On 11 Aug, 09:34, Bruce wrote:
On Tue, 10 Aug 2010 22:52:52 -0700 (PDT), bob
wrote:





On Aug 11, 12:11*am, Bruce wrote:
On Tue, 10 Aug 2010 14:40:23 -0700 (PDT), West Yorkshire Bus

wrote:
A simple question, in a year or two when the Thameslink works get near
to being finished, should the route be added (or be reinstated) onto
the tube map?

At the moment I feel that visitors to the city are not aware of the
route and once Blackfriars is finished, are not aware of the handy
link straight through the centre of the tourist area.

The tourist area?

Since when did Thameslink serve the London Eye, Houses of Parliament,
Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace, Oxford Street, Bond Street,
Knightsbridge, Madame Tussauds and Regents Park?

When I was helping some German friends plan a weekend away in London,
a bit of research found that the best bet for budget hotels in a
reasonably central location was in the area around Kings Cross (and I
don't mean by-the-hour hotels either), and for getting to either the
area around the tower, or to St Pauls and across to the Tate Modern,
Thameslink proved to be quite a useful route. *Also handy for pax
flying via Gatwick. *By all accounts, plenty of other tourists had
come to the same conclusion regarding hotels.

The reason that those areas are "the best bet for budget hotels" is
that there is comparatively little demand. *The majority of tourists
stay in areas several miles west of Thameslink, none of which are
remotely as seedy as Kings Cross, whose seediness and relative
cheapness are directly connected.

If there is comparitively little demand, why are there more hotel
rooms within a 5 minute walk of King's Cross than in the whole of
Cambridge (not exactly an unpopular city with the tourists)? I
counted 4 large travelodges, 2 comfort inns, a premier inn, a novotel
and (from a quick google search) 25 non-chain hotels. When I was
showing my friends around, from the people swarming around these
various hotels, I would guess that the vast majority were tourists
(the dress sense, photographic equipment and propensity for european
languages were all give aways).

I suspect the real reason the hotels there work out cheap for tourists
is that they are mostly serving the city-bound buisness market, and
are prepared to let their rooms go cheaply at the weekends rather than
stand empty. The area isn't nearly as seedy as it used to be, and
it's jolly handy for Eurostar.

Robin