Woolwich Elizabeth Line station 'chaotic' at rush hour

Woolwich Elizabeth line station opened in May 2022 and has become consistently more popular ever since, with a regular 35,000 entries and exits to the station on weekdays reported by Transport for London (TfL) only a year after it opened.

Data from TfL stated that the Elizabeth line regularly has one of the highest customer satisfaction scores of all modes of transport across its network.

The transport authority added that the busiest ever day of the service saw 770,000 journeys taking place on December 14 last year.

TfL began a trial for a new queuing system at the Elizabeth line station in Woolwich on January 15. The trial involved adding barriers to divide the entrances and exits of the three escalators in the station to maintain safety during rush hour.

Ravi Samani, 38, said half of the journeys he took on the Elizabeth line this week were affected by either signal failures or faulty trains.

He said he worried that adding extra queuing measures to the South East London station would not ‘go down very well’ among commuters.

Mr Samani told Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS): “Out of four times I’ve used it, on two separate occasions there’s been either delays, or there has been some kind of malfunction on the track or the train.

"You’re always late or the service levels of the tracks are not great. On top of that, if you have to add a queue to the escalator, it’s not great when everyone is always late for everything anyway.”

Simon Scott, 39, has lived in a flat next door to the station for two years and uses the service nearly daily.

Simon Scott

He said residents had previously raised concerns about there only being one entrance and exit for the busy station, and was worried about how more people moving into the area would affect the line.

Mr Scott told the LDRS: “It’s gotten busier because occasionally, with the first train in the morning I get it, you actually might not get a seat with people coming from Abbey Wood, which was never an issue when it first opened.”

Rachel Francis, 47, said she uses the Elizabeth line three days a week during rush hour from the Woolwich station.

She added that using the service has become less pleasant over time as more people have found out about the station.

Ms Francis told the LDRS: “It’s very, very busy. You’re in a sea of bodies and it’s not very pleasant… For me, it is worse in the evening. It can be quite chaotic and dangerous. If people are in a bad mood, I guess they could get quite aggressive about it.”

A TfL spokesperson told the LDRS that safety was the transport authority’s number one priority.

They said crowd management measures are sometimes employed on the Elizabeth line such as one-way systems, barriers or encouraging customers with luggage to use lifts.

They added: “The Elizabeth line has been extremely popular since opening in 2022, with around 4.5 million journeys now taking place each week.

"We are constantly looking to improve the customer experience and make journeys more comfortable, so we are trialling better separation of customers entering and exiting Woolwich at busy times.”

Ms Francis said she is within walking distance of the station and often uses it to get to work. However, she expressed concerns on the vast number of people crossing Victory Parade to get to the station and felt it was potentially dangerous.

She said: “What I can see is people coming off the buses or coming off the DLR and a big mass of people coming into the station. It hasn’t got in my way or anything. But there is a stream of people coming in.“

She added: “I think just the sheer volume of numbers means that the traffic and the buses stop just because there’s 400 people.

"That’s it really, I don’t want to queue any more than I already do, but if it makes it safer, because obviously it is a safety aspect isn’t it?”

Greenwich Council was previously asked by a resident to improve the pedestrian crossing outside the station to stop people crossing the road at other points.

Labour Councillor Averil Lekau, cabinet member for climate change, environment and transport, said at a council meeting last October that the authority was in talks with TfL about the issue, but feared a solution could take a ‘couple of years’.

TfL announced a series of planned changes to its bus and cycling network in Woolwich town centre on January 15.

This included adding a pedestrian crossing outside the Elizabeth line station on Victory Parade at its junction with Woolwich New Road.

The plans would also see the western section of the current crossing on Victory Parade being moved east, which the transport authority stated would improve efficiency and reduce the network impact of the new crossing.

 The consultation on the proposal is open until February 25.