London's Trains Facing Overcrowding And Inoperability Due To Population Boom Needs A Solution

July 20. 2016

A recently released report indicates London's popular train system, known as the Tubes, faces inoperability in 15-years, due to the massive population boom the city and Britain as a whole has experienced due to being apart of the European Union. Immigration from Africa, the Middle East and a number of other nations also contributed to the population boom.

The transportation system in Britain is of a very high standard. It serves millions of people each day. All profits are placed back into the transportation system in an effort to improve service. The tube system is very extensive. It covers all corners. At times when there have been huge crowds seeking to access the trains, staff at the stations in question, such as the popular Oxford Street and Holburn, have asked patrons to wait a few minutes on the other side of the turnstile, before boarding. It is done in an effort to alleviate congestion. 

It would be helpful for additional stations to be built to prevent the scenario of inoperability. As the tubes are often underground, surfacing at different points at street level, construction work could take place fairly unobtrusively. Another solution is to build longer trains. It would impact travel time to some degree, but it would accommodate more passengers.

STORY SOURCE

Population rise to make tube 'inoperable' within 15 years

12 June 2016 at 1:10pm - London's soaring population could make the city underground tube network inoperable within 15 years, a senior tube manager has warned. In comments to engineering researchers at Imperial College London, reported by The Times (£), Miles Ashley, the Tube's programme director for construction said the growing numbers of people using the tube each year was an "incredibly serious problem". He said overcrowding is threatening to make the system "inoperable" within 15 years.

1.3 billion people used the tube in the past year, he said, compared to 800 million in 2002. Transport for London projections have found that by 2026, 30 stations across London would experience crowding greater than four people per square metre, by 2031, this would rise to 50 of the 62 stations in London. A square foot is the average size of a telephone box - so each passenger would feel as if they were squeezed into a telephone box with three and a half other people.

I don't know whether you have ever stood in a telephone box with 3 and a half or your friends...but ultimately that gives you an illustration of just how crowded parts of the these stations are going to be and the challenge that faces us. It renders it impossible.

http://www.itv.com

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