http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7080278.stm

The opening will happen this evening (not least because Bettie is a
bit tied up giving a speech at some riverside club house during the
day).

I managed to have a quick look inside and around St P yesterday
lunchtime (whilst waiting at KX for someone who, courtesy of an inept
communications breakdown, wasn't on the train they should've been on -
grrr!).

I see now that the Midland mainline platform-level concourse and
platforms offer a pretty good view across the whole Barlow trainshed
now that the hoardings have largely come down and been replaced with
glass walls. The roof is splendid, lots of light coming through so
quite a change from the dingy St P of old.

From this position one also gets a good view across the Eurostar
platforms - yesterday occupied by a just-arrived Eurostar train and
also a CTRL-DS (aka Javelin) train, coupled to an EWS Class 60 (I
think). The CTRL-DS train was quite far up the long platforms (towards
the country end) so I couldn't see if it was top and tailed, but I did
wonder if there was the necessary trackwork in the Eurostar platforms
for a loco to run around a train and escape.

There was also quite a bit of lighting kit being set up for the grand
opening 'show' this evening - there were several lighting rigs
attached to the roof, and several more ground-level spotlights on the
platforms, plus a couple of massive screens hanging from the roof too.
Coming up the escalators to the Midland mainline concourse there were
a couple of large black drapes hanging from the ceiling. After a bit
of consideration I decided these were perhaps in place principally to
stop the light show from distracting the arriving MML drivers as hey
came into the platforms - as there was no indication that the Midland
mainline part of the station was going to close for this event.

Whether one will be able to go and attempt to hang around the Midland
mainline concourse and watch this event unfold I cannot say - I guess
that the area might be closed to those who don't hold tickets for
travel, but that part of the station would certainly appear to be open
for business as normal this evening.

Whilst the trainshed part of the station appears nearly finished, the
undercroft areas would still appear to be requiring a fair bit more
work - it is however hard to tell, given that there's no public access
to these areas. There were lots of workmen wearing hi-vis jackets
stating "Retail fit-out", so perhaps things are nearing completion.
Still plenty of other workmen around the place beavering away at this
and that though.

A couple of other points of potential interest.

One is that the Midland mainline platforms are OHLE wired. I guess
this is very old news but I hadn't realised that would be the case. Is
this provision for Thameslink trains, just in case they need to
terminate here rather than travel on through the low-level platforms
and then through central London?

The other is that the surrounding roads are now open as of Saturday
3rd November (so the sign said). As far as I could see (but I may have
got it wrong) Pancras Road is fully open for two-way traffic all the
way from Euston Road up to the Goods Way / Camley Street junction, and
Midland Road is open for one-way southbound traffic into Euston Road.
The taxi rank is now on Midland Road, and that's now the taxi drop-off
point as well (as opposed to the old location on Pancras Road).

Oh, and last thing - unless I've got this one wrong St Pancras station
appears to have it's own logo - which is neither the Eurostar logo nor
the HS1 logo - it's black and white and I couldn't really work out
what it was supposed to depict but I could only find it on street
signs around the station rather than on the station itself.