I thought the long-term plan was to put new platforms in beside platform 7/11, where the ex-taxi rank is now.
CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Infrastructure
Edinburgh Waverley Station: Car and taxi ban comes into force
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Posted 7 years ago #
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I thought the long-term plan was to put new platforms in beside platform 7/11, where the ex-taxi rank is now.
I believe so. Someone should send Miles Briggs a copy of the plans to get him properly briefed.
Posted 7 years ago # -
"how do you prevent it getting back to a free-for-all where one side of the station is an endless conveyor belt of arriving, queuing and departing taxis?"
How about a passenger conveyor belt (travelator). Would it work on the slope of the ramps?
Or maybe a 'Santa Train'.
Posted 7 years ago # -
I would have a problem with the return of traffic - now that there's the escalator onto P11 the old zebra crossing is a main pedestrian route through the station and returning motor traffic to it would create unacceptable conflict for all, able-bodied or not.
What if they turned the delivery turning circle into a taxi drop-off area (and moved the bike lane onto the other side, terminating at the bottom of the ramp)?
Posted 7 years ago # -
I thought the long-term plan was to put new platforms in beside platform 7/11, where the ex-taxi rank is now.
Not even long term - the work should start this year I think. Planning permission is done, see 15/05174/PA and 15/05062/LBC
Posted 7 years ago # -
They'd better hurry up if they want the taxi rank back as it's not long before it'll become platforms!
Posted 7 years ago # -
So if I'm getting this straight, the elderly & disabled can somehow make their way along a platform that's up to 500m long, but somehow they can't make it up two lifts at the end of that?
Or, is it simply that the proponents wish for themselves a taxi rank at station level, and they are just playing the "what about the disabled card"?
Posted 7 years ago # -
From the article I think the idea is to put the taxi pick up area in the turning circle of the north ramp. (New platforms intended for South ramp) Would the cycle access remain?
Posted 7 years ago # -
The current taxi rank situation on Market St is crap. You exit the station onto the back of it. The 'front' is defined only by a temporary road sign on a concrete based pole, which is now relocated again due to the bridge works.
There is plenty of room for a proper one finishing outside the Fruitmarket gallery if we correctly prioritised that street space to taxis and not parking.
Ever since it was built I've always used the quiet step and traffic free drop off area on Calton Rd, with waiting shelter, which one is able to book at taxi or minicab to. I would suggest these vulnerable users do the same, and press the provided call point button if they require assistance moving through the station.
Posted 7 years ago # -
Calton Road has the disadvantage of being about as far away from most places you're likely to want to be in Waverley as it's possible to be while also being next to Waverley. Even getting to Platform 1, which it's immediately adjacent to, involves 3 lifts and about 200m of travel.
Posted 7 years ago # -
Navigation around Waverley is difficult to say the least. Even the platform numbering is weird.
Posted 7 years ago # -
Even the platform numbering is weird.
Clockwise from Platform 1. That's all there is to it.
Numbers 5 and 6 are missing, those are the ones being built on the old taxi rank.
Posted 7 years ago # -
Even the platform numbering is weird
No, just look at it as a clockface with 20 hours, and some number missing around 4 oclock. The Waverly Spteps are the top of the clock.
Edit, dam beaten to it.
Posted 7 years ago # -
5 & 6 do "exist" but they're used as sidings for (amongst other things) the sleeper locomotives & sometimes coaching stock. The new platforms will be an extension of them.
Posted 7 years ago # -
Ah yes, do they currently have numbers?
Posted 7 years ago # -
No. The current signalling would never allow a passenger train however short, as there's only 1 signal for both sidings and handpoints to select between them
Posted 7 years ago # -
"but they're used as sidings for (amongst other things) the sleeper locomotives"
"
A spokesman for EWS confirmed that it was one of its locomotives that was involved and that it had been on hire to ScotRail.
"
http://www.scotsman.com/news/runaway-train-careers-three-miles-through-the-city-1-856111
Posted 7 years ago # -
All very well to say, "It's circular, that's all there is to it." Anyone unfamiliar with the station would not know that. It isn't at all intuitive, and I'm happy to stick with wierd. Direction signs are also a bit rubbish.
Posted 7 years ago # -
Ms Davies said “The cycling lobby successfully got Waverley to agree to them being able to cycle down into the station.”
So, the EEN have managed to find a Tory who is literally blind. Well, perhaps not totally blind but visually impaired: after all she's managed to notice bikes being ridden down the north ramp, and has opinions about the suitability of the Calton Road pickup point in the dark...
Trust a Tory MSP to champion the the interests of motor vehicles by using the disabled (and elderly) card.
Posted 7 years ago # -
New taxi rank confirmed for Edinburgh Waverley
A new taxi rank making use of land in New Street car park has been confirmed for Edinburgh Waverley.
The announcement comes in advance of the next phase of station improvement work due to begin in 2017.
The new rank, which is expected to be completed in autumn 2017, will offer customers a sheltered location within the station footprint where they can wait for a taxi. Taxis will access the rank via New Street car park and join a queueing system located near the station’s Market Street entrance.
The new rank will be accessible from the Market Street entrance by staircase or by lift. It will not impact on the operation of the car park.
Posted 7 years ago # -
Those stairs/lift are there already so not sure what will take the time, maybe the car hire firm have paid up until then.
At the very bottom of new street at the junction with Carlton road there is a walled up platform/ lower level train track. The modern line is a bridge over Carlton road.
Posted 7 years ago # -
Maybe this means NR have finally been able to secure a purchase of the old Scotsman/Fruitmarket loading area at the bottom of the car park steps. It has remained privately owned. Lots of space for a taxi rank with it under their control.
Latest I've heard is platforms 5 & 6 ('the old taxi rank') will open to the public in late 2018
Posted 7 years ago # -
@klaxon that makes sense. There is an overhang at the lift, which I think is the road. Never gone behind the steps to underneath the fruit market. There is also a temporary looking ramp up to east market street.
Posted 7 years ago # -
"
But campaigners insisted the “pick-up only” rank was not good enough, and would do nothing to help disabled passengers.
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Posted 7 years ago # -
"Campaigners" = Lothian Conservative MSP Miles Briggs.
'Nuff said...
Posted 7 years ago # -
Cab boss says that people won't use badly designed, inconvenient and indirect infrastructure. Think he'll make the connection?
Posted 7 years ago # -
"
When they banned taxis from the station it was supposed to be on security grounds,” he said. “But although the entrance to the new rank is from New Street, it will only be a few yards from where the rank used to be – just the other side of a railway line. What happened to the bomb risk?”
"
Posted 7 years ago #
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