St Pancras is an example of just how badly the private sector can do things in the UK.
A couple of weeks ago I went to Paris by Eurostar from Waterloo. The station was more than adequate, Everything I might need was there.
I've been in Brussels the last couple of days. St Pancras is dire. The station has opened but is bare, empty, lifeless. It might have gloss, but where is the bustle that once made this a grand place? It is genuinely the closest thing to a morgue I've been into for a long time. And who on earth put in a twenty foot statue that you cannot stand back and appreciate?
Worse, why are none of the shops open? That's just madness in terms of project scheduling. It looks and feels like a failing shopping centre in an old mining town right now.
And as for the departure lounge, if the station is a morgue then this is the crypt. It has one coffee shop, one very mediocre and unnamed tat shop and no bureau de change. What sort of service is that meant to be? If anyone even wants a cash machine they have to be sent onto the Euston Road.
The trains might be running but St Pancras is not open and is not fit for business.
Crazy. Welcome to the UK.
Thanks for reading this post.
You can share this post on social media of your choice by clicking these icons:
You can subscribe to this blog's daily email here.
And if you would like to support this blog you can, here:
Buy me a coffee!
Welcome to your typical UK attitude. Can’t you just step back and appreciate the Grade 1, one of a kind in the world, building you were standing in and be proud?
Nope.. you were upset there weren’t more shops open. They could have not opened the station because the shops weren’t finished and we could have had another huge British project not finished on time!
The project cost £5.8bn. St Pancras was a mere £0.8bn of that cost. I think it’s narrowminded to criticise it because some of the shops weren’t completed on time.
The building was erected in 1867. I’m proud of what the Midland Railway built, not the recent revamp.
I’ve being going there since the 1970s, on and off. And I rather liked the place.
And I’m not upset about the shops per se – I’m upset about the incompetence that there are no facilities when they existed before the change, and that we are utterly unable to manage projects in our commercial sector.
I also think the drevamp detracts from the 1867 station – but that’s my opinion. But I would ask what is the tack on shed on the front all about? Is it a carbunckle? It seems like it to me.
Richard