黑洞社区

At a time when all major infrastructure investment is under such close scrutiny, inaccurate speculation inferring that projects are late and/or over budget is at best unhelpful and arguably reckless.

It鈥檚 particularly disappointing to see that sort of negativity coming from a journal that surely should be celebrating British talent, skills and achievement, all of which are in plentiful supply at Blackfriars.

The story ignores entirely the fact that the new station will be accommodating longer, 12-car trains, as planned, from December 2011, bringing massive extra capacity to one of the rail network鈥檚 busiest routes. The story also implies that there are budget issues at Blackfriars.

To be clear, despite the challenges inherent in building a new station across an almost entirely new bridge over one of the fastest flowing and busiest rivers in the UK, the Blackfriars station project is on target for completion by Network Rail within the Thameslink Programme budget.

This will give us the first ever station to span the Thames, providing London with an iconic landmark structure, and rail travellers with a vastly improved service from 2011.

Simon Kirby, director of investment projects, Network Rail
Andrew McNaughton, chief operating officer, Balfour Beatty Civil Engineering