There seems to be some surreptitious widening of the pavement on the West side of York Way alongside Kings Cross station.  This in itself is a good thing – the pavement there is much too narrow (about a metre at one point) and cluttered with street furniture to be fit for purpose.   But it isn’t clear how this fits in with the overall plans to close the entrance to the top of platform one at the junction with Wharfdale Road.

Simply widening the pavement isn’t enough – it needs better lighting and an overall rework of that side of York Way and York Way itself.  I have asked Dominic Pendry at Network Rail to let me know where they have got to but i haven’t heard anything.  You can catch up with the history of this saga rapidly here.  We need to see something that is compliant with the very sensible Government ‘Manual for Streets’ (see here)

‘Places and streets that have stood the test of time are those where traffic and otheractivities have been integrated successfully,and where buildings and spaces, and the needs of people, not just of their vehicles, shape the area. Experience suggests that many of the street patterns built today will last for hundreds of years. We owe it to present and future generations to create well-designed places that will serve the needs of the local community well.’

York Way, as currently laid out is an awful street dominated by car and bus thinking from the 1970s, completely ignoring the needs of pedestrians.