please empty your brain below
Suspect the trains will still stop at Blackfriars but the doors will not open. Need to keep the gap between the services y'see.

Rob | 02.03.09 - 8:08 a.m. | #

Suspect the trains will not quite stop at Blackfriars. Need to observe speed restricting "home" signals to prevent overrunning station stop y'see.

Unless they temporarily both remove these and introduce a new timetable to account for the saved time.

Pedantic of Purley | 02.03.09 - 8:40 a.m. | #

You missed that the through platforms will also be shifted to the east. The new station will take up roughly the same footprint on the bridge, only absorbing the innermost set of zombie pillars.

(the biggest shift is south - the north end of all of the platforms will be above the river)

Rob: You're probably right. The signalling beyond each platform is only designed to safely stop trains going at less than 5 mph or less. This eeks out a little more capacity, but means trains have to run through very slowly even when the station is closed.

Mr Thant | 02.03.09 - 8:42 a.m. | #

Those travelling to Embankment or someplace like that are screwed, admittedly. But if they needed the east end of the City, St. Paul's is about a 5 minute walk from City Thameslink's north entrance. Like any tube work in the City, I've not an ounce of sympathy - the area is densely populated by all manner of transport, and whinging about it is sheer laziness. I've loved it in the past when they've shut stations for work - it gives me a new and interesting path to work.

Chz | 02.03.09 - 8:56 a.m. | #

All rush hour trains pass through Elephant & Castle, which gets you the Bakerloo Line to Embankment. Off-peak, many trains instead pass through London Bridge, which has frequent trains to Charing Cross on the same platform.

Mr Thant | Homepage | 02.03.09 - 10:15 a.m. | #

An extra hour and a half walking each week will probably add years onto the average city commuter's life. Not to mention take inches off their waistlines. The rush for new trousers will revive the moribund economy and hey presto, credit crunch over.

Not living in London any more seems to have revived my ability to look on the bright side... funny that.

disgruntled | Homepage | 02.03.09 - 10:18 a.m. | #

It's going to be an improvement for some commuters, my daily commute from Catford to St Pancras will now be direct rather than requiring a change at Blackfriars so I can't wait.

Darren | 02.03.09 - 10:22 a.m. | #

If your recently revised District line commute takes you through Blackfriars Station then I assume you are still boarding the District line at Bow road station, why then have you ceased buying your weekly magazines from the stall outside Bow road station?

fishislandskin | 02.03.09 - 10:32 a.m. | #

I loved your way of seeing the funny side at the end (of a less funny story). And it's not because I don't live in UK anymore!

Briga | Homepage | 02.03.09 - 11:22 a.m. | #

Apparently Tower Hill DLR has reopened today.
Anyone taken a look?

Dan | 02.03.09 - 12:34 p.m. | #

There is a good set of computer images of the construction programme in modern Railways this month - does anyone know if they are online somewhere?

Ian | Homepage | 02.03.09 - 2:39 p.m. | #

that's more like it! and not a syrup-bashing sentence in sight! well done!

k | 02.03.09 - 2:54 p.m. | #

The trains don't stop at Blackfriars.

But they do stop for longer than usual at the station beforehand so that the driver can read out a pre-planned statement about the closure. It's a rather long announcement, with the important news included twice in case you didn't hear it the first time.

So I'm not saving any minutes at all

diamond geezer | Homepage | 02.03.09 - 5:58 p.m. | #

I'm just thankful I don't often need to use Blackfriars tube station. Nearly three years of disruption could be very awkward otherwise.

Let's just hope that Blackfriars doesn't remain closed for the best part of a decade, as happened with Mornington Crescent in the '90s (I bet Radio 4 listeners were overjoyed when it eventually reopened).

Andrewh | 02.03.09 - 11:58 p.m. | #

"Pre-planned", dg? Surely not you as well! Does this indicate a greater level of planning than, well, just planning? You'll be pre-booking tables at restaurants and pre-preparing presentations next, like half the philistines out there.

kenromford | 03.03.09 - 10:36 p.m. | #











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