Dear all,
Andy Rush in his reply to the queries posted by Robin Johnson stated:
>Re-opening for Thameslink passenger trains took place on 26.04.1988
>The line between Farringdon and Blackfriars was re-routed in tunnel with a
>new station at St Paul's Thameslink (now City Thameslink)replacing Holborn
>Viaduct with effect from 29.05.1990.
The line through Snow Hill tunnel used to come up alongside the western
side of London Holborn Viaduct Station joining route to Blackfriars on
viaduct just south of the throat at Holborn Viaduct.
The station at HV had been partially modernised in the 1960's (I think)
with a modern office block fronting the station onto the road. The station
was only really busy during the peak periods and I remember commuting there
on the odd occassion in 1977 and 1978. Outside of the peak the station had
a very sleepy air to it given that it was in the middle of one of the
larger cities of the world.
The Thameslink scheme effectively replaced much of HV station. The only
remaining part of the station that remains is the office block at the front
and even this has been changed. Behind the frontage the platforms and
concourse were removed and the cutting before snow hill tunnel opened out.
New City Thameslink platforms were built in this space and a box was built
over the station. This allowed services to run whilst the redevelopment of
the "air rights" above the station were exploited. New offices, shops and
retail facilities were built.
Robin Johnson wrote:
>Wasn't the route originally also accessible via a link on the old York
Road >platform side of King's Cross?
The suburban services on the northern side of the route came in from the GN
lines via connections at King's Cross. The remnants of the tunnel from
York Road station and tunnel entrance can be seen on the left of King's
Cross if you are facing South. I believe there are some remains to the
west of the King's Cross suburban station? These were replaced when the
Great Northern City Branch was taken over by BR in 1976/7, with the Class
313 EMU's providing service. The services from Bedford to Moorgate
continued to use the City widened lines These too were electrified under
the BedPan scheme in the late 1970's with the Class 317 EMU's providing
service. Where the GN joined the widened lines is now the site of King's
Cross Thameslink station. With a largish scale map you can still discern
the alignment of the York Road to Widened lines route. I recall reading an
article recently in Backtrack about this.
The current situation with Thameslink is that it is a highly successful
rail link. The impetus for developing the route came from the GLC (Ken
Livingstone et al). Once the penny had clicked BR and its successors have
taken the route to be a very valuable "cash cow". The success spawned the
concept of Thameslink 2000 back in the mid 1990's. This was to be a
significant upgrade of the system to allow for 24 trains per hour through
the central core section - St Pancras Midland Road Thameslink to London
Bridge(18 tph)/Elephant & Castle (6 tph). King's Cross Thameslink would be
replaced by St Pancras Midland Road Thameslink, Farringdon would have a
major upgrade and provide a major interchange with LUL and CrossRail Lines
and Blackfriars would have a new "architecturally fitting" station across
the river.
A new viaduct would relieve some of the capacity between Borough Market
Junction and Metropolitan Junction and flyovers south of London Bridge
would provide conflict free operation of services at busy junctions. The
concept was one of a regional metro system linking major centres in the
South East with fairly frequent North/South Cross London services.
The Transport and Works Act Enquiry was held last year but the result has
not yet been given. The project is critically tied in with a number of
other projects - principally phase 2 of the CTRL to St Pancras as the CTRL
will have to build the new station box and associated junctions linking the
GN to the route at St Pancras Midland Road Thameslink.
Ernest Godward
Ernest Godward
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