Indeed Mehmood,

As a frequent user of the station, as well as a specialist in my field, I agreed wholeheartedly, and I am aware and have suffered from every single one of the issues you've outlined, and every one of them has gone into the requirements for the work I'm doing. It's why i describe it as the worst terminal station in the country.


I've led option development and selection for the forthcoming changes, and providing the bean counters (in particular HS2 limited and the DfT, who are the reason I'm looking at this in the first place) agree to fund it, all of those issues will be addressed over time. In fact I'm feeling really quite pleased with the options we are pushing for implementation. Bear in mind that this really is a particularly specialist area for me,, having presented at British and International conferences on the topic of how we can/should use technology to better address pedestrian flow, human factors, safety and customer experience. The biggest reason they could refuse funding is that they're not all (if any) issues caused by the HS2 changes, but issues that have historically existed for some time (50 years plus!)


However, the reasoned argument is that these problems are already bad enough, and the changes for HS2 can only make them worse.  At present, I'm getting warm noises that suggest we will get the funding, and all of the train operators love what we are proposing, but I await confirmation with bated breath. 


It won't all happen at once - the first stage is handling changes to platform use in May 2019 due to the closure of two platforms for HS2. So initially, you may see minimal differences that use existing devices/technology to deal with those changes as best we can, but real, noticeable changes that start to address the issues you highlight should follow progressively, including some trial changes to test concepts over the following two years. These will be accompanied by significant changes to the concourse layout. 


If we gain the anticipated support, I'm quite excited by it as the station is my pet hate for everything that's wrong in how to plan and operate a station, and the conveyance of information to users is a major component of why that's so. I love to feel that my work makes a positive contribution to improving people's lives! Also, although my specific responsibility is for information handling/technology, as one of the engineering team, I get to feed my input to the interdisciplinary review of proposals for overall architectural and layout measures, and it's very rewarding that I am listened to. 


I also have one other "specialist" input. As I'm registered disabled, they look to me to provide input on what works best for people with disabilities!

Indeed Mehmood,

As a frequent user of the station, as well as a specialist in my field, I agreed wholeheartedly, and I am aware and have suffered from every single one of the issues you've outlined, and every one of them has gone into the requirements for the work I'm doing. It's why i describe it as the worst terminal station in the country.


I've led option development and selection for the forthcoming changes, and providing the bean counters (in particular HS2 limited and the DfT, who are the reason I'm looking at this in the first place) agree to fund it, all of those issues will be addressed over time. In fact I'm feeling really quite pleased with the options we are pushing for implementation. Bear in mind that this really is a particularly specialist area for me,, having presented at British and International conferences on the topic of how we can/should use technology to better address pedestrian flow, human factors, safety and customer experience. The biggest reason they could refuse funding is that they're not all (if any) issues caused by the HS2 changes, but issues that have historically existed for some time (50 years plus!)


However, the reasoned argument is that these problems are already bad enough, and the changes for HS2 can only make them worse.  At present, I'm getting warm noises that suggest we will get the funding, and all of the train operators love what we are proposing, but I await confirmation with bated breath. 


It won't all happen at once - the first stage is handling changes to platform use in May 2019 due to the closure of two platforms for HS2. So initially, you may see minimal differences that use existing devices/technology to deal with those changes as best we can, but real, noticeable changes that start to address the issues you highlight should follow progressively, including some trial changes to test concepts over the following two years. These will be accompanied by significant changes to the concourse layout. 


If we gain the anticipated support, I'm quite excited by it as the station is my pet hate for everything that's wrong in how to plan and operate a station, and the conveyance of information to users is a major component of why that's so. I love to feel that my work makes a positive contribution to improving people's lives! Also, although my specific responsibility is for information handling/technology, as one of the engineering team, I get to feed my input to the interdisciplinary review of proposals for overall architectural and layout measures, and it's very rewarding that I am listened to. 


I also have one other "specialist" input. As I'm registered disabled, they look to me to provide input on what works best for people with disabilities!