken down and go up the stairs.

In fact you might be on to something here that will save more money...   

Paul

[JayMac]

Stopping and starting escalators will likely use more energy than merely slowing them. The power draw of an electric motor is always highest when it starts up. There's also the wear and tear on the mechanism as well. Much better for longevity of parts to not have them constantly stopping and starting.

[bobm]

Perhaps I don't get out enough - but it is the first time I have come across them.  Agreed it would be counter-proudtive stopping them rather than slowing them down; people would assume they were broken and it would not produce energy savings.  It was one of the escalators up from the southern gateline.  Perhaps it needs adjusting and speeds up a tad too quickly.

[JayMac]

I'm going to name my next band Wiggly Baffles.

Do you need a bass player Phil? I dusted off my old one last month, re-strung it, fixed the pick-ups and started strumming again. Still very much page one, chapter one of learning to play it though. One of those purchases years ago that seemed like a good idea at the time. I can just about manage the bass progression at the end of 'The Chain' by Fleetwod Mac (aka BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page) Formula 1 theme).

[bobm]

Do the pair of you need an agent?   

[swrural]

In view of the foregoing discussion the proposed FGWCS supergroup should be called:

'Rain, Wind and Draught' (with apologies to Turner).

[pbc2520]

In view of the foregoing discussion the proposed FGWCS supergroup should be called:

'Rain, Wind and Draught'...

I propose the debut single: 'Soggy Wonderland'.

[adc82140]

Picked up some friends from the North exit today- it really needs an arrivals board- no way of checking if their train was on time.

[Jeff]

GTBE, thanks for your comments at replies #1620 and #1627.

I too thought Stuving's opening post was very insightful and helpful.

FWIW^▸ (for what it's worth), I had my first experience of the Transfer Deck yesterday (Sun 14 April), thanks to the kindness of the gateline operators who were happy to indulge my request to "...just have a look around". And I have to say that I was underwhelmed, and also that all of my concerns about the signage, based on my just having seen the pics on Flickr, were confirmed when face-to-face with the reality. I witnessed people drifting around looking utterly puzzled, and then gravitating to the lift pods to try to gain some of understanding of where they were in this huge space and where they needed to go for their train. And interestingly, my companion, acting as a sort of "control group" in this experiment (ie she was coming to the subject absolutely fresh, having never been to Reading Station before and having never read any of the postings on here or seen any of the pics), found the Deck very disorienting and bewildering - and she's a very seasoned and confident solo traveller. One of her spontaneous comments was exactly what I'd said on here a week or so ago, ie that the lift pods need to have huge numerals on them to signpost the way to the relevant platforms, and also that the tops of the stairs/escalators themselves need to signal their platform numbers more clearly. She also added that the CIS^▸ (Customer Information System) screens need to be triple the size.

I won't continue to bang on here about the Transfer Deck, whether about signage or weather ingress, but personally I really do think that NR^» (Network Rail - home page) need to make some improvements, and soon. I may be completely wrong, and I apologise to any of the involved professionals who may be reading this, but it just feels to me that the voices of the civil engineering and/or QS elements of the design team pre-dominated over those of the architects. In short, the Deck doesn't appear to have been designed to accommodate how people actually behave.

I have to say that I'm a very reluctant nay-sayer about this, as I was as keen as everybody else on this site to be a cheer-leader for this massive and otherwise extremely impressive project, but I'm just so disappointed that what could have been an absolutely superb Deck has fallen short because of simply poor thinking. Of course, the Deck is an improvement on the narrow footbridge we had before, but surely if you're giving yourself a blank slate on which to work, as NR did here, then you get it absolutely right, first time - instead, I feel that we've ended up with something which falls far short of what could have been provided. And I'm not thinking in terms of absolutely world-class iconic architecture, which obviously comes at a price, I'm just thinking of something which functions properly.   

EDIT: and I was absolutely astonished to see the mesh-screens, rather than glazing, in the clerestories! What was the thinking there?      

[swrural]

Good stuff Jeff, but what evidence do we have that anyone from NR^» (Network Rail - home page) reads your and others' postings?

I have noted that at least one FGW^▸ (First Great Western) employee reads the blog and I would have thought this company (along with XGC and perhaps SWT^▸ (South West Trains) to an extent) would be more concerned, as it is their pax who are affected.

The main complaint is signage and that can be fixed very quickly.  I imagine larger screens are not difficult to source, too.

The clerestory problem is an NR one clearly, but there again, the pax have little knowledge and even less interest in who owns the thing.

Perhaps you should forward your posting to NR or just post them with a request to read this thread, may I suggest? 

[Oxman]

I know from first hand experience that FGW^▸ (First Great Western) senior management regularly visit this site!

[eightf48544]

Here's a puzzle for you what are the black triangles on arms at right angles to the  track on the new platforms? More impotantly does anyone know why this design?

Here's a clue Cross Country drivers don't know!

[paul7575]

Here's a puzzle for you what are the black triangles on arms at right angles to the track on the new platforms? More importantly does anyone know why this design?

Here's a clue Cross Country drivers don't know!

They are 2-5 car 'rear clear markers' for permissive working.  Effectively just the stop position for a 2-5 car unit if platform sharing and returning where they came from.

It was discussed at length earlier in this thread (around post #1400, page 94) - my point then was that it made little or no sense to introduce a completely different sign for an otherwise familiar method of working, particularly for XC^▸ (Cross Country Trains (franchise)) crews using split platforms at places like Southampton or New St...

Paul