"One of the capital's busiest Underground stations is to shut for nearly
three years. Blackfriars station, used by about 44,000 City workers and
tourists every day, will close for works to upgrade the main line
Thameslink."

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/transport/article4467645...

March 2009 until late 2011.

"Yesterday's announcement prompted concerns about commuter disruption, with
the nearest Tube stations ten minutes' walk away. There were also fears of
delays to the planned works because Network Rail has been criticised for
presiding over several project overruns."

Nice to see the Times taking the pessimist view...

"Richard Parry, London Underground's director of strategy and service
development, said: "The redevelopment of Blackfriars Underground station is
part of Network Rail works. Once the works are complete, customers will get
a new upgraded station with step-free access, increased capacity and better
interchange facilities between the Tube and national rail services."

"Paul Scott" btinternet.com> wrote in message
news:zbmdnYbfhq8WdgTVnZ2dnUVZ8rKdnZ2d@bt.com...

Paul Scott wrote:

Blackfriars is the station closest to my old school (City of London) and if
it had been closed when I went there I would have been almost permanently
late in the mornings and in the afternoons the combined effect of getting to
the nearest station (Temple?) and the mainline timetable would have almost
doubled my journey home. Nice!

Oh yes, I've had *so* many problems interchanging with the current set-up at
Blackfriars!

hounslow3@yahoo.co.uk wrote:

BAA never took the T4 out of service while the underground station was
upgraded ;-)

"Paul Scott" btinternet.com> wrote in
news:zbmdnYbfhq8WdgTVnZ2dnUVZ8rKdnZ2d@bt.com:

The network rail media centre has a lovely image of the new South Bank
entrance at Blackfrairs (click on the image for a hi-res version). Not
only is the signage to the London Underground corporate image (I assume the
tube is staying on the North bank) but it is clearly a 4-VEP leaving the
new station ....

http://www.networkrailmediacentre.co.uk/Content/Detail.asp?ReleaseID=3854
&NewsAreaID=2&SearchCategoryID=2

David

In message eclipse.net.uk>, Philip
Hardy phardy.karoo.co.uk> writes

In reality, very little work was done to the T4 station other than a bit
of a deep clean.

The work was to create the junction for the T5 line and trains couldn't
run
through T4 whilst this was happening, it was not to upgrade T4.

On Aug 6, 7:20 pm, "Paul Scott" btinternet.com>
wrote:

On 6 Aug, 22:55, darkprince66 yahoo.co.uk> wrote:

I know, that was my reaction. If we weren't spoiled we wouldn't be so
worried. Chancery Lane, Holborn etc aren't far. By the standards of
many towns and cities, Waterloo isn't far.

Francis

On Aug 7, 1:48 am, "fjm...@gmail.com" gmail.com> wrote:

True, but it still makes you wonder how _necessary_ the closure really
is. As far as I recall, the works are to extend the platforms (to the
south bank) and create four through ones instead of two through and
three bays - I'm sure someone _could_ work out a way to do this
leaving one platform open each time (even if Northbound only or
whatever).