"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?

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 ;-)

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)

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!

In message , at 20:57:17 on Wed, 6
Aug 2008, Tim Roll-Pickering remarked:
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?)

Mansion House is much closer, to the East.

and the mainline timetable would have almost doubled my journey home.
Nice!

Nothing suitable available from Cannon St?

"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!

I changed there recently and it was a pain. Needed a National Rail
ticket so up lots of stairs to the ticket office from the tube. I was
then catching a northbound train so had to go downstairs and back up
again.
--
Roland Perry

Roland Perry wrote:

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?)

Mansion House is much closer, to the East.

True but I'd be coming from the west. Not that there's much difference.

and the mainline timetable would have almost doubled my journey home.
Nice!

Nothing suitable available from Cannon St?

I can't remember Epsom ever being served from there. Even when there was an
Epsom to Blackfriars service it was far too slow (and awkwardly timetabled)
to be any use.

In message of Wed, 6 Aug 2008
20:57:17 in uk.transport.london, Tim Roll-Pickering
writes
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!

The Journey Planner shows City of London [Boys] School is a 5 minute
walk from Blankfriars and 7 from Mansion House but 15 from Temple.
I fancy that the service withdrawal will not be an acceptable excuse.
I take it you dropped geography, early in your school career.
--
Walter Briscoe

Walter Briscoe wrote:

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!

The Journey Planner shows City of London [Boys] School is a 5 minute walk
from Blankfriars and 7 from Mansion House but 15 from Temple.
I fancy that the service withdrawal will not be an acceptable excuse.
I take it you dropped geography, early in your school career.

I only did it for half a year at CLS (and there's no need to add "[Boys]" to
the title, regardless of the existance of CLSG - it was always "CLS") but
most of the geography I remember from school was physical geography, geology
and human geography rather than distance and location.

And most people tend not to think in terms of doubling back when journey
planning, so someone coming from Victoria or Embankment would instinctively
look to Temple. In any case half the eight minute advantage is swallowed up
by the Temple to Mansion House journey time and my recollection is that
Temple less congested.

The afternoon problem would have been more substantial because of the way
the South West Trains timetable operated - most of the doubled journey would
come from having to wait ages at Waterloo for an all stoppng service if I'd
missed the semi-fast. Morningwise my main source of delays was actually
Connex (or whatever it was called then) trains delaying SWT ones who in turn
missed their Raynes Park clearing, but Blackfriars was close enough to
absorb this without me being late.

"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