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Alight here for a station with its own Berlin Wall
• NETWORK Rail claims the King’s Cross station revamp “will be even better than St Pancras”. Pardon my French, they are talking a pile of pants.
Like thousands of others I derive great pleasure every week by going out of my way to walk through, shop in or just have a cup of coffee under the 140-year-old sky-blue William Barlow shed’s arched roof of St Pancras.
King’s Cross is going to be a fully gated station, so that nobody without a ticket will be allowed beyond the western concourse.
The Wharfdale Road entrance was recently sealed: residents of Islington will have a very long walk down York Way, across the front of the station to enter only by the Great Northern Hotel – even if they already have a ticket.
This is because the old taxi rank has been replaced by a new platform which will boost the station’s capacity to
55 million passengers – lots more revenue for Network Rail but scant regard for the locals.
Indeed the tarted-up
Eastern Range façade to Islington might as well be the Berlin Wall for its inaccessibility.
The fact that Network Rail is offering a £1million sop for urban improvements simply cannot alter the fact that both the new public square in front of the station and the canyon that is forever York Way will have some of the most toxic air quality in London.
Make no mistake, Network Rail, out of ruthless
self-interest, has dismissed the idea of permeability whereas, despite it being an international gateway, we can all still enjoy access to the delightful St Pancras from half a dozen entry points. Shame on you, Network Rail.
CLLR PAUL BRAITHWAITE
Liberal Democrat, Camden
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