How Bank-Monument works
Since I made my maps of Green Park and King's Cross St. Pancras I knew it was only a matter of time before I had a crack at Bank-Monument. And here's what I've come up with:
[ Update: Diagram of the current closures ]
There are several other maps available, but I wanted to do something a bit more detailed and geographically accurate that could be reconciled with the actual experience of traipsing through the tunnels.
Notes, disclaimers and things learnt during this exercise:
- This was made entirely by visual observation on a handful of short visits, with no accurate charts used save an aerial photo to get the general shape right. It's entirely possible it's hilariously wrong.
- The DLR really is slightly offset from the Northern Line and not quite parallel to it as shown. It's not me making my drawing easier.
- From shallowest to deepest the levels are: Ticket halls, District/Circle Line, Waterloo & City Line, upper interchange level, Central Line, lower interchange level, Northern Line and DLR.
- The route from end to end via the DLR rather than the Northern Line isn't actually much longer, it just involves a stupidly high number of bends and transitions.
- The Waterloo & City Line platforms have a tiny newsagent hidden in a cross passage. Is it the only deep[-ish] level station so blessed?
- The complex is so vast it has a whole other tube station within its thrall (Cannon Street).
- The lift access from street to the DLR requires using three separate lifts, two of which are in the peak hours only ticket hall.
- I have no idea what shape the Bank ticket hall really is.
- For extra anorak points I've included the platform numbers and escalator numbers - I've heard the guy on the tannoy (it appears the same one works there 24/7) use the latter to refer to the escalators under repair.
14 comments:
There's also a lady that does the tannoy but I've not heard her recently. I remember she once had to call the BTP to the waterloo and city line platforms after the driver couldn't get the train's doors to close and it went out of service.
Some people (quite rightly) decided it was probably quicker to stay there and wait for everything to fix itself rather than try and get out with everyone else through a tiny number of ticket barriers onto even more crowded than usual trains. She didn't agree!
Good map by the way, I wanted to know what angle the W&C platforms are!
They're under Queen Victoria Street. At Waterloo, they're perpendicular to the mainline platforms and trains starting their journey by heading northwest.
Very good map! It will be very useful for me when I will start using Central-to-W&C interchange (daily :-( ) in April, thank you!
By the way, which software did you?
The new online tube is dated March but still shows the Bank-Monument interchange and the ELP. Odd that the paper version is slightly more up to date.
Alex: Inkscape, which is free.
gtc: That map is weird
I've noticed that they've been digging at the west end of the central line platforms, beyond the platform ends. I had thought they were just extending the platform a bit so that they could make it straighter, but not I've seen your diagram I can see that they might be trying to put some stairs in up to the w&c platforms.
Its a shame they whitewashed the tiles, they looked rather nice blue.
I wonder how close they came to the central line when they stopped digging the w&c - the greathead shield looks very close nearby. Any clue what happened to the overrun tunnel for the other w&c track (the P8 track)?
Can you do Euston next, including the bits that are now decomissioned?
The travelator tunnel corresponds to the platform 8 overrun tunnel, though I've no idea if that's how it was built.
The W&C predates the Central Line by a couple of years, and is nearer the surface.
So the platform 8 overrun tunnel was built on an upwards slope?
By "overrun tunnel" I meant a continuation of the line of the running tunnel, not as something to be used by trains (the buffer stops are within the station tunnel). But I've just found a photo I have of the W&C station model in Acton Museum Depot, and it says the travelator tunnel is newly built, so I'm inclined to think there wasn't a tunnel on this side of the station as built, just the passageway in the middle.
This diagram says the continuation of the platform 7 tunnel was originally built as a siding.
It looks from that diagram like its extremely assymetric - its not just the siding, but the gradients which are quite different between the two tunnels.
The DLR escalators actually come up by the westbound platform at Monument rather than the lower level where the Northern ones come up.
Now I see why the W&C line cannot be extended to the north/East. It cuts across the central line. Mm..., maybe if you had to extend it, go south? Best way.
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