The current stairway into and out of the station from the District Line can currently only cope with half this amount of passengers. Combined with the need to increase the train service to pretty much peak levels during the Games, it is clear we had to find a way to quickly and safely get passengers in and out of the station between train arrivals.
West Ham is a significant railway interchange in east London, but it still needs a lot of work to meet this demand. Despite recent improvements, such as the new ticket hall built to give access to the Jubilee Line, the station has not undergone a major rebuild.
And this is where the crunch lies – the old part of the station simply isn’t big enough to cope with the passengers who will need to use it during the Games.
The new wide walking routes between the Jubilee Line, DLR extension and ticket hall:
The old existing stairway will not cope with the expected District Line passengers:
After working with London Underground to find the best way to maximise passenger flow throughout the station, we have decided to build a new temporary access facility at the opposite end of the District Line platform to the exiting stairs. This temporary access will cope with Games-time demand and allow the station’s regular users to continue to use the station’s usual entrance and interchange.
Once passengers have left the platforms through the new temporary access, we need to get them from the station and on to the Greenway pedestrian route to the Park.
This is not as easy as it sounds given that the rail intersection lies between the station and the Olympic Park. As such, our current plans are to build a new bridge over Manor Road to get spectators safely from the station to the Greenway. This bridge could also leave an important legacy benefit by opening up access to the two development sites planned on either side of the station after the Games.
Construction on West Ham is due to start in 2009. We plan to have this gateway to the south of the Olympic Park enhanced and ready for spectators in time for the London 2012 test events.
