Blackfriars closure

Walter Briscoe wrote:

>>Blackfriars is the station closest to my old school (City of London) and
>>if
>>it had been closed when I went there I would have been almost permanently
>>late in the mornings and in the afternoons the combined effect of getting
>>to
>>the nearest station (Temple?) and the mainline timetable would have almost
>>doubled my journey home. Nice!

> The Journey Planner shows City of London [Boys] School is a 5 minute walk
> from Blankfriars and 7 from Mansion House but 15 from Temple.
> I fancy that the service withdrawal will not be an acceptable excuse.
> I take it you dropped geography, early in your school career. ;)

I only did it for half a year at CLS (and there's no need to add "[Boys]" to
the title, regardless of the existance of CLSG - it was always "CLS") but
most of the geography I remember from school was physical geography, geology
and human geography rather than distance and location.

And most people tend not to think in terms of doubling back when journey
planning, so someone coming from Victoria or Embankment would instinctively
look to Temple. In any case half the eight minute advantage is swallowed up
by the Temple to Mansion House journey time and my recollection is that
Temple less congested.

The afternoon problem would have been more substantial because of the way
the South West Trains timetable operated - most of the doubled journey would
come from having to wait ages at Waterloo for an all stoppng service if I'd
missed the semi-fast. Morningwise my main source of delays was actually
Connex (or whatever it was called then) trains delaying SWT ones who in turn
missed their Raynes Park clearing, but Blackfriars was close enough to
absorb this without me being late.

In message <UpSdnU6AY6-RmQbVnZ2dnUVZ8tPinZ2d@posted.plusnet>, at
15:17:42 on Thu, 7 Aug 2008, Mortimer <me@> remarked:
>> Er.. you've completely missed the point here - the news is about the long
>> term closure (two and a half years) of the LU platforms, not the
>> Thameslink ones.
>
>Interesting: I'd thought that it was the Thameslink platforms as well.
>
>What are they doing to the LU platforms and access that will take 2½ years?

Nothing that couldn't have been planned around at greater cost and
inconvenience to LUL. I expect they want to be able to go from the
current layout to the new one in one "big bang" rather than keep
fiddling around like they did at Kings Cross. And they are closing the
station "because they can".

>Obviously it's not track related if trains can still run through non-stop.

Although there might be some changes of levels, I think rebuilding
Westminster subsurface station involved that.
--
Roland Perry

Paul Scott wrote:

> cheers
>
> :-)

You're welcome.

In message <6g04eqFdluj2U1@mid.>, Garry Smith
<garry@caleyjag.> writes
>I'll wager that Blackfriars became busier last year when
>SPILL opened on the Thameslink route. I used to have a
>quick hop from KXTL onto the Victoria line, to travel down
>to Victoria. When SPILL opened, I was faced with the trek
>along the full length of St Pancras and then into the Underground,
>or changing at Blackfriars. A no-brainer really.

I'm sure you are right. I hardly ever used to use Blackfriars, but
recently have been using it on almost every visit to London, because the
interchange (although involving rather a lot of stairs up from the tube)
is still a whole lot faster than the awful trek the length of
St.Pancras.
If you are carrying luggage or even a heavy laptop computer, the shorter
connection becomes a lot more attractive.

I think it's really terrible that Blackfriars LU station is going to be
closed for so long, and just because of the elf-and-safety mafia, as far
as I can see. Still the M1 roadworks will be finished soon, so I guess
quite a few who have been taking the train from Thameslink stations will
start driving to London again.



--
Clive Page

In message <MMRXYuGFQynIJwbh@page.demo.co.uk>, at 18:23:17 on Sun, 10
Aug 2008, Clive Page <junk@main.machine> remarked:
>If you are carrying luggage or even a heavy laptop computer, the
>shorter connection becomes a lot more attractive.

The true road warrior takes the precaution of having a light laptop
computer :)
--
Roland Perry