Stratford Station - Gibbons Road/Carpenters Estate entrance and exit

The new entrance/exit at Stratford station to Gibbons Road and the Carpenters estate has recently opened. WHUST have been following the development of the new Gibbons Road/Carpenters Estate entrance since our meeting with Newham SAG members in 2020. 

Unfortunately, on event days (including when West Ham United are playing at home) the exit is closed. This is partly due to Newham Council and local police being unwilling to fund the extra staffing needed outside the station. 

The new entrance was never designed to be used for events. There are 4 ticket barriers at this gate line at the entrance – 2 for entry and 2 for exit. They simply could not cope with the volumes of people on an event day. The pinch points in Stratford station are not the gate lines – there is spare capacity at the other entrances. It is not just TfL staff having to man the barriers but all the additional LS185 staff that would be needed to manage all the extra stop/go holding points through Carpenters Estate.  This would also mean closing roads on the Estate. 

Many people already use the Carpenters Estate to avoid the stop/go boards – to then go over the really old footbridge there to the Great Eastern Road entrance.  Having this entrance operational would cause an increase which would simply be unmanageable.

The justification for funding the entrance was for the redevelopment of Carpenters Estate which will see an additional 1,300 homes in the next 5+ years.

We think that we would be raising considerable safety concerns at the first sign of overcrowding in the narrow confines that act like a funnel on the pathway leading up to the entrance, especially for infirm and disabled passengers.