Station openings today
This weekend saw the opening of two new London stations, and the closure of another after 134 years.
The last ever train left King's Cross Thameslink last night around 1.15am (several minutes late), and the first ever train to call at St Pancras International arrived on time at 9.13am (earlier trains today called at neither, though did appear on the St Pancras departures board). The interior is a lot like City Thameslink, but with everything twice as big. Meanwhile, King's Cross Thameslink is now plastered with massive red "Do not alight here" signs. I was there for both events, but my photos were eaten by a shonky cheap memory card (don't do it kids), so you'll have to make do with this picture of a random train at St Pancras this afternoon.
Langdon Park DLR also opened this morning. When I passed yesterday afternoon the entrances were sealed off and it was swarming with men in orange jackets fiddling with the paving. But today the fences were gone and trains were stopping there, confusing at least a couple of passengers. As shown in the second picture, they've really gone to town with the footbridge roof. Disappointingly the station still has the standard DLR ticket machines that don't do Oyster.
At Stratford this afternoon, all DLR trains were using the north platform, rather than the south platform as they usually do. I'm not sure if this has been happening for a while or only started today, but at least both are now in use, though apparently not yet at the same time. The new footbridge from the old platform area is still sealed off, but appears complete (that's the rather unpromising Central Line/One end of it in the photo).
5 comments:
I was at St Pancras Capital Connect this evening. Yes its very nice, big and clean. Very reminiscent of a continental station. Very airport like too.
I was disappointed though by the transfer from there to the tube though. It took several minutes to walk. Covered, car free, and very interesting compared to Kings Cross/St Pancras to Kings Cross Thameslink but annoyingly long.
It was a covered and car free walk to the tube when it was at Kings Cross Thameslink too. Except its now a much longer walk!
I don't know where all these stories about KXT being an '8 minute walk down a busy road' came from.
It is more likely that the comment about KCM being 8 minutes away applied to Eurostar passengers, for whom SPL is much closer. Bear in mind that although it's a much longer walk from SPL to the deep-level tube lines, the sub-surface tube lines are equidistant from SPL and KCM.
The signposted route from KX to KXTL was always via the street. The indoor route via the Victoria Line platforms isn't, sorry, wasn't, signposted until you got to the bottom of the Victoria Line escalator.
I cannot believe they put normal ticket machines at Langdon Park: the lack of oyster facilities on the DLR is a real scandal!
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