[...] What you could
have there is a passage *below* the Thameslink platforms to the bottom
of the NTH escalators. It would be the same length as the passage from
those escalators to the Victoria Line.

OK. Hadn't thought of that before. I wonder if anything of the sort
was seriously considered. I imagine some such idea must have at least
come up in a brainstorming session at some point!

I agree that a direct passage from the Thameslink platforms to the tube
would be a great boon to lots of people including me, but I think the
factor that everyone is missing is that the new St.Pancras is not a
railway station but a shopping complex (with almost incidentally a few
railway stations scattered around the periphery). This is the only
explanation of the fact that the two upper-level stations and the
lower-level (Thameslink) one are so far away from each other and all the
tube lines.

If they had introduced any direct tunnels of this sort, there would not
be anything like as many people passing the various retail
opportunities. I'm sure this consideration will have had enormous
weight at the design stage.

It is true that the new Northern tube ticket hall looks like it might
allow some interchanges to be made without passing more than a few
shops, but then the next stage of the project is to open the King's
Cross shopping mall.

--
Clive Page

On Mar 10, 7:36*pm, Clive Page wrote:
[...] What you could
have there is a passage *below* the Thameslink platforms to the bottom
of the NTH escalators. It would be the same length as the passage from
those escalators to the Victoria Line.

OK. Hadn't thought of that before. I wonder if anything of the sort
was seriously considered. I imagine some such idea must have at least
come up in a brainstorming session at some point!

I agree that a direct passage from the Thameslink platforms to the tube
would be a great boon to lots of people including me, but I think the
factor that everyone is missing is that the new St.Pancras is not a
railway station but a shopping complex (with almost incidentally a few
railway stations scattered around the periphery). *This is the only
explanation of the fact that the two upper-level stations and the
lower-level (Thameslink) one are so far away from each other and all the
tube lines.

If they had introduced any direct tunnels of this sort, there would not
be anything like as many people passing the various retail
opportunities. *I'm sure this consideration will have had enormous
weight at the design stage.

I'll let others comment on the broader point. However, with regards to
the 'Thameslink box', it's sited where it is at the north end of St P
because that's kind of the only place it could be - it's actually
north of the original St P building, and stretches under Midland Road
and perhaps a sliver under the corner of the British Library car park.
I get the feeling that building it under the old St Pancras station
would have been infeasible or at least impractical.

In message
, at
15:23:22 on Wed, 10 Mar 2010, Mizter T remarked:

with regards to the 'Thameslink box', it's sited where it is at the
north end of St P because that's kind of the only place it could be -
it's actually north of the original St P building, and stretches under
Midland Road and perhaps a sliver under the corner of the British
Library car park. I get the feeling that building it under the old St
Pancras station would have been infeasible or at least impractical.

Yes, the box is in the only place it would fit, given the alignment of
the tracks. But the exit could have been somewhere near the toilets
adjacent to the Eurostar check-in, rather than halfway to Camden.

More radically, the Eurostar platforms should have been at the
undercroft level, with the Midland Mainline and Kent Domestic and
Eurostar check-in etc on the original level.
--
Roland Perry

In message , at 19:36:53 on Wed, 10 Mar
2010, Clive Page remarked:
St.Pancras is not a railway station but a shopping complex (with almost
incidentally a few railway stations scattered around the periphery).
This is the only explanation of the fact that the two upper-level
stations and the lower-level (Thameslink) one are so far away from each
other and all the tube lines.

I agree. I've seen the morning wave of commuters marching south along
the main shopping aisle (from the FCC and EMT stations to the western
ticket hall) and it just seems such a waste of time and energy that all
those people have to march all that way.
--
Roland Perry

On Mar 11, 4:23*pm, Roland Perry wrote:

In message , at 19:36:53 on Wed, 10 Mar
2010, Clive Page remarked:

St.Pancras is not a railway station but a shopping complex (with almost
incidentally a few railway stations scattered around the periphery).
This is the only explanation of the fact that the two upper-level
stations and the lower-level (Thameslink) one are so far away from each
other and all the tube lines.

I agree. I've seen the morning wave of commuters marching south along
the main shopping aisle (from the FCC and EMT stations to the western
ticket hall) and it just seems such a waste of time and energy that all
those people have to march all that way.

See my reply to Clive about the siting of the Thameslink box.

And (thread convergence) in a world where a fair number of people are
too fat, is getting them to walk it really a waste of their collective
energy? Indeed, a bit of exercise is in and of itself can be rather
energising...

Roland Perry wrote in news:Fj
:

I agree. I've seen the morning wave of commuters marching south along
the main shopping aisle (from the FCC and EMT stations to the western
ticket hall) and it just seems such a waste of time and energy that all
those people have to march all that way.

But it may help to keep their waistlines in check ... see other thread.

Peter

--
| Peter Campbell Smith | Epsom | UK |