Even from elsewhere in central London I can see people being concerned about Tube delays.
There weren't as many trains or passengers, 630m in 1982 vs 1,753m in 2019.
I moved to London in 1989 and used to travel back to Manchester regularly for a few years - the Euston scrum was a well-established phenomenon even then (particularly for the first cheaper train at 19.00 on Friday!)
True, but platform occupation was less efficient at Euston in the past than today with multiple unit trains. Which basically roll in and with a turnaround should be ready to go straight out. With loco hauled stock the process took longer. Reducing platform utility. The Cobbler MK1 Stock would often be sitting waiting for a vacuum braked loco to haul it out to the backing out roads. Often trains would require a set to be tripped in from the Downside shed. Or waiting a locomotive to become available. The management of the train took longer, with guards having to collect consists, doing a brake tests. The physical window and seat labelling that had to be completed before the platform was opened to passengers. The manual loading and unloading of mail and parcels on virtually every interCity train prolonged the process of receiving and dispatching trains. And it was a regular to have a special to load on to a train. Joe Loss and his Orchestra - a few double bases take a bit of shifting. Motorbikes were a regular item to be loaded. I remember we even had the carriage of coffins in an additional full brake. That had to be loaded before the travelling public could be allowed on the platform. Euston was also a Motorail station. With daily loading and unloading of the cars, meaning vans arriving on the arrivals side had to be moved across the throat of the station to get to the unloading dock at 17. Then you had the management of Lorries and vans using platforms 1-3 to factor into your passenger train loading. Thankfully all the MagStar traffic by lorry used 16-18 to access the Parcels deck. 16-18 were not signalled for passenger services. I think that changed in 1988? if you had to use them for a passenger service there was no ramp from the concourse, you had to lead the passengers out of the station and down the road ramp, and someone had to talk the driver past the signal. By the 1980s Euston was pretty busy. On a Friday night you could have lines of people queuing to use the public telephones, blocking the access to 12-15 and 1-3 platforms. Weekday mornings you also had the crowd management of the underground passengers on the station concourse when LUL declared their station overcrowded. Holding all the people at the top of the escalators. Thankfully the underground entrance has now been Screened off from the national rail Concourse, and the piazza has taken on a bigger role as a circulating area.
