A question mark hangs over the £16m fit-out of one of the rail stations at the centre of the regeneration of the King's Cross St Pancras area, writes Sally Mesner.
St Pancras station, in central London, is to be moved to a position opposite King's Cross to integrate the Thameslink and Channel Tunnel Rail Link train lines.

However, the £2bn north-south London Thameslink 2000 project, which was due to start on site in July, has been postponed for "at least a year". Design and construction teams, including those working on London Bridge, Blackfriars and Farringdon stations, have been told to halt work on the project at the end of March.

This has left the design team for St Pancras wondering whether their job will go ahead – although Thameslink has been postponed, the relocation of the station is integral to the CTRL project, which remains on course.

If Thameslink teams are being stood down, what will happen to St Pancras?

St Pancras station project team source

A source on the St Pancras design team, which includes architect Pascall + Watson, expressed his concern. He said: "If Thameslink teams are being stood down, what will happen to this project? It has to go ahead as part of the CTRL works, but we have not yet been told whether to continue on the detailed design work for the fit-out."

CTRL says it is building the St Pancras superstructure for Network Rail, but it is not working on the fit-out. A spokesperson for CTRL said: "We are building a concrete box for the Thameslink underground station and we are building the CTRL station on top. We haven't been told not to proceed with construction, but we haven't been asked to do the fit-out."

However, Thameslink 2000 said it was not doing the fit-out either. A spokesperson admitted that there was a "muddled picture" as to who was funding what on the Thameslink project. He confirmed that Network Rail was funding Thameslink, but said it was not providing any funding for St Pancras station, despite CTRL's claims that it is building the station's superstructure for Network Rail.