On Thu, 5 Aug 2010 05:08:57 -0700 (PDT)
bob wrote:
Perhaps there could be a compromise type platform as used at St P. That
would allow double deck UIC shuttle trains in the centre section but also
allow UK gauge trains to use it too. After all, we're only talking a few
inches width required either side which is hardly going to create a huge =
gap
to step across.

What compromise platforms? St Pancras has UIC platforms on the
Eurostar platforms and UK platforms on the Kent, East Midlands and
Thameslink paltforms. HS1 was built as a UIC railway from the channel

I'm pretty sure the platforms at Paris and Lille are a lot lower than the
ones at St. P.

The Victorians chose to have platforms, while the European railways
(and those in most other parts of the world) chose not to have
platforms, and board the trains from the trackside, by way of carriage
mounted steps. Of course when the Victorians decided to have

Well they didn't have to carry on building them like that - new lines could
have been built to a much more generous loading gauge. They had the right
idea in india where the broad gauge lines have a huge loading gauge and
those were built in the 19th century by more or less the same people who
built the railways in britain.

B2003