Kings Cross & St Pancras Train Stations London
A Visitors Overview To St Pancras and Kings Cross Stations & Immediate Station District
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| St Pancras Station |
Kings Cross and St Pancras International Stations stand adjacent to one another and share the same Underground Station. Kings Cross stations main use is for services up the East Coast Line to Scotland via York and Newcastle. There are also some suburban commuter trains to just north of London from Kings Cross.
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| Getting To Kings Cross & St Pancras |
| Kings Cross St Pancras Stations |
St Pancras International is most famous for being the Eurostar train terminal in London. Frequent services run to Paris and beyond. There are services to the East Midlands of England via Luton, towns like Nottingham and Sheffield.
Other fast services have been introduced notably to Ashford and Dover part using the massive recent investment in the Eurostar line.
Also serving Kings Cross and St Pancras is the First Capital trains with direct and frequent services to both Luton and Gatwick Airports.
The London Underground offers direct trains to Heathrow Airport.
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So, all in all Kings Cross St Pancras is arguably the major transport hub in Central London.
St Pancras Station
The original St Pancras station, with its vast single span roof and Victorian Gothic facade, opened in 1868 and became a London con. Now fully restored to house the 400-metre-long Eurostar trains, and given a stunning contemporary twist, it has been reborn as St Pancras International.
St Pancras International offers a full range of shops, bars and restaurants. There is a world-class brasserie, Europe's longest champagne bar, and a daily farmers market.
Because of the international departures there are lots of boutique style retail outlets like those typically found in an international airport terminal.
There is WiiFi connectivity. Eurostar Lounges are available conducive to work or rest.
A Left Luggage office is situated at ground floor level and is open Mon-Sat 0700-2100, Sun 0915-2045.
Kings Cross Station
King's Cross is the London terminus for the east coast main line. The station was opened in 1852 and the station roof, the largest at the time, was supposedly modeled on the riding school of the Czars of Moscow. It is also rumoured that Queen Boudicaa is buried beneath platform 8. Over 40 million people pass through the station each year.
Harry Potter devotees make the pilgrimage to Kings Cross to see Platform 9 3/4 where Harry departed for Hogwarts.
There is a left luggage facility at Kings Cross mainline station operated by the Excess Baggage Company - the company have their own web site. The office is open 7 days a week from 07:00 to 23:00. You can find the office outside at the front of the station, not within the station itself.
There is the normal shops and kiosks you would associate with a major rail station. There are countless outlets offering mostly snack foods from Burger King through baguettes, pizza's, pastries to bars and restaurants offering more substantial fayre.
There is a branch of Boots chemists and of course a choice of newsagents and money exchange facilities.
Toilets and showers are located on platform 8, for which there is a small charge. A disabled toilet, plus a parent and baby facility, are also on platform 8.
Purchasing Train Tickets
As a general rule of thumb for journeys of around an hour or so there is no financial advantage in pre purchasing, you may as well buy at the station on day of travel. For longer journeys, advance purchase fares offer great savings. The three types of tickets are broadly :
| Advance Purchase | Buy in advance, sold in limited numbers and subject to availability. These tickets are only valid on the date/train specified. |
| Off Peak | Buy any time, travel off-peak. these tickets may require you to travel at specific times of day, days of the week or on a specific route. Where there is more than one Off-Peak fare for a journey, the cheaper fare with more restrictions will be called Super Off-Peak. |
| Anytime | Buy any time, travel any time. Anytime fares are fully flexible tickets, with no time restrictions on when you can travel. With an Anytimeticket you can also break your journey at stations along the route of travel. |
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| Advance Purchase Ticket Collection |
For longer distance trains, traveling by rail can be very expensive purchasing standard fares, often more expensive than flying. Advance purchase tickets on these longer distances on the other hand can be bargains.
For the overseas visitor this can present problems as there are with few exceptions no true etickets delivered by email at present. Tickets can be sent to UK addresses only. You can however order tickets on-line and pick up the tickets from machines at key mainline stations including St Pancras and Kings Cross..
At train stations there are manned ticket offices and also ticket machines. All major credit cards are taken as well as cash.
For fares and timetables use 'The Trainline' web site.
You can purchase tickets at 'The Trainline' web site. Tickets are mailed to UK addresses only or you can opt to collect them from machines at main stations. You are sent a unique code which you enter into the machine which dispenses the tickets.
Note, most trains are only confirmed up to 3 months in advance. So if you search for a journey further ahead than 3 months you may well get an incomplete picture of available schedules and tickets.
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