The New Lift To The Northern Line At Moorgate Station
Look at this image, I’ve clipped from this large visualisation of the massive Liverpool Street-Moorgate Crossrail Station.
The image shows the Northern City Line coming into Moorgate station.
Note.
- The Northern City Line is shown in purple.
- The double escalator going down to between the two terminal platforms of the Northern City Line.
- The Northern Line is shown in black and the two platforms are underneath the Northern City Line.
- The Northern Line tunnels cross over the top of the Crossrail running tunnels.
- Note the other escalator going down to the left of the Northern City Line escalators, that is connected to the Northern Line by two passages and stairs.
- There are also two single escalators connecting the Northern Line to the Northern City Line above. I regularly use the up escalator, when I arrive in Moorgate station on the Northern Line, as it is quicker and there are no steps. I described this exit in Up From The Depths At Moorgate Station.
- There is also a new passage shown in the visualisation, which appears to link the main Crossrail station with the Northern Line platforms or the area underneath them.
Whilst going through the station today, I found this lift.
It appears to be squeezed in between the two escalators linking the Northern and Northern City Lines.
Note
- Does it serve the Northern City and Northern Lines and the passage to Crossrail?
- The sign says Moorgate. Does this mean that the lift goes to the surface? But it would come probably up to the surface in Boots. So I suspect it leads to the passage, which means you go to Moorgate that way.
- The lift looks finished.
- The lights are on.
It certainly looks Crossrail-ready.
If you look at the visualisation in detail by clicking on it, it looks like,there could be two new short escalators and a lift going down from the Northern Line platforms to the passage underneath.
It looks to me, that if you arrive in the passage underneath the Northern Line from the main Crossrail part of the station, that you can do one of the following.
- Take one escalator to the Northern Line.
- Take two escalators to the Northern and City Line.
- Take three escalators to the surface.
In addition you can do the following.
- If you’re on the Northern and City Line platforms, you can take two escalators down to take the passage to access Crossrail.
- If you’re on the Northern Line platforms, you can take pne escalator down to take the passage to access Crossrail.
- Use the lift to go up or down as required.
If I’m not right what is shown in green?
I can see this technique used to squeeze escalators and a lift between the platforms on some stations with less space than a 1960s Mini.
GSK To Manufacture 60m Doses Of Novavax Covid Vaccine In UK
The title of this post is the same as that as this article in the Financial Times.
As the Novavax Covid-19 vaccine is a two-dose vaccine, that is enough for thirty million people.
Wikipedia gives brief details of the the manufacturing of the vaccine for Canada and the UK in this section entitled Deployment.
On 2 February 2021, the Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced that Canada has signed a tentative agreement for Novavax to produce millions of doses of its COVID-19 vaccine in Montreal, Canada, once it is approved for use by Health Canada, making it the first COVID-19 vaccine to be produced domestically.
On 29th March 2021, the UK government announced an order for 60 million doses of the Novax vaccine, which will be manufactured in the UK. FUJIFILM Diosynth Biotechnologies and GlaxoSmithKline will manufacture and fill the orders respectively.
This Google Map shows Barnard Castle in relation to Teesside.
Note.
- The red arrow in the South-West corner of the map indicates the GSK factory at Barnard Castle.
- Teesside is the estuary at the Eastern edge of the map.
- FUJIFILM Diosynth Biotechnologies are located in Billingham, which is on the North bank of the Tees.
The two sites are under an hour apart.
This page on the UK Government web site gives details of the vaccines ordered.
- Adenovirus – Oxford/AstraZeneca – 100 million – Approved and in deployment
Adenovirus – Janssen – 30 million – Phase 3 trials
mRNA – Pfizer/BioNTech – 40 million – Approved and in deployment
mRNA – Moderna – 17 million – Approved
Protein Adjuvant – GlaxoSmithKline/Sanofi Pasteur – 60 million – Phase 1/2 trials
Protein Adjuvant – Novavax 60 million – Phase 3 trials
Inactivated whole virus – Valneva – 60 million – Phase 1/2 trials
Note.
- Type, manufacturer, number and status are shown for each vaccine.
- This is a total of 567 million doses.
It looks to me, that backing four different technologies and seven different partnerships or companies was a successful strategy, as if the Novavax vaccine get approval, as serious commentators like Fergus Walsh of the BBC, think it will, picking four winners in a seven horse race.
GlaxoSmithKline appear to be a big loser in that they backed the French Sanofi Pasteur vaccine, which is still in Phase 1/2 trials. Wikipedia has a section entitled Deployment.
In July 2020, the UK government signed up for 60 million doses of a COVID-19 vaccine developed by GSK and Sanofi. It uses a recombinant protein-based technology from Sanofi and GSK’s pandemic technology. The companies claimed to be able to produce one billion doses, subject to successful trials and regulatory approval, during the first half of 2021. The company also agreed to a $2.1 billion deal with the United States to produce 100 million doses of the vaccine.
Someone appears to have lost billions.
I wonder though, if GSK had developed a plan to fill and finish the sixty million doses for the UK.
So have the fixers in the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) matched FUJIFILM Diosynth Biotechnologies vaccine manufacturing to GSK’s fill and finish plan to give Novavax a 60 million dose capacity in the UK?
- Both vaccines are of the same type, so can one fill and finish line handle both?
- The Novavax vaccine was trialled in the UK.
- Supplying Europe from Teesside would not be difficult.
Wikipedia seems to indicate, that Novavax like to spread production around. Spain, India and Poland are mentioned.
Conclusion
Every one of sixty million jabs helps.
President Macron was unavailable for comment.
The Anonymous Widower 
