Step-free access to the Thameslink platforms at London St Pancras station will not be available for three months from Monday, 15th June, whilst the lifts undergo a major refurbishment.
Two lifts serve the Thameslink platforms, and both are expected to remain out of service until mid-September.
Access to the Thameslink platforms will still be available via stairs and escalators, and staff will be on hand to provide help where it is needed.
Passengers who rely on lifts, such as wheelchair users and people with reduced mobility, will need to use alternative routes to access the station, such as London Underground services from nearby interchange stations.
Full information is available on the Thameslink website at https://www.thameslinkrailway.com/stpancraslifts.
Alternative options for most journeys are to travel on Thameslink services to Farringdon, and change there to London Underground services, using the Circle, Hammersmith and City, or Metropolitan lines.
For some journeys, London King’s Cross is a viable option, from where Northern and Thameslink services can be used for some onward connections.
Passengers travelling further on the Midland Main Line, to stations such as Luton Airport Parkway or Bedford, have the option to use East Midlands Railway services from the London St Pancras main line platforms.
Similarly, passengers travelling on the East Coast Main Line can travel via London King’s Cross, or on London Underground services to Finsbury Park for connection with Thameslink services from there.
Jenny Saunders, Customer Service Director, Thameslink, commented that St Pancras is one of Thameslink’s busiest stations, so it’s vitally important that these ageing lifts are refurbished to give passengers a reliable step-free route.
Extra staff will be on hand to help passengers with luggage and pushchairs, but anyone who can’t use the escalators will need to travel via a nearby station such as Farringdon, from where they can take the Tube to St Pancras for no extra charge.
Other stations in southeast England receiving upgrades to provide step-free access include Luton in Bedfordshire and Tooting in southwest London.
“We know how important these lifts are for many of our passengers, and we’re sorry for the disruption this work will cause, particularly for those who rely on step-free access every day. The reality is that the lifts have become increasingly unreliable, with unplanned outages making journeys difficult and unpredictable. This refurbishment is about putting that right. By carrying out this work now, we can deliver a much more reliable and consistent service in the long term, giving passengers greater confidence that the facilities they depend on will be there when they need them.”
Mark Budden, Route Director, Network Rail East Midlands
Responses
Since there are more than just one lift at St Pancras, you do have to wonder why this refurbishment couldn’t have been done sequentially so there was always a lift in action.
Telling people reliant on wheel chairs and mobility scooters (and also those with large suitaces that won’t fit onto escalators) that they’ll just have to travel to St Pancras by a different route so they’re at the right level when they get there seems to me to be flawed – how will they know which mode of transport to use?
Total shutdown of railways, railway facilities and indeed roads seems to be far more common lately. It is certainly convenient for those doing the refurbishment but in the past sequential shutdowns were far more common and presumably fully manageable.