Kings Cross or St Pancras? Eurostar started already?

What's going on with the work at Kings Cross for the H&C, Met & Circle
lines? Is there anyone overseeing the work as it progresses?

Apart from the slow gates that ensure nice long queues in the rush
hours (sorry Paul C, but they are not up to the task, at least at the
moment), it seems that both sets of stairs are now marked 'way out'
from the platform. As you might imagine, when a train arrives in the
peak periods on either platform - the stairs become a battle ground.

Think of the old stairs, when there were signs/indicators to show which
section you could use (two down, one up and swapped). Sure some people
ignored it, but imagine having NO such guidance! Carnage.

And it seems that if you're going towards Farringdon then the wording
on the walls will tell passengers you are at Kings Cross, only. The
signs also have Eurostar on them!! Are they ahead of schedule for
opening this?

On the other side, going towards Euston Square, it's St Pancras, only.
Yes, the Underground logos are the wall (with Kings Cross St Pancras
marked) but is there any reason for having only half the name on each
platform? My guess is that they're slightly different sizes and half
the signs didn't arrive/were damaged or whatever, but why not wait
until everything can be done at once?

One more question; will there be any form of ventilation when the
station is renovated? At the moment there are some rooms/offices
inbetween the two sets of stairs with air conditioning units that blast
out huge amounts of hot air. In effect, the platforms have their own
fan heaters in operation. You can feel the heat the minute you get to
the bottom of the stairs and on to the platform.

Apart from that, everything is just fine! When the signs upstairs start
showing arrival/departure times for the lines, I'll be particularly
happy. When you walk down at 0830 to see 'delayed' or 15 minutes
showing, it's a right PITA to walk back up and out to get a bus. I also
think that it's going to look very nice when finished, even if the
platforms will actually have less space on them than they did before.

Jonathan

jonmorris wrote:
> Apart from the slow gates that ensure nice long queues in the rush
> hours (sorry Paul C, but they are not up to the task, at least at the
> moment), it seems that both sets of stairs are now marked 'way out'
> from the platform. As you might imagine, when a train arrives in the
> peak periods on either platform - the stairs become a battle ground.
I would imagine that the situation will improve a bit once the
'paid-area' link between the sub-surface and deep-level lines opens
later this year.
> And it seems that if you're going towards Farringdon then the wording
> on the walls will tell passengers you are at Kings Cross, only.
> On the other side, going towards Euston Square, it's St Pancras, only.
> Yes, the Underground logos are the wall (with Kings Cross St Pancras
> marked) but is there any reason for having only half the name on each
> platform?
Beats me. I wonder if anyone else had noticed that.

By the way, you might like to know that because of the fit-out works
going on in what will be called St Pancras Thameslink, Midland Road will
remain shut until March 2007, and even then it will open only to limited
pedestrian and vehicular traffic until the arrival of Eurostar.

John Rowland wrote:
> Have you tried telling the staff at the station?

No. Who should I ask? Gate staff? Anyone at the ticket office? The
announcer on the platform? A PCSO standing outside?

Seriously, I doubt I'd get much response (I did notice today that some
Eurostar logos are covered up, so maybe they ran out of labels and
couldn't use paper/tape for the rest). To be honest, I'm never hanging
around at the station (partly because it's so hot) which is why I
commented on here as there are some very knowledgeable people, like
Paul C, who will hopefully explain.

> > The signs also have Eurostar on them!! Are they ahead of schedule for
> > opening this?
> No.

I wasn't serious. Even though I often see some big changes every Monday
morning, the CTRL doesn't look very finished yet. :)

Jonathan

Sky Rider wrote:
> I would imagine that the situation will improve a bit once the
> 'paid-area' link between the sub-surface and deep-level lines opens
> later this year.

Is there an exact date available for that?