Thameslink station at St Pancras

The Secretary of State for Transport (Alistair Darling): I have agreed to the proposal to fit out the new Thameslink station at King's Cross St Pancras. Work is already underway and the station will be ready for passenger use at the end of 2007.

The new state of the art station will provide an excellent interchange between Thameslink services and national and international services when Eurostar services switch operation to from Waterloo International to St Pancras. It will also improve passenger access to those wishing to use the Olympic Javelin services to access Stratford during the London Olympics in 2012.

As part of the recent Channel Tunnel Rail Link blockade works a station box has already been constructed underneath the new St Pancras station. The new station will be a great improvement over the existing King's Cross Thameslink station at Pentonville Road, which has restricted access to the platforms and often suffers from congestion due to its narrow platforms and limited access between the platforms and the rest of the station. The new station, provisionally called St Pancras Thameslink, will also be fully compliant with DDA requirements.

The fit-out of the new station is an independent project and is not dependent on powers being granted to the Thameslink 2000 project, and consequently can be delivered in advance of this.

The planned cost of fitting out the station and transferring services is £63.5m at 2003 prices. It will be implemented by London Continental Railways, who are currently completing Stage 2 of the Channel Tunnel Rail Link.

See also:
Press release

Delivered: 08 February 2006