KGX London Kings Cross Station (Kings Cross Station)

Member Name: hunnybabyuk

Product:	Kings Cross Station
Date:	20/09/09 (58 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Unlimited number of possible journey's & a good station with easy connections onto tube/bus/Eurostar

Disadvantages: Staff attitude

London Kings Cross (KGX) station opened in 1852 & is one of the main terminus points for trains into and out of London & a major point for lines on the London Underground.

The station is large and historic, it's quite a nice station for its design & texture.

4 train companies operate routes into & out of the station, they are, Hull Trains with daily express departures to Hull, National Express East Coast with regular express trains to Peterborough, Doncaster, Leeds, York, Durham, Newcastle & Scotland, Grand Central running services do York, Sunderland & Hartlepool and First Capital Connect running services to North, East & South London. It's also planned for a new operator, Grand Northern, to start services in May 2010 between KGX and Bradford, Yorkshire.

The station connects with St Pancra's station to the West of KGX where you'll find Eurostar trains.

Getting to and from the station is easy, many buses stop right outside the station every other minute to many destinations across the capital you can also connect with the stations own tube station, 'Kings Cross St Pancras' using 6 tube lines (Circle, Hammersmith & City, Metropolitan, Northern, Picadilly & Victoria). You can also cycle as cycle racks are available at the station or trains allow you to take cycles with you.

The station is open 24 hours a day with trains running from early morning until late at night, the stations ticket office which is operated by National Express East Coast, is open from early hours to very late into the night where you can buy tickets for advance travel, get information, help, assistance or pick up printed timetables for all operators using the station. You can also buy tickets for immediate travel either the ticket counter or using one of quite a "few" fast ticket machines, theres plenty of them and they are very easy to use. Use the touchscreen to search for your fare, it allows you to select different ticket types, select any destination on the National Rail Network (not just ones that have trains direct from KGX) and lets you add railcards to get your discount too. Pay using cash or credit/debit cards securely with chip & pin. The tickets are then printed for you. FastTicket Machines are located both inside & outside the travel centre.

Staff from National Express East Coast are not the most friendly nor the most helpful, they are generally rude, inconsiderate & lack any interest in customer service. That said, they are not all bad, some are nice with a friendly smile and are willing to help you in anyway they can but the majority don't want to know you or hear what you have to ask. Not very good considering GNER lost it's franchise and now the same staff seem to be making National Express risk losing it too, get rid of the lot of them and re-hire is what I say.

The station has various facilities including toilets (which you have to pay for & they are never really that clean so god knows what we pay for) baby changing facilities, cafes, restaurants and shops. Brand names at the station include WHSmiths, Burger King & Upper Crust.

KGX is fully accessable for wheelchair passengers, with DDA compliant FastTicket machines one located inside the travel centre and one outside it.

Overall KGX is a good station, it's a nice design and the refurbishment of the St Pancras connection is going well, you can now use Kings Cross to connect, not only onto tube lines for connections with other rail stations but onto Eurostar services to places like Paris & Brussels using the underground walkway to connect to St Pancras International station. The station layout confuses some people right now as entrances & exits, especially to/from the tube keep changing whilst work is carried out but generally it's all good. My only complaint is STAFF ATTITUDE at the station.

Summary: Good station with good possible connections