Over the next four years, London Bridge station will undergo the biggest overhaul yet of a national terminus. It already handles 54 million passengers a year -- a figure that is expected to rise 34 per cent by 2031 -- and will be redesigned to accommodate this growth. To ensure the station's human traffic will flow freely, London-based designer and human factors consultancy CCD Design and Ergonomics, whose expertise has contributed to the design and layout of the Large Hadron Collider control room and Heathrow's Terminal 5, has been bought in to inform its design and functionality.
The consultancy's London Bridge work was informed by a "pedestrian flow modeller", which highlights where crowding and bottlenecks occur the most. "London Bridge is the first UK station to use such a modeller before it was redesigned," says Adam Parkes, principal human factors consultant at CCD. Once the flows were modelled, CCD visualised the routes that people would likely take through the station and mapped them on to the plan.
One CCD insight is to move the station's departure boards. Some will be beyond the ticket barriers to encourage travellers to move through the station when a platform is announced. "We know that the main pinch point is the flow of people getting off trains and those looking to depart," says Parkes. "Wayfinding routes have been designed to guide passengers on to the concourse, where there is more space."
CCD is now looking at the High Speed 2 rail project, where its research is informing how to easily move high volumes of passengers on and off a high-frequency service. If only it could also improve the rail service.
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
