Kings Cross ,Remodelling

[scarpa]

NWR has announced Kings Cross Station will be closed for 3 months in 2020 for platform extensions and remodelling .They plan to reuse the disused Gas works tunnel installing two tracks with crossovers installed in all tunnels . All the double slip points will be abolished. The area will be totally resignalled and the control of the station will pass to York signalling centre. A cost of £ 237 million has been projected. I wonder if here are any imaginitive diversion plans for the train service have been considered ? There is scope to use Euston via North London line or Liverpool Street via Canonbury perhaps.Could even use Cannon Street for multiple units now its connected to the Kings Cross Line.

[Fast Line Floyd]

I think the straight answer to that is no. Euston won't work without a reversal and has no spare capacity, Cannon Street also no spare capacity, Liverpool Street has no spare capacity and then there would be months of route learning to be paid for and covered. Expect instead a severely curtailed service terminating at Finsbury Park.

[The Planner]

Especially when Euston will be two platforms down for HS2 by this point.

[RobMorel]

The suburban side will have access to the 'Canal Tunnels' link into the Thameslink network route by then so EMU traffic can go that way and before you ask route cleared for class 700 stock only if you were thinking of putting something else that way.
Platform 10 'goes' with 9 and 11 straightened out to accept longer formations, no word on platform 9 3/4

[scarpa]

The type of diesels are restricted through the tunnels between St. Pancras and Farringdon and the . O.H.L. has to be isolated for class 31 s one of the few classes to be able to operate through the tunnels. Perhaps these tunnels would benefit from Curtain rail O.H.L. .There are also strict rules for staff working in the same tunnels requiring isolation if digging the ballast and taking tools into the tunnels.

[Fast Line Floyd]

Especially when Euston will be two platforms down for HS2 by this point.

Three surely, 16/17/18 plus the adjacent sidings.

[Fast Line Floyd]

The type of diesels are restricted through the tunnels between St. Pancras and Farringdon and the . O.H.L. has to be isolated for class 31 s one of the few classes to be able to operate through the tunnels. Perhaps these tunnels would benefit from Curtain rail O.H.L. .There are also strict rules for staff working in the same tunnels requiring isolation if digging the ballast and taking tools into the tunnels.

Fitting curtain rail OLE would make matters of clearance worse than it is now.

[DaveHarries]

NWR has announced Kings Cross Station will be closed for 3 months in 2020 for platform extensions and remodelling .They plan to reuse the disused Gas works tunnel installing two tracks with crossovers installed in all tunnels . All the double slip points will be abolished. The area will be totally resignalled and the control of the station will pass to York signalling centre. A cost of £ 237 million has been projected. I wonder if here are any imaginitive diversion plans for the train service have been considered ? There is scope to use Euston via North London line or Liverpool Street via Canonbury perhaps.Could even use Cannon Street for multiple units now its connected to the Kings Cross Line.

Interesting. Is there an online link to this?

Dave

[scarpa]

The article is from the latest fortnightly Rail magazine. There is further article on the costing and planning. This publication can be obtained digitally.

[StevieG]

That Rail mag.'s Information I'm reading refers to a three - month partial closure of up to 50% of the station, although I would be amazed if that applied to weekends as well as Mons.- Fris. Still a major affair but not a continuous total blockade.
The last "Clearing the Throat" such upheaval there in early 1977 also saw at least four platforms normally available (probably less, if any, at weekends).
It is stated that how this will be handled with the TOCs is subject to future consultation.
There are now more platforms available at Finsbury Park than in '77 and signalling there for turning back trains is a little better now than 40 years ago, and there should be GN suburban services running via St.Pancras (low level) by 2020, but apart from also relying on the two underground lines still there at FP, of which the Victoria can now handle more frequent trains, it is difficult to know how all the passengers of today's increased number of trains normally running Into King's Cross will be satisfactorily dealt with, without there being quite a bit of fuss.

( End of this potentially non-signalling - guilty post. )

[The Planner]

Especially when Euston will be two platforms down for HS2 by this point.

Three surely, 16/17/18 plus the adjacent sidings.

16 stays AFAIK.

[collexions]

VTEC threw out NRs GRIP4 proposal, and the scheme has gone back to GRIP3. The partial relock, and full recontrol of KX PSB to YK ROC is now on hold pending GRIP3 resubmission.

[The Planner]

By that I assume they rejected the Network Change? They would need a massive case to get them back to the drawing board as they cannot "throw it out" per se.

[scarpa]

Have the Design team missed what could be a vital alternative route in case of signalling problems in the future layout . A short piece of track installed from Holloway South Up where the Up slow viaduct starts to ascend then through the former disused Copenhagen tunnel with a facing set of points clear of Copenhagen tunnel giving access to all platforms or continuing on through Gas Works tunnel to platforms 0 to 2. It would also allow two mainline trains to arrive.

[JG Morgan]

Not only does Cannon Street have no spare capacity, it is inaccessible from Blackfriars. The sidings were disconnected / cut at Metropolitan Junction about 18 months ago as part of the Thameslink programme rebuilding of the whole London Bridge area.

It is reported (I cannot now remember where I read it) that one siding is to be retained from Cannon Street round to buffer stops near Metropolitan Jct. This will enable one train arriving at Cannon Street to be stabled there and thus NOT to need a path out through London Bridge in the morning peak. It will either stay there all day (until the evening peak) or be shunted out via the station during the quieter part of the day.

It is all very different from the occasion 50+ years ago when up EC sleepers were diverted to Stratford following an incident overnight at / near Hitchin.