Covent Garden tube station
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Covent Garden is a London Underground station in Covent Garden. It is on the Piccadilly Line between Leicester Square and Holborn. It is in Travelcard Zone 1.
Covent Garden station is one of the few stations in Central London for which platform access is only by lift or stairs. On Saturday afternoons, when the surrounding shopping areas are particularly busy, so many people visit the station that it is "exit only" to prevent dangerous overcrowding on the platforms. It is reportedly the busiest station on the network at which access to the platforms is primarily by lift.
Covent Garden is only 260 metres (290 yards) from Leicester Square station, the shortest distance between two adjacent stations on the Underground network. The distance is so minimal that it takes longer to travel from the platforms of one station to the platforms of the other by train, than to walk between the stations.
The station is unusual in being tiled in a light colour pattern, as it has always been, making its passageways appear light, airy, and welcoming.
Transport for London have committed themselves to easing the congestion at the station, which may involve the creation of a new exit further north along Long Acre (i.e. away from Covent Garden Piazza and nearer the eclectic shopping district which surrounds Neal's Yard), and the provision of escalator access.
The station areas, especially the platforms, are said to be haunted by the ghost of an actor, who used to visit the bakery which stood in the station's place before it was built.