St Pancras International Railway Station

St Pancras International is a really busy station. The train services available from here are: East Midlands Railway, Southeastern high-speed services, Thameslink and the Eurostar. In total there are 15 platforms throughout the station and a large number of shops and places to eat. In the main area of the station where the ticket office is located there is a large digital screen with information about trains and a helpful guide on how to get to the right platform. I’ve included a picture in this review of that board so you can see what it looks like. The platforms are located on a different level to the main station concourse and there are lifts up to them all. The lifts vary in size with some being very spacious and others being quite small. The smaller lifts can create a bottleneck of people trying to get to where they need to go so I would definitely recommend allowing plenty of time to navigate the station. There were staff at every single ticket barrier so it was very easy to let them know I was there. If there wasn’t someone from the access team already there, the staff member would radio for someone. There was also a station reception located near the toilets. I was able to check in with them as well when I was unsure about where to meet the access staff and they pointed me in the right direction and radioed ahead to make sure someone met me there. I found that although the station was busy, it wasn’t too bad to navigate for the most part. Some of the smaller lifts did slow down my journey but a staff member told me there are plans to install new lifts to help alleviate this problem. The historic nature of the buildings combined with the more modern design elements make this a really beautiful station!

Heading into St Pancras Station to catch a Eurostar to Amsterdam, we found the station to be a fascinating array of busyness, shops, a piano or two, and places to eat.

I don’t know how people find their way around this railway station, without the help of the Railway Assist. When booking a train, ASK FIR ASSISTANCE IF YOUR JOURNEY MEANS GOING THROUGH THIS STATION!!!!!! The railway assist staff are very helpful, but they are very hard to understand as, for a lot of them, English is not there first language, and they cannot comprehend and empathise my disability and they think I’m just ‘putting it on’. There is only one accessible toilet in the whole of the railway station and that isn’t very good. There isn’t any facilities for helping disabled people interchange to the London Underground and there are no announcements on the station. There are lots of lifts, but there are no Braille signs to tell blind people where to go or Braille on the lift buttons. There was also a piano playing, but if you were very near it, it drowned out the only PA announcement that was the usual “See it, say it, sorted,” police announcements. I had a first class ticket and didn’t realise there was a First Class lounge until someone on the train, after I’d got on the next train to Ashford, told me about it; and I’m not blind! What’s the point of having a First Class ticket if us disabled people can’t use them, because the Rail Assist people assume that we can’t afford a first class ticket?