"Barry Salter" wrote in message
...
On 15 Feb 2005 01:57:58 -0800, wrote:


Who exactly keeps an eye on how much of our public money is squandered
by the railways, assuming that this isn't going to be private money.
I am used to hearing about stonking amounts of money spent on railway
projects but now we have the £400m ticket hall.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/4266559.stm

"One of London's mainline train stations is to be given a £400m
revamp.
The Department of Transport is providing the funding for a new ticket
hall at King's Cross Station"

Somebody please tell me that this isn't true. The whole bloody dome
only cost £700m, Wembley Stadium is about £400m.

In the BBC's usual "accurate" reporting, they've got the whole thing
arse upwards. The Northern ticket hall is actually for Kings Cross St
Pancras UNDERGROUND station, NOT the mainline one.

The subway under Pancras Road which will eventually form part of the
access to the new Ticket Hall is now open (at last), though I'm not
entirely sure why given all it really does is duplicate the nearby
pelican crossing, and it's accessed by stairs on the Kings Cross side,
which makes it unsuitable for the less mobile.

Having said that, the whole concourse at Kings Cross mainline IS due to
be demolished and replaced with a new one as part of the "Kings Cross
Central" redevelopment.

HTH,

Barry

That subway has been open/closed for the last 3 months. I think its only
open on sunny days, it is closed when its raining so as not to provide any
protection at all.
And the idea is not to have any escalators going down into it so only able
bodied people can clamber up the stairs at the other end. Its still quicker
to use going INTO the station than fight the cars/people/wanderers at the
crossing and station entrance.
As a general question...whos idea was it to make the station so far
from....well....anywhere really?