Network Rail and South West Trains are asking rail passengers to plan their journeys ahead of a major phase of works taking place at London’s Waterloo station on 5 – 28 August 2017.
The work is part of the ongoing £800m upgrade of Waterloo, Britain’s busiest station, which is the biggest investment in the station for 80 years.
Passenger journeys on the railway lines into Waterloo have more than doubled from 108 million in 1996 to 234 million today. The Waterloo & South West Upgrade will make more passenger journeys possible by providing longer trains with more seats, and a bigger, better Waterloo station – leading to a 30 per cent increase in the station’s peak-time capacity by 2019.
Extending platforms 1-4 at the station will make it possible for new 10-car trains to travel on the route between London Waterloo and Reading. Platforms 1-9 will need to close during August next year so that this work can take place, and as a result there will be significant temporary changes to train services across the South West Trains network.
“Work to deliver our Railway Upgrade Plan at Waterloo is progressing at a fantastic rate and this will continue behind the scenes, but from August 5 – 28 next year we will temporarily shift all of our services along the station so that we can lengthen platforms 1-4.
During this period we will be closing platforms 1-9, so services will use the other existing platforms as well as platforms 20-24, which will reopen during August’s changes. As there will be major impacts on services, we want everyone to have plenty of time to plan ahead while we invest for better journeys down the line,” said Stuart Kistruck, route managing director at Network Rail.
The impact of the changes will depend on where and when passengers are travelling. A timetable and more detailed travel advice will be published in the new year.
For an indication of the impact at each station, visit our Waterloo & South West Upgrade project page or South West Trains’ website.
New lease of life for Waterloo International Terminal
As part of the Waterloo & South West Upgrade, the five platforms of the former Waterloo International Terminal (WIT) – 20 to 24 – will be brought back into use, creating more space for passengers and trains at London Waterloo station.
Work on the former WIT has been taking place since March 2016, and will help to link the spacious terminal with the existing London Waterloo station.
Among the changes, the Victory Arch war memorial in Waterloo station will gain more prominence when a bridge is built to link it to a new concourse that will be created from the former WIT.
This new space will be opened up by removing the glazing and old departure boards that separate the former WIT from London Waterloo. The new area of concourse will be increased in size by partially filling in the railway lines of platforms 20 to 24.
(Source: Network Rail)
