"One of the capital's busiest Underground stations is to shut for nearly
three years. Blackfriars station, used by about 44,000 City workers and
tourists every day, will close for works to upgrade the main line
Thameslink."

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/to...cle4467645.ece

March 2009 until late 2011.

"Yesterday's announcement prompted concerns about commuter disruption, with
the nearest Tube stations ten minutes' walk away. There were also fears of
delays to the planned works because Network Rail has been criticised for
presiding over several project overruns."

Nice to see the Times taking the pessimist view...

"Richard Parry, London Underground's director of strategy and service
development, said: "The redevelopment of Blackfriars Underground station is
part of Network Rail works. Once the works are complete, customers will get
a new upgraded station with step-free access, increased capacity and better
interchange facilities between the Tube and national rail services."

Are LU trying here to make this into a NR problem? Presumably NR are
updating Blackfriars underground because as it stands it just won't cope
with the increase in passengers expected. Could it ever have been considered
possible to upgrade the mainline station without the underground? I doubt
it, so why take this line in public?

Far better surely for LU to just announce that the whole station is being
remodelled, and our colleagues at NR are leading the project...

Paul S

"Paul Scott" wrote in message
...
"One of the capital's busiest Underground stations is to shut for nearly
three years. Blackfriars station, used by about 44,000 City workers and
tourists every day, will close for works to upgrade the main line
Thameslink."

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/to...cle4467645.ece

March 2009 until late 2011.

"Yesterday's announcement prompted concerns about commuter disruption,
with the nearest Tube stations ten minutes' walk away. There were also
fears of delays to the planned works because Network Rail has been
criticised for presiding over several project overruns."

Nice to see the Times taking the pessimist view...

"Richard Parry, London Underground's director of strategy and service
development, said: "The redevelopment of Blackfriars Underground station
is part of Network Rail works. Once the works are complete, customers will
get a new upgraded station with step-free access, increased capacity and
better interchange facilities between the Tube and national rail
services."

Are LU trying here to make this into a NR problem? Presumably NR are
updating Blackfriars underground because as it stands it just won't cope
with the increase in passengers expected. Could it ever have been
considered possible to upgrade the mainline station without the
underground? I doubt it, so why take this line in public?

Far better surely for LU to just announce that the whole station is being
remodelled, and our colleagues at NR are leading the project...

Paul S
How long was T4 out of service, until late 2006?

Paul Scott wrote:

"One of the capital's busiest Underground stations is to shut for nearly
three years. Blackfriars station, used by about 44,000 City workers and
tourists every day, will close for works to upgrade the main line
Thameslink."

Blackfriars is the station closest to my old school (City of London) and if
it had been closed when I went there I would have been almost permanently
late in the mornings and in the afternoons the combined effect of getting to
the nearest station (Temple?) and the mainline timetable would have almost
doubled my journey home. Nice!

"Richard Parry, London Underground's director of strategy and service
development, said: "The redevelopment of Blackfriars Underground station
is part of Network Rail works. Once the works are complete, customers will
get a new upgraded station with step-free access, increased capacity and
better interchange facilities between the Tube and national rail
services."

Oh yes, I've had *so* many problems interchanging with the current set-up at
Blackfriars!

wrote:

How long was T4 out of service, until late 2006?

BAA never took the T4 out of service while the underground station was
upgraded ;-)

"Paul Scott" wrote in
:

"One of the capital's busiest Underground stations is to shut for nearly
three years. Blackfriars station, used by about 44,000 City workers and
tourists every day, will close for works to upgrade the main line
Thameslink."

The network rail media centre has a lovely image of the new South Bank
entrance at Blackfrairs (click on the image for a hi-res version). Not
only is the signage to the London Underground corporate image (I assume the
tube is staying on the North bank) but it is clearly a 4-VEP leaving the
new station ....

http://www.networkrailmediacentre.co...ReleaseID=3854
&NewsAreaID=2&SearchCategoryID=2

David

In message , Philip
Hardy writes

How long was T4 out of service, until late 2006?

BAA never took the T4 out of service while the underground station was
upgraded ;-)

In reality, very little work was done to the T4 station other than a bit
of a deep clean.

The work was to create the junction for the T5 line and trains couldn't
run
through T4 whilst this was happening, it was not to upgrade T4.
--
Steve Fitzgerald has now left the building.
You will find him in London's Docklands, E16, UK
(please use the reply to address for email)

On Aug 6, 7:20*pm, "Paul Scott"
wrote:
"One of the capital's busiest Underground stations is to shut for nearly
three years. Blackfriars station, used by about 44,000 City workers and
tourists every day, will close for works to upgrade the main line
Thameslink."

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/to..._sectors/trans...

March 2009 until late 2011.

"Yesterday's announcement prompted concerns about commuter disruption, with
the nearest Tube stations ten minutes' walk away. There were also fears of
delays to the planned works because Network Rail has been criticised for
presiding over several project overruns."

Nice to see the Times taking the pessimist view...

"Richard Parry, London Underground's director of strategy and service
development, said: "The redevelopment of Blackfriars Underground station is
part of Network Rail works. Once the works are complete, customers will get
a new upgraded station with step-free access, increased capacity and better
interchange facilities between the Tube and national rail services."

Are LU trying here to make this into a NR problem? Presumably NR are
updating Blackfriars underground because as it stands it just won't cope
with the increase in passengers expected. Could it ever have been considered
possible to upgrade the mainline station without the underground? I doubt
it, so why take this line in public?

Far better surely for LU to just announce that the whole station is being
remodelled, and our colleagues at NR are leading the project...

Paul S

10 minutes walk? To the nearest tube station? Gasps in horror... You
poor darlings ;-)

On 6 Aug, 22:55, darkprince66 wrote:


10 minutes walk? To the nearest tube station? Gasps in horror... You
poor darlings ;-)

I know, that was my reaction. If we weren't spoiled we wouldn't be so
worried. Chancery Lane, Holborn etc aren't far. By the standards of
many towns and cities, Waterloo isn't far.

Francis

On Aug 7, 1:48 am, " wrote:
On 6 Aug, 22:55, darkprince66 wrote:



10 minutes walk? To the nearest tube station? Gasps in horror... You
poor darlings ;-)

I know, that was my reaction. If we weren't spoiled we wouldn't be so
worried. Chancery Lane, Holborn etc aren't far. By the standards of
many towns and cities, Waterloo isn't far.

Francis

True, but it still makes you wonder how _necessary_ the closure really
is. As far as I recall, the works are to extend the platforms (to the
south bank) and create four through ones instead of two through and
three bays - I'm sure someone _could_ work out a way to do this
leaving one platform open each time (even if Northbound only or
whatever).

wrote in message
...
On Aug 7, 1:48 am, " wrote:
On 6 Aug, 22:55, darkprince66 wrote:



10 minutes walk? To the nearest tube station? Gasps in horror... You
poor darlings ;-)

I know, that was my reaction. If we weren't spoiled we wouldn't be so
worried. Chancery Lane, Holborn etc aren't far. By the standards of
many towns and cities, Waterloo isn't far.

Francis

True, but it still makes you wonder how _necessary_ the closure really
is. As far as I recall, the works are to extend the platforms (to the
south bank) and create four through ones instead of two through and
three bays - I'm sure someone _could_ work out a way to do this
leaving one platform open each time (even if Northbound only or
whatever).

Blackfriars NR station will remain open for most of the time. It is
Blackfriars LUL which is to close (although trains will continue to run
through without stopping). The adjoining stations of Mansion House and
Temple are both less than half a mile away, while interchange passengers
have other stations where they can access the tube network.

The changes to the NR station are to change it from two through platforms,
plus three east side bays, all of 8-car length, to two through 12-car
platforms plus two west side bays. More significant is to rebuild the
circulating areas so that the station can cope with many more passengers,
including many more interchanging with LUL. There will be a new entrance on
teh south bank.

Peter