King’s Cross

Part of Network Rail’s engineering at King’s Cross station in central London will include includes platform redevelopment work. This will involve the demolition and rebuilding of platforms 0-11. The multi-million pound track renewal, signalling and overhead line equipment replacement project, is designed to enable more trains to enter the station, reduce congestion and provide passengers with more reliable journeys.

Network Rail engineers replaced track, overhead lines and signalling, simplified the tracks on the approach to the station. They also reopened a disused tunnel after 44 years, to increase capacity from four to six tracks. The platform redevelopment work at London King’s Cross involved the installation of six kilometres of new track, more than 20 kilometres of overhead wires, 30 new sets of points and 50 signals.

The large scale project began during the height of the pandemic. At this time a large number of construction projects were delayed, or they completely stopped because of restrictions. As the London King’s Cross project was deemed critical to national infrastructure, thermal cameras were installed to check the temperature of all workers. This automated approach enabled work to continue, while all staff were screened for symptoms of Covid-19.

As part of the project, the Hoard-it team installed 70LM of site hoarding panels on Platform 6 for Morgan Sindall Construction.

The King’s Cross work will also include a re-opening of a third tunnel. This was closed in the 1970s, and will create six tracks into the station, instead of the four currently in operation. In turn, it will allow more trains to use the station per hour. By solving the tunnels congesting they can increase the number of trains during rush hour, delivering extra capacity, which works out at an extra 10,000 seats per day.