Select Committee on Crossrail Bill Minutes of Evidence


Examination of Witnesses (Questions 820 - 839)

  820. Mr Laurence: Sir, the old-fashioned method was to have the witness with their back to the advocates and, quite frankly, with amplification and as long as you do not mind our occasionally saying we did not follow, it might be better if Mr Weiss sat here with his back to me.

  821. Sir Peter Soulsby: Can we spend two minutes now enabling Mr Weiss to turn to face us.

(After a short pause)

  822. Ms Lieven: Can I just say for the moment that is fine and of course I will proceed in this way, but perhaps we could all work towards a better long-term solution because trying to question let alone cross-question somebody only seeing the back of their heads is difficult. Perhaps if we could move back at some stage to having the note takers over there.

  823. Sir Peter Soulsby: We will make do for this morning and see if we can have some informal discussions over lunch.

  824. Ms Lieven: Mr Weiss, let us not get into an argy-bargy about how much you do or do not know about Pedroutes. The fact is you have seen the earlier pedroute modelling plans I assume?
  (Mr Weiss) Yes, and these are based of course on Crossrail figures where we have an issue that perhaps they are significantly under-estimating for the number that would be coming through here plus the 35% on that route.

  825. To the degree that the Committee wants to know about individual blocks and gates and so on, we can ask Steer, Davies & Glebe about that. Can I just ask one broad question. Looking at O20 which is the Crossrail base plus 35%, applying Mr Rees' test, can we agree that this shows a station which is capable of operating?
  (Mr Weiss) A station capable of operating—I could not disagree with that.

  826. Could I then show you—and I do not think any of us have seen this before—the pedroute plan for Victoria. I think Victoria is a station that you are familiar with, Mr Weiss?
  (Mr Weiss) I am indeed.

  827. And it is a station that most Londoners know has extreme congestion problems at the moment; yes?
  (Mr Weiss) Correct.

  828. I think it is top of LUL's congestion relief list. Can I apologise in that we have literally got this this morning and one of the team has scribbled on the lines to try and orientate us. Can we call it document 86.[22] The Victoria line is running top to bottom, do you see that?

  (Mr Weiss) Yes, I do.

  829. The District and Circle line is running left to right.
  (Mr Weiss) Yes.

  830. And the main Victoria line ticket hall is the big splodge towards the bottom.
  (Mr Weiss) Yes.

  831. Sorry, that is not a very technical way of describing it! My recollection of Victoria is that the Network Rail concourse is off the bottom of the page!
  (Mr Weiss) If you say so.

  832. During the evidence-in-chief you gave a few days ago about being stopped at the entrances and the shutters coming down and the klaxon goes off, that is right at the bottom of the page.
  (Mr Weiss) I see where you are coming from, this yellow as against blue or green.

  833. Sir Peter Soulsby: It is somewhat difficult for members of the Committee. Could you take us through the colour scheme for this.

  834. Ms Lieven: It is not coming out very well.

  835. Sir Peter Soulsby: A lot of it is coming out as dark, is the best I can describe it.

  836. Ms Lieven: Can I put myself in the Committee's hands on this. We do have copies but not enough copies for everyone. Of course we can undertake to do so over lunch.

  837. Sir Peter Soulsby: I think what you are trying to do here is provide us with come broad comparison and context for what we were talking about earlier on. I think you can probably do that if you just tell us what the colours are and we will get to the impression that I am sure you are trying to give.

  838. Ms Lieven: If we go to the middle of the Victoria line ticket hall concourse, Mr Weiss—and perhaps Mr Bennett can put his pointer on it—we see a dark patch that is dark purple and that is the highest level of congestion. To the right, so I am not misleading anyone, there is a route down which is an alternative route to the street and that is blue, that is completely uncongested. Mr Bennett, thank you very much. Then the passage through between the Victoria line and the District line, which is a very notable passage at Victoria, is yellow and the two central blocks are blue and green.
  (Mr Weiss) I see that.

  839. Then if we go down the escalators to the Victoria line on the right—Mr Bennett there, that is it—those are yellow, and at the bottom of those escalators there is a combination of purple and yellow.
  (Mr Weiss) Yes, I am with you.


22   Committee Ref: A11, Victoria Line 2001Demand (0845-0900) Pedroute (SCN-20060124-002). Back


 
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