Heavy handed staff presence at Clapham Junction?

[sheff1]

Yes but the problem there is people congregating near the escalators and lifts blocking the whole width of the platform (which to be honest is not very wide) so it's often the case that the only way to get to the less crowded parts of the platform is to cross the yellow line. Sometimes too if trains are dividing as south bound Southern services often do you need to get one end of the platform to be in the right section of the train. I wish the staff would focus on getting passengers to spread out along the platform than getting the megaphones out to berate someone for briefly crossing the yellow line when no trains are coming in order to be able to pass along the platform.

Indeed.

Exactly the same at Manchester Piccadilly through platforms. Instead of getting pasengers they have herded behind the red line to move down the platform the staff shout at anyone crossing the red line which is the only way to get past the crowd near the entrance to reach the emptier part of the platform.

Similiar behaviour at both Falmer & The Hawthorns when I have been to Brighton & West Brom football matches. At the latter the other week I boarded the last carriage of the train after crossing the line to skirt the crowds near the entrance (perfectly safely, well before the train was arriving) and there were still vacant seats on departure whilst presumably the centre carriages would have been rammed. The unnecessary presence of large numbers near the platform entrance must increase the risk of someone being pushed towards the tracks by later arrivals.

 

[modernrail]

Yes but the problem there is people congregating near the escalators and lifts blocking the whole width of the platform (which to be honest is not very wide) so it's often the case that the only way to get to the less crowded parts of the platform is to cross the yellow line. Sometimes too if trains are dividing as south bound Southern services often do you need to get one end of the platform to be in the right section of the train. I wish the staff would focus on getting passengers to spread out along the platform than getting the megaphones out to berate someone for briefly crossing the yellow line when no trains are coming in order to be able to pass along the platform.

Exactly. The platform is badly designed and what is required is generally to encourage people down the platform not scream at them for doing so.

It’s a real shame they have not managed to acknowledge with the rebuild that the London bound platform is obviously the most heavily used and so crowded and so could really have done with being made to be deeper. Without that improvement you have to breach the yellow line to find any space to stand. The alternative is to crowd at the bottom of the escalator and see how that ends.

I know to go around the back of the escalators but it’s an airport station - most won’t naturally do that.

 

[Moderating team]

Sorry but there are far too many unsubstantiated claims about both staff and customer behaviour here.