London King's Cross railway station

King's Cross railway station, also known as London King's Cross, is a passenger railway terminus in the London Borough of Camden, on the edge of Central London. It is in the London station group, one of the busiest stations in the United Kingdom and the southern terminus of the East Coast Main Line to North East England and Scotland. Adjacent to King's Cross station is St Pancras International, the London terminus for Eurostar services to continental Europe. Beneath both main line stations is King's Cross St Pancras tube station on the London Underground; combined they form one of the country's largest transport hubs.

The station was opened in Kings Cross in 1852 by the Great Northern Railway on the northern edge of Central London to accommodate the East Coast Main Line. It quickly grew to cater for suburban lines and was expanded several times in the 19th century. It came under the ownership of the London and North Eastern Railway as part of the Big Four grouping in 1923, who introduced famous services such as the Flying Scotsman and locomotives such as Mallard. The station complex was redeveloped in the 1970s, simplifying the layout and providing electric suburban services, and it became a major terminus for the high-speed InterCity 125. , long-distance trains from King's Cross are run by London North Eastern Railway to Edinburgh Waverley, Leeds and Newcastle; other long-distance operators include Hull Trains and Grand Central. In addition, Great Northern runs suburban commuter trains in and around north London.

In the late 20th century, the area around the station became known for its seedy and downmarket character, and was used as a backdrop for several films as a result. A major redevelopment was undertaken in the 21st century, including restoration of the original roof, and the station became well known for its association with the Harry Potter books and films, particularly the fictional Platform 9¾.

Location and name
The station stands on the London Inner Ring Road at the eastern end of Euston Road, next to the junction with Pentonville Road, Gray's Inn Road and York Way, in what is now the London Borough of Camden. Immediately to the west, on the other side of Pancras Road, is St Pancras railway station. Several London bus routes, including 10, 30, 59, 73, 91, 205, 390, 476 pass in front of or to the side of the station.

King's Cross is spelled both with and without an apostrophe. King's Cross is used in signage at the Network Rail and London Underground stations, on the Tube map and on the official Network Rail webpage. It rarely featured on early Underground maps, but has been consistently used on them since 1951. Kings X, Kings + and London KX are abbreviations used in space-limited contexts. The National Rail station code is KGX.

Services
The station hosts services on inter-city routes to the East of England, Yorkshire, North East England and eastern and northern Scotland, connecting to major cities and towns such as Cambridge, Peterborough, Hull, Doncaster, Leeds, Bradford, York, Sunderland, Newcastle, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen and Inverness. Since June 2018, these major routes have been under government control, taking over from Stagecoach and Virgin.

Train services
Four train operating companies run services from King's Cross:

London North Eastern Railway
London North Eastern Railway operates high speed inter-city services along the East Coast Main Line.

Thameslink and Great Northern
Thameslink and Great Northern operates outer-suburban services to North London, Hertfordshire, Cambridgeshire and West Norfolk.

Hull Trains
Hull Trains operates daily inter-city services to Hull and a limited weekday service to Beverley via the East Coast Main Line. Unlike other train companies in FirstGroup, Hull Trains operates under an open-access arrangement and is not a franchised train operating company.

Grand Central
Grand Central operates inter-city services to Bradford and Sunderland along the East Coast Main Line and is an open-access operator. On 23 May 2010 it began services to Bradford Interchange via Halifax, Brighouse, Mirfield, Wakefield, Pontefract and Doncaster which had originally been due to begin in December 2009.

Tube station
King's Cross St. Pancras tube station is served by more lines than any other station on the London Underground. In 2005, it was the busiest tube station, but has been overtaken by others since. It is in Travelcard Zone 1 and caters for both Kings Cross and the neighbouring St. Pancras railway station.

The station opened as part of the first section of Metropolitan Railway project on 10 January 1863; the first part of the Underground to open. It was expanded to accommodate the Great Northern, Piccadilly and Brompton Railway (now the Piccadilly line) in 1906, with the City & South London Railway (now the Northern line) opening a year later.

The Victoria line platforms were opened in 1968. A major expansion to accommodate High Speed 1 at St Pancras opened in November 2009.

Video links

 * 1935, Demonstration run of 'Silver Jubilee' to Grantham
 * 1944, Retirement of driver Duddington
 * 1938, Stirling Single special train