On Mar 10, 7:36*pm, Clive Page wrote:
[...] What you could
have there is a passage *below* the Thameslink platforms to the bottom
of the NTH escalators. It would be the same length as the passage from
those escalators to the Victoria Line.

OK. Hadn't thought of that before. I wonder if anything of the sort
was seriously considered. I imagine some such idea must have at least
come up in a brainstorming session at some point!

I agree that a direct passage from the Thameslink platforms to the tube
would be a great boon to lots of people including me, but I think the
factor that everyone is missing is that the new St.Pancras is not a
railway station but a shopping complex (with almost incidentally a few
railway stations scattered around the periphery). *This is the only
explanation of the fact that the two upper-level stations and the
lower-level (Thameslink) one are so far away from each other and all the
tube lines.

If they had introduced any direct tunnels of this sort, there would not
be anything like as many people passing the various retail
opportunities. *I'm sure this consideration will have had enormous
weight at the design stage.

I'll let others comment on the broader point. However, with regards to
the 'Thameslink box', it's sited where it is at the north end of St P
because that's kind of the only place it could be - it's actually
north of the original St P building, and stretches under Midland Road
and perhaps a sliver under the corner of the British Library car park.
I get the feeling that building it under the old St Pancras station
would have been infeasible or at least impractical.