Kings Cross St Pancras - Terminal Wayfinding
Not a lot of people know that... Kings Cross St Pancras is the UK's busiest transport interchange with over 95 million passengers movements annually. With six tube lines, six (inter-)national rail zones, buses and taxis it is the hub of journeys stretching from Paris to Inverness. Transferring here should be world class experience.
To test the experience I took a ‘mystery-shopper’ journey from Cricklewood in Northwest London to Victoria Station via Kings Cross/ St Pancras (KX/SP). Before travelling I planned my journey using Transport for London’s Journey Planner. This tells me the journey takes 33 minute [see below] altogether with nine minute transfer at KX/SP. I’m not mobility impaired, nor carrying heavy luggage but it’s good to see pictograms telling me the transfer would mean one escalator up, three down and up a set of stairs. To help me navigate I printed the pedestrian route for the KX/SP transfer [see detail]
Transport for London; Journey Planner Information
Accessibility Information Detail- Transport for London, Journey Planner
Arriving into St Pancras on Thameslink Platform A, there’s a clear legible platform. Directional lighting and coherent signage guide me to the single platform exit. Two escalators up and a 60m walk get me to the barriers. I need the Underground’s Victoria Line but there are some confusing overhead direction signs at the gates so I follow the print-out 70m to the Pancras Road exit [see map below]. The map ignores the portal into the Underground’s Northern Ticket Hall and I walk a further 200m down Pancras Road.
Journey Planner Downloaded Map- As Used
After five pedestrian crossings and 125m the map gives up on me. There isn’t an Underground entrance here. I’m in Grays Inn Road and a bit lost. I saw an Underground entrance back along Euston Road and so cross Birkenhead and Crestfield streets to enter the Underground from the south. Two tunnels later (and 21 steps down) and I’m in the Underground’s Central Ticket Hall. Signs to the Victoria Line guide me past gates to the right (with their hostile no-entry signs). My route is confirmed by further signs taking me (in 170m) to the Northern Ticket Hall. From here via an escalator down I reach the Underground’s level -2 connecting corridor. After another 245m plus 20 steps down I finally reach the Victoria Line. Phew!
Hostile Signage in Central Ticket Hall- Victoria Line Diversion ton Northern Ticket Hall (top-left)
That's a whopping 1110m. Over a kilometer including three escalators, five pelican crossings, two uncontrolled road crossings, two sets of steps. As an able-bodied person (including waits at crossings and getting lost) this has taken nearly 15 minutes compared to the nine stated in Journey Planner. As the route takes me outside it could also have got me unnecessarily wet, cold and into the dark.
By binning the Journey Planner map, asking staff and making the right choices faced with unclear signage I could have halved the journey (520m). Even with four escalators and 20 steps, this route would have probably taken less than nine minutes (<1.0m/s) at a slow walk and I would have caught my train, but many travelers can’t walk 500 metres without a rest and I've only passed one bench. Lifts are available for both routes, unfortunately the single Victoria Line lift was not working during my journey. Accessibility options were narrowed to either descending 20 steps or backtracking in the Central Ticket Hall to use its escalator (see photo before).
Clearly Journey Planner mapping - with its focus on bus stops and roads- is unreliable for train/train interchange and needs replacing with a more adaptable, accessibility friendly approach which interfaces with National Rail and Tfl's station maps. Modification is also needed to correctly advise travellers on transfer distances, timings and accessibility facilities. Real-time lift and escalator usability should be as freely available as train-running information.
Despite direct access to the Victoria and Piccadilly Lines from the Underground’s Central Ticket Hall (CTH) current signage directs passengers to the Northern Ticket Hall. While this may be desirable to reduce CTH crowding there must be a recognition that this loop adds to passengers’ walking/wheeling distances, extends transfer times and adds to passenger anxiety and confusion. Kings Cross National Rail is currently undergoing significant rebuilding. This means regularly shifting pedestrian routes and the repetitive destruction of implicit wayfinding knowledge. Even regular travellers are disorientated. There is a pressing need for excellent waymarking in Kings Cross now and a realisation that wayfinding in the KX/SP complex needs to be planned and delivered holistically.
