Posted 19th March 2012 | 6 Comments
New King's Cross concourse gets down to business
THE FIRST of 45 million annual passengers have started to use the new Western Concourse at London King's Cross, which will replace the existing concourse on the Euston Road side entirely from next year.
The new concourse is the major element in a £550 million scheme to upgrade the station. Network Rail intends to make King’s Cross a worthy companion to the enlarged and modernised St Pancras International next door, which opened in November 2007.
The project has needed more than 1000 tonnes of steel, a million 'heritage' bricks, five million ceramic tiles and five million metres of cable.
More than 5,000 people have been involved in the project, which began in earnest in the spring of 2010 and had a firm deadline for completion because of the Olympics this summer.
Last week saw a series of special events at the station, including a keynote evening in which the new aspect of King's Cross was welcomed by such figures as transport secretary Justine Greening and the Mayor of London Boris Johnson.
Guests at the launch events, which included one for many of the people who had worked on the project, were entertained with a magnificent light show, accompanied by specially-composed music.
From now on, however, it's workaday business for the concourse, which has become the official entrance to the station. The existing concourse at the front, which was built as a 'temporary' structure in the early 1970s, will survive until next year as the exit.
Network Rail mounted a publicity campaign at the station last week, to warn passengers that the one-way flows would be introduced from today.
The company's chief executive David Higgins was another speaker at the opening event last week, when he said: "The new King’s Cross station is something for everyone to be proud of. But rather than focusing on the end of a project, we should see this as a symbol of what can be achieved with the right vision, partnerships and a sustained commitment to investing in our country’s infrastructure."
Meanwhile, work is well advanced on upgrading the main trainshed, including the roof.
However, it has not always been plain sailing at King's Cross in recent years. Work on the associated Northern Ticket Hall for London Underground was halted by then transport minister Tony McNulty in 2004, after fears that costs were getting out of control. However, following some months of suspense, work restarted in early 2005 after a new budget had been agreed.
Reader Comments:
Views expressed in submitted comments are that of the author, and not necessarily shared by Railnews.
Tom, London
I've been passing through the new concourse for a couple of weeks at peak times and it seems to be working well. "Completely impractical" is an undeserved charge, while "a total waste of money and an embarrassment to London" is a crazy description of these much-needed public works.
If I think about several concourses (Liverpool Street, Paddington, NY Grand Central...), the departure info is not always oriented such that you interrogate it while en route to a platform - this would create a huge block. I don't find it very taxing to pop in to the concourse, look up at the board, then head for your platform. As for the old layout, "walking in a straight line from the street...all with a clear view of the departures board" was never my experience -- it was far too crowded and small. Also, I haven't seen crowds that would make you miss a train unless you were cutting things very fine, so maybe allowing more time would be sensible.
The sense of space in the new concourse is all too rare in modern transit facilities, and would never fit at the front of the station. An occassional cross-flow is better than a constant head-on conflict, and where the pasty and coffee kiosks used to be is now a useful circulation space. I suppose you could dig a concourse underneath the station, or push the buffer stops and the station throat north, but these options seem unjustifiably expensive given how well the concourse meets its main requirements.
Dara Reaper, London
The new entrance to Kings Cross station may look pretty, however it is completely impractical. The purpose of a train station is for passengers to catch trains, the new layout makes this almost impossible!
The previous layout saw passengers walking in a straight line from the street, through the numerous ticket barriers and on to their required platform, all with a clear view of the departures board.
The new layout has made all barriers aligned to the platforms exit only and requires passengers to access their trains side in to platform 8 and walk across the exiting flow of passengers across 9 platforms. This means that there are two opposing and illogical flows of foot traffic.
There are fewer entrance barriers at platform 8 than previously served the station and this morning half of these were blocked for exit only, in addition to the entire old stations worth of barriers.
To view the departure boards, passengers need to enter the station and walk past the new entrance barriers. Once viewed, passengers need to backtrack to the barriers. If a train is missed, quite likely when pushing across and through passengers exiting the platforms, valid tickets do not allow exit (as you have not travelled anywhere). Exit however is required to again view the departures board to try for a different train. A departures board (even a small one) should be visible inside the platform area.
This is an incredibly poor station layout. Looking pretty does not make up for a total lack of logic and practicality!
A total waste of money and an embarrassment to London.
John Gilbert, Cradley
An amazing building; wonderful! It's also rather amazing that it seems to have shrunk in floor area now that people in quantity have begun to use it!! Possibly the presence of the mezzanine gives that illusion?
Melvyn Windebank, Canvey Island, Essex
The new concourse whose entrance is one the western side is now out of alignment for passengers who arrive by bus which still deliver them to either the front or in many cases the eastern side of the station. They then have to traipse often with suitcases to the western side of the station.
It is yet another demonstration of how out of touch Boris is with the needs of public transport users who would have benefitted if buses had been diverted the other way around Kings Cross Station. While those using eastbound buses on Euston Road would be better off if they ALL stopped at the stop outside St Pancras International which is only used for routes terminating at Kings Cross!!
How soon will it be before passengers start going around Kings Cross Station the wrong way via York Way?
Instead of a fancy windswept area of concrete Kings Cross would be better off with a Bus Station out front just like at London Bridge Station.
Paul, London, England
Whilst the station is indeed a seachange from the dingy old concourse, its a shame those people arriving on buses who get off on the York Road or those wh arrive from teh North east now have to walk all the way around the station to the western concourse.
Geoff, NR's website has been updated now.
Geoff, Dagenham
It might be useful as part of the publicity campaign if they updated the NR web site so that the station plan showed the new concourse...or indeed Platform 0 which has been open for over a year!