Examination of Witnesses (Questions 680
- 699)
680. Sir Peter Soulsby: If we can have
hard copies of this. I think we can make do for now with what
we have in front of us on our screens, but if we do not already
have hard copies I am sure they can easily be provided.
681. Ms Lieven: Yes. I think, sir, it
would be fair to say there is a little teething problem as to
what degree we have paper-free and to what degree we have copies,
and we will make sure that from now on—
682. Sir Peter Soulsby: It is the detailed
plans we have in front of us. I do not recall having seen this
particular drawing which shows both the Moorgate and Liverpool
Street end on paper. Perhaps if we could have that, but until
then we will make do.
683. Ms Lieven: You are quite right,
you have not seen this before and it is not a document in the
Environmental Statement. I want to use this as a mechanism, Mr
Weiss (I am sorry to do this via you), to explain a little bit
of what is going on in this station. Can we take a midpoint on
the Crossrail platforms? Just to orient ourselves, the Crossrail
platforms are in green, running left to right. Just above them,
in pinky-yellow, are the Metropolitan and Circle line tunnels.
Do you have those, Mr Weiss?
(Mr Weiss) I do.
684. We have in red, running top to bottom on
the right-hand side, the Central line tunnel platforms. If we
can all walk through together in order to explain how this works,
if we take the central point on one of the Crossrail platforms,
if a person wants to leave—I will call it the Liverpool
Street Station but that, of course, incorporates both the Moorgate
and the Liverpool Street end—if they want to leave at the
Liverpool Street end, the eastern end, they walk along the platform
to the central passage, they then go up the escalators, they then
walk along another passage which goes underneath the Circle and
Met Lines, they go up another set of escalators, they then walk
along another passage, and come into what we have learnt to call
Point M in ticket hall B.
(Mr Weiss) I am with you.
685. They then go through ticket hall B and
they then have a choice as to whether they go left through the
gateline of ticket hall B and up into the main station concourse,
and then from the main station concourse out to the street by
one of the three or four street entrances at Liverpool Street
Station.
(Mr Weiss) Yes.
686. I said they had a choice. The alternative
is when they come up from the Crossrail passage they can turn
right and go into ticket hall A, which is quite difficult to see
on this complicated drawing. One can just see on the south side,
the bottom side, of the yellow for the Circle line. Now, going
back to the midpoint of the Crossrail platform, if you would,
I want to do a similar exercise for leaving via the Moorgate exit.
The person walks along the platform to the west, goes into the
central passage, up the escalators, one long flight of escalators
up into the ticket hall, then through the gateline, which is just
to the left. It is quite difficult to see on the computer and
I apologise for that. Then round the corner and up what looks
like a ski ramp but is actually a set of escalators up to the
street.
(Mr Weiss) Yes.
687. Just one point, because I do not think
it was very clear from your evidence-in-chief; it is a brand new
ticket hall at Moorgate. Is it not?
(Mr Weiss) It is.
688. What that shows—I will put the figures
to you and we have sent them to you already—is that walk
from the centre of the Crossrail platform to street at Moorgate
is a great deal more direct than the walk to the street at Liverpool
Street.
(Mr Weiss) That is notable.
689. The difference in time, taking an average
walk time, is three-and-a-half minutes from centre of platform
to street at Moorgate and five-and-a-half minutes from centre
of platform to street at Liverpool Street.
(Mr Weiss) I will not contest that.
690. Ms Lieven: We sent you those figures
some months ago. Can I just interject here in the cross-examination,
I was going to go through the mobility impaired routes at this
stage, but perhaps as Mr Binley is not here today, and he has
shown a particular interest in this, we might save that for another
occasion.
691. Sir Peter Soulsby: I am sure that
might be helpful. Would you mind, very briefly, just pointing
to us where the lifts are?
692. Ms Lieven: Can I have them flashed
up quickly?[9]
We have got two axonometrics because it was so difficult to show
it on these big ones. If we can have the Liverpool Street end,
we have shown the MIP access in the little orange dots. So what
you do is come off the end of the platform on the cross-passage,
there is then a lift going up there to parallel with the Circle
line. The Committee may remember from the site visit we saw where
that is going to have a passage along the Circle line and then
there is another lift there up into the arcade ticket hall. To
do the same exercise at the Moorgate end, again, it is the red
dots.[10]
You come out of the end of the platforms underneath the Northern
line (the black is the Northern line there) go up in a lift to
the ticket hall, then go round and through the gateline (because,
of course, you have to go through the gateline) and then there
is another lift up to the street.
693. Sir Peter Soulsby: That is very
clear, thank you.
694. Mrs James: It is not just Mr Binley
who is very interested in this. What no one seems to be telling
us is how much additional walking, or travel, is included. So
the distance would be very helpful from the disabled point of
view and time point of view.
695. Ms Lieven: Can I have a note drawn
up on that?
696. Sir Peter Soulsby: I think it would
be very helpful to have the times that you referred to a little
earlier on, about the journey on to the street and the distances
along the platform, the distances on the surface between the new
Moorgate and the Liverpool Street and, again, the walking times
estimated between those two. It would be helpful to have that.
697. Ms Lieven: We will do that.
698. Mr Laurence: It would also help,
if the Promoters know the answer, to indicate what difference
our option one, the one that Mr Chapman proposes, of direct access
to the corner of Blomfield Street and Eldon Street, that I described
to you, would make to the walking time.
699. Sir Peter Soulsby: I am sure it
would be very helpful to have that as well and to be able to compare
the difference in walking times, both below the ground and above
the ground.
9 Crossrail Ref: P2, Liverpool Street Station, 30
Axonometric View-Liverpool Street Ticket Hall (LONDLB-2604-023). Back
10
Crossrail Ref: P2, Liverpool Street Station, 30 Axonometric View-Moorgate
Ticket Hall (LONDLB-2604-024). Back
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