Can anyone shed any light on why the Victoria Line platforms at King's
Cross St Pancras have been in an absolutely disgraceful state for some
time, completely stripped of tiles but with nothing very much changing
and no publicity (that I've seen) announcing refurbishment work?

It seems ever so slightly ironic that St Pancras station is supposed
to give visitors from the continent such a great first impression of
London, but then when many of them get down to the Underground they're
confronted with such appallingly ugly Tube platforms...

In message
, at
16:38:23 on Thu, 5 Feb 2009, Mr Thant
remarked:
They've been busy for several years digging new tunnels to the 3 sets
of tube platforms and building a brand new ticket hall. It all opens
December this year,

The newsletters you link to, below, all say 2010.

which means they're only just now getting on to the cosmetic finishing
off, which means the refurbishment of the platforms.

Have a look at some of the PDFs here for an explanation:
http://www.tfl.gov.uk/corporate/proj...tion/2339.aspx

--
Roland Perry

On 6 Feb, 08:14, Roland Perry wrote:
In message
, at
16:38:23 on Thu, 5 Feb 2009, Mr Thant
remarked:

They've been busy for several years digging new tunnels to the 3 sets
of tube platforms and building a brand new ticket hall. It all opens
December this year,

The newsletters you link to, below, all say 2010.

Didn't we go over this a few days ago? The DfT have asked them to get
it done by December, TfL have agreed, but haven't made it a binding
promise. Thus 2010 remains the official opening date, but there's a
very good chance it will be open in December.

U

On 6 Feb, 09:48, Mr Thant
wrote:

On 6 Feb, 08:14, Roland Perry wrote:

In message
, at
16:38:23 on Thu, 5 Feb 2009, Mr Thant
remarked:

They've been busy for several years digging new tunnels to the 3 sets
of tube platforms and building a brand new ticket hall. It all opens
December this year,

The newsletters you link to, below, all say 2010.

Didn't we go over this a few days ago? The DfT have asked them to get
it done by December, TfL have agreed, but haven't made it a binding
promise. Thus 2010 remains the official opening date, but there's a
very good chance it will be open in December.


We did indeed - you told us this a week and a bit ago in the thread
about the concourse entrance to KXSP Underground station closing in
this 'ere post:
http://groups.google.co.uk/group/uk....d9d01352d11adc

On 6 Feb, 10:30, Paul Corfield wrote:

On Fri, 6 Feb 2009 08:14:07 +0000, Roland Perry
wrote:

In message
, at
16:38:23 on Thu, 5 Feb 2009, Mr Thant
remarked:
They've been busy for several years digging new tunnels to the 3 sets
of tube platforms and building a brand new ticket hall. It all opens
December this year,

The newsletters you link to, below, all say 2010.

The fit out work has been accelerated by 3 months bringing completion
back in to 2009.

Thanks for the confirmation.

In message , at 10:30:40 on
Fri, 6 Feb 2009, Paul Corfield remarked:
The newsletters you link to, below, all say 2010.

The fit out work has been accelerated by 3 months bringing completion
back in to 2009.

Looking forward to that news appearing in a newsletter, then
--
Roland Perry

In message , at 12:47:17 on
Fri, 6 Feb 2009, Paul Corfield remarked:
The newsletters you link to, below, all say 2010.

The fit out work has been accelerated by 3 months bringing completion
back in to 2009.

Looking forward to that news appearing in a newsletter, then

As Mr Thant has stated the public message has not changed. I doubt that
it will until much closer to the time when it becomes certain that the
revised target date will be met. Plenty can go wrong between now and
year end in terms of equipping the new ticket hall, integrating it with
the rest of the LU complex and getting it in to service. Digging holes
and filling them with concrete structures is a relatively simple task.

In which case perhaps it's a bit optimistic to go round saying it'll
open in December?
--
Roland Perry

On 6 Feb, 13:08, Roland Perry wrote:
In which case perhaps it's a bit optimistic to go round saying it'll
open in December?

Yeah, bloody optimists. String 'em up, I say.

Let's see what the horse has to say:
http://www.tfl.gov.uk/assets/downloa...-programme.pdf

"The Northern Ticket Hall is forecast to be opened three months ahead
of schedule in December 2009."

U

On 6 Feb, 13:08, Roland Perry wrote:

In message , at 12:47:17 on
Fri, 6 Feb 2009, Paul Corfield remarked:

The newsletters you link to, below, all say 2010.

The fit out work has been accelerated by 3 months bringing completion
back in to 2009.

Looking forward to that news appearing in a newsletter, then

As Mr Thant has stated the public message has not changed. *I doubt that
it will until much closer to the time when it becomes certain that the
revised target date will be met. *Plenty can go wrong between now and
year end in terms of equipping the new ticket hall, integrating it with
the rest of the LU complex and getting it in to service. Digging holes
and filling them with concrete structures is a relatively simple task.

In which case perhaps it's a bit optimistic to go round saying it'll
open in December?

But that's the whole point in that they haven't said that publicly!
And don't start saying Paul's post was an official pronouncement
because it quite clearly wasn't.

Mr Thant has also got this info from somewhere so I dare say it has
appeared somewhere, perhaps the TfL board papers.

On 6 Feb, 13:21, Mr Thant
wrote:

On 6 Feb, 13:08, Roland Perry wrote:

In which case perhaps it's a bit optimistic to go round saying it'll
open in December?

Yeah, bloody optimists. String 'em up, I say.

Let's see what the horse has to say:http://www.tfl.gov.uk/assets/downloa...and-finance-an...

"The Northern Ticket Hall is forecast to be opened three months ahead
of schedule in December 2009."


A nicely qualified statement - hopefully open by December, but leaves
open the possibility that it could fall back to the original scheduled
opening date.

The alternative would have been to keep completely and totally schtum
about any attempt to open it early in time for the arrival of the
'Kent domestics at St P - would that have been preferable, Mr Perry?