LONDON TRANSPORT OVERVIEW
to use it to test some of our design elements that have perhaps not been done before in the UK. For example, the full-height plat- form screen doors where we’re separating the passenger and the train environment: the mock-up gives us the chance to explore how that actually appears in the space. It’s very useful to test new bits of design.”
A striking element of the mock-up is the continuous digital panels on the trackside wall, opposite the platform.
Robinson agreed that they had raised inter- est, adding: “We’re looking into how you do advertising – digital is a media that’s ex- panding and probably by the time we open there will be even more digital in the system than there is currently anyway.
“One of the ideas we’re currently looking at is whether digital advertising works on the back wall of the trackside, opposite the platform. How visible are things likely to be through the platform edge doors (PEDs)? The mock-up is a good way of us seeing it in reality. We’ll now need to get together with an advertising company to ‘prove’ the con- cept. Architecturally, we’d like to see digital panels as a single ‘piece’ all the way down the back wall, but whether that’s realistic in terms of the ability to sell advertising, we’ve yet to do that exercise.”
The Crossrail tunnels are grand in scope, and the stations themselves are no excep- tion – particularly at the trackside.
Robinson said: “One of the things that eve- rybody who’s seen the mock-up has said is that it truly gets across the scale of the space. It’s one of the reasons for doing the mock-up, to get that feeling across. It’s a 10m diameter tunnel, 5m from platform to the crown of the tunnel. You could al- most fit an entire Tube tunnel in just our platform area. It’s substantial, and it’s a substantial step up from what you would
38 | rail technology magazine Apr/May 11
see on the existing Underground system. In terms of what else you will see down there, the benches and bins are part of what we term the C100 Architectural Common Components Package by Grimshaws and Atkins.
What others said about the mock-up…
Rail minister Theresa Villiers: “Good rail journeys start and end in stations which meet passenger needs – that’s why this station design is an excellent way for designers to test whether they are providing the best layout and facilities before they build the real thing.”
Boris Johnson, the Mayor of London: “Crossrail will change the face of public transport in the capital forever and we need to check the station designs meet the high standards Londoners require, but also that the materials we use can withstand the rigours of being used by millions of passengers. Those tests mean that when work begins on the real McCoy later this year we can be confident we will be building the best possible Crossrail stations.”
Crossrail chairman Terry Morgan: “Tens of millions of passengers will travel through the busiest Crossrail stations each year. The stations need to have surfaces that are able to cope with large numbers of passengers while also having an intuitive design and layout that is easy for people to navigate.”
“We’re working on a bench design and there’s a debate as to whether we stick with the current TfL-family bench design, or whether we move on. I’d like to see us perhaps come up with something contem- porary. It’s an opportunity and we’ll work with TfL on that.
“In terms of bins and that side of things, the idea is that it is all a common component that runs through the system.”
Can he imagine widespread modifications to the various Crossrail design concepts now that the mock-up has brought some of them to life?
“What the mock-up has done for us,” Robinson explained, “is to confirm that the basic concept is sound. The sort of things we’re looking at is what we term loosely the ‘technology section’ of the PED, where we’ve got our cable runs, lighting, our cus- tomer information: there’s a few things that we need to look at to do with the per- formance of the lighting and some acces- sibility issues, for example.
“There are also some issues with reflections in the signage; is it right to glaze the signage up there? Would we better doing a straight alu- minium type of sign? So, it’s already showing us the sorts of things we can now start to drive out in detail with our contractor.”
Julian Robinson FOR MORE INFORMATION Visit
www.crossrail.co.uk/route/stations
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