Wednesday 11 Jan 2012

KING’S CROSS PASSENGERS OFFERED A GLIMPSE INTO THE FUTURE

Region & Route:
| Southern

Network Rail is giving passengers, businesses and members of the community a chance to look three months into the future with an interactive exhibition about the new station concourse at King’s Cross.

From Monday 16 January an exhibition stand featuring new CGI images, a map and iPads giving people the chance to play a quiz about the project will be located next to the ticket office. Members of staff will be on hand to distribute information leaflets and answer any questions.

Ian Fry, Network Rail’s programme director at King’s Cross said: “With around three months to go until the new concourse opens, we want to share more details with people about the new facilities coming their way and the changes to how they will need to use the station. For example, to improve passenger flow passengers will only be able to enter the platforms via the new concourse and will exit via the old concourse.

“Once complete, King’s Cross will be a world-class transport hub which can meet future demand and offer the best facilities for passengers."

The new concourse will be the stand-out feature of the redeveloped King’s Cross, helping make it a world-class transport hub. The striking domed roof covers an area three-times the size of the existing concourse and big enough to fit over six Olympic-sized swimming pools. As well as providing a brighter, more spacious station, it will contain a wide range of new food and drink outlets and shops, plus improved facilities which will improve the journey experience for passengers.

Notes to editors

About the King’s Cross redevelopment
- In 2007, construction work started to transform King’s Cross station into a world-class transport hub, with better connections to St Pancras International and London Underground, increased capacity for additional trains and improved facilities
- The centre-piece of the redevelopment is a striking new concourse on the west side of the station which will include a larger ticket office, a new shopping experience, waiting areas, a wider range of food and drink outlets and more modern facilities. The new concourse will be completed in March
- Following the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, work will start to create a new piazza in front of the station. To make way for this new public space – which will be larger than Leicester Square – the current concourse will be demolished revealing for the first time in decades the Grade I listed Victorian façade which has been fully restored to its former glory
- The station’s rebirth, commissioned, overseen and led by Network Rail, designed by architect John McAslan + Partners and Arup, and delivered by a host of supporting contractors and subcontractors, is a major milestone in Network Rail’s plan for improving transport across London

Contact information

Passengers / community members
Network Rail national helpline
03457 11 41 41

Latest travel advice
Please visit National Rail Enquiries

Journalists
Network Rail press office - South East route
020 3357 7969
southeastroutecomms@networkrail.co.uk

About Network Rail

We own, operate and develop Britain's railway infrastructure; that's 20,000 miles of track, 30,000 bridges, tunnels and viaducts and the thousands of signals, level crossings and stations. We run 20 of the UK's largest stations while all the others, over 2,500, are run by the country's train operating companies.

Usually, there are almost five million journeys made in the UK and over 600 freight trains run on the network. People depend on Britain's railway for their daily commute, to visit friends and loved ones and to get them home safe every day. Our role is to deliver a safe and reliable railway, so we carefully manage and deliver thousands of projects every year that form part of the multi-billion pound Railway Upgrade Plan, to grow and expand the nation's railway network to respond to the tremendous growth and demand the railway has experienced - a doubling of passenger journeys over the past 20 years.

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