On 13 Dec, 11:16, "Garry Smith" wrote:

Very small signs stuck on the wall were all that I saw.

But I have been known to miss things that are glaringly
obvious!

No, nothing is obvious at St Pancras. They want to have as few signs
as possible, to keep things 'tidy' and 'modern' no doubt, but for
someone who is lost, it's going to be a nightmare. You'll also notice
the lack of staff at platform level (bar Monday when they were there
for the official opening). I hardly ever see anyone using a help
point, so I guess you'll have to wander back up two escalators to the
main entrance and ask someone there.

I must admit that the honeymoon period for St Pancras is nearly over.
Fantastic looking station and large open spaces, but it's badly
signed, there are no seats and despite having loads of shops and
promoting the idea that people will come from all over London to shop
there (without even travelling) most of them are going to be tiny
little 'mini shops'. Once you've seen the statue(s) and gone 'wow',
there's not much else there to inspire you.

Is that being too harsh?

Jonathan

"Roland Perry" wrote in message
...
In message , at 11:04:23 on Wed,
12 Dec 2007, Paul Scott remarked:
Have any additional signs become visible since we recently mentioned the
small overhead signs on the back of the PIS displays as you leave the MML
platforms, that appeared to be taped over. Seems many of them need to be
made much bigger, the sort of size you get in most other major stations.

Haven't been there for a couple of weeks. Expecting to go down on Friday
so will report back after that.
--
Roland Perry

Was there yesterday, signage is, as others have noted, terrible. Surely
those arrivals/departure boards are temporary, they look appalling in so
many ways. A bit like some low budget 1970's sci-fi prop.

Quite nice using the "secret" entrance to the underground though, just south
of the huge bronze statue of the couple nuzzling. No doubt use will increase
once there are signs up.

BTW watching the last BBC programmes recently, to me the whole idea of the
statue being an icon for the station has failed on two counts; (1) the tall
glass screens and posts completely ruin any long distance view of the
sculpture and (2) it's not really at a focal point of the station, as all
domestic pax are routed through the undercroft retail area.

"MichaelJP" wrote in message
...

BTW watching the last BBC programmes recently, to me the whole idea of the
statue being an icon for the station has failed on two counts; (1) the
tall glass screens and posts completely ruin any long distance view of the
sculpture and (2) it's not really at a focal point of the station, as all
domestic pax are routed through the undercroft retail area.

Indeed. I've been through the place three times this week, and
it was only when someone mentioned it here today that I
remembered it existed.

I haven't seen it at all - suppose I'll have to go upstairs and have
a look now!
--
Garry Smith

"Boltar" wrote in message
...
On Dec 11, 11:58 pm, "Lew 1"
wrote:
I may be far too cynical here, but it seems that in their efforts to
create
an arty farty "meeting place", the St Pancras team have forgotten about
the
most basic elements... seatings, signage and information displays.

Having watched the series on BBC2 about St P with the architect
getting into a flap about his doodleflips being 2 inches out of whack
and others making a big fuss about the retail side and yet more people
having kittens about marks on the statue , I suspect thats almost
certainly the case. I realise you can't trust the BBC editing much
these days , but not once did we see anyone making any comment about
anything to do with signs or displays.

B2003

True, but virtually everything they covered was to do with all the froth and
frippery of the marketing and PR side of the final stages of the project.

Such a missed opportunity, there must have been more tales to tell about the
construction than the guy who struggled to get the retailers' roof panels up
in time

It must have been an immense challenge to design and complete such a complex
project in and around three massively busy stations (4 with Thameslink).
Pity we didn't learn anything about it.

"Roland Perry" wrote in message
...
In message , at 18:34:59 on
Tue, 11 Dec 2007, Mike Roebuck remarked:
On Saturday lunchtime, queues for tickets in both LUL booking halls were
horrendous. This seems not to have been thought out properly at all.

The queues were horrendous in the old booking hall, and were horrendous in
the new one from the day it reopened. They just don't seem to want to put
enough staff on duty.
--
Roland Perry

I've seen these massive queues, why are there so many people who can't use
the automatic machines that take cash or cards?

Are they buying specialised tickets or some other reason?

In message , at 14:40:39
on Thu, 13 Dec 2007, MichaelJP remarked:
BTW watching the last BBC programmes recently, to me the whole idea of the
statue being an icon for the station has failed on two counts; (1) the tall
glass screens and posts completely ruin any long distance view of the
sculpture and (2) it's not really at a focal point of the station, as all
domestic pax are routed through the undercroft retail area.

Yes, it's in a bit of a backwater really. Almost as if the buffers were
designed too far from the front of the station and they though "hmm,
windswept empty space with no practical utility. I know, we'll stick a
big statue on it".
--
Roland Perry

jonmorris wrote:
The platforms are A and B (which in itself is rather confusing when
other St Pancras platforms are numbered) so the whole thing is a bit
of a mess. I know King's Cross TL was A and B, but what was the
reasoning for keeping that for an all-new station up the road?

It could well be because the Thameslink platforms are on a completely
different alignment and level to all the other StP platforms (1-13). The
same principle applies to Waterloo and Waterloo East.

snip

Still, while their train indicators are still showing trains in the
wrong order (and not being consistent on times at all), the Journey
Check (Nexus Alpha) service hasn't got any FCC trains listed at all
for St Pancras International. All you get are East Midland trains! Not
very good for checking your train is running or not.

If you check the Live Departure Boards on the National Rail website (or
even on the home page of the FCC website) you'll find that although it
only lists EMT services under the label 'London St Pancras (Domestic)
(STP)', it has a link to the page for FCC services which are listed
under 'London St Pancras (Low Level) (SPL)'.

There is also a page for Eurostar services under the label 'London St
Pancras (Intl)', but Eurostar don't share such data with National Rail
and therefore the page is of no real use.

In message , at 14:50:36
on Thu, 13 Dec 2007, MichaelJP remarked:
On Saturday lunchtime, queues for tickets in both LUL booking halls were
horrendous. This seems not to have been thought out properly at all.

The queues were horrendous in the old booking hall, and were horrendous in
the new one from the day it reopened. They just don't seem to want to put
enough staff on duty.

I've seen these massive queues, why are there so many people who can't use
the automatic machines that take cash or cards?

Are they buying specialised tickets or some other reason?

There are often big queues at the machines as well (I regularly fail to
find one free to top up my Oyster, so wait and do it somewhere else).

Given that it's busy all day long these people aren't commuters. I think
they must be mainly irregular passengers who are intimidated by the
machines and prefer to buy from a person.
--
Roland Perry

On Wed, 12 Dec 2007, Colin Rosenstiel wrote:

In article ,
(Tom Anderson) wrote:

On Wed, 12 Dec 2007, Colin Rosenstiel wrote:

In article

,
(Paul Oter) wrote:

On 11 Dec, 01:02, (Colin Rosenstiel) wrote:
In article
,

(Paul Oter) wrote:
On 9 Dec, 23:49, (Colin Rosenstiel) wrote:
In article ,
(Sky Rider) wrote:

How will one get a bike between the platforms and street
level then?

If the lifts (let's call them 1 and 2) are big enough then
your options a
Street level - Lift 1 - Southbound platform
Street level - Lift 1 - Mezzanine - Lift 2 - Northbound
platform

Ugh!

Alternatively one could carry one's bike up/down two long
stairs, with a mezzanine level in between.

Double-ugh! This is going to be the main railway London gateway
of the UK's premier cycling city from 2015!

I suppose you (and I) would be able to cycle to Farrington, City
Thameslink or Blackfriars for a slightly less onerous set of
steps :-)

Except that they are rather in the wrong direction for
Westminster.

You what? Westminster to Blackfriars is a substantially shorter and
easier ride than Westminster to King's Cross.

Only if you ignore the train running time. Anyway, how much better is the
platform-street level interchange there?

Pass. I've never used either of them, i'm afraid!

tom

--
[of Mulholland Drive] Cancer is pretty ingenious too, but its best to
avoid. -- Tex

Roland Perry wrote:
In message , at 14:40:39
on Thu, 13 Dec 2007, MichaelJP remarked:
BTW watching the last BBC programmes recently, to me the whole idea of
the
statue being an icon for the station has failed on two counts; (1) the
tall
glass screens and posts completely ruin any long distance view of the
sculpture and (2) it's not really at a focal point of the station, as all
domestic pax are routed through the undercroft retail area.

Yes, it's in a bit of a backwater really. Almost as if the buffers were
designed too far from the front of the station and they though "hmm,
windswept empty space with no practical utility. I know, we'll stick a
big statue on it".

While I agree with the above, it must be said that parts of the StP
complex (including most of the Euston Road forecourt and Carluccio’s
restaurant) are still a work in progress until 2010.