Waterloo station upgrade

On the early hours of the 5th of August 2017 a 1000 strong workforce began work to lengthen platforms 1 to 4 at London Waterloo. This work is part of a £800m upgrade of the station which will increase capacity at the UK's busiest railway station.

Platforms 1 to 4 are being lengthened to accommodate 10 car suburban trains which will begin operating from December 2017. In order to undertake the work Netowork Rail has closed platforms 1 - 10 for 24 days. This is to allow engineers to modify platforms 5 - 8 in order to accommodate the new longer trains, track approaching platforms 1 - 8 is also being modified.

The "orange army" hard at work modifying tracks and platforms 

On the day of my visit there happened to be a partial derailment of a South West train which had run into stationary freight wagons. The wagons were being used as a "barrier train" to separate the engineering works from the operational railway. Fortunately none of the 23 passengers or 2 staff members were injured. The incident meant that in addition to platforms 1 - 10 being closed, platforms 10 - 13 were also closed for all of Tuesday and platform 13 remained out of use on Wednesday as Engineers repaired the track.
Matrix sign advising passengers of the platform closures

It appeared that many people heeded advice to avoid the station on Tuesday as it looked quieter than it appeared in other images and news stories that I had seen. Even so the large number of staff that were on hand to assist travellers were kept busy. The ladies in gentlemen in orange and pink hi-vis deserve a lot of credit for the help they are providing under what were and still are difficult circumstances.


The extension of platforms 1 - 4 is part of a wider upgrade of the station which will see the eventual permanent re-opening of the International platforms that served Eurostar trains bound for Europe up until the 13th of November 2007.

During the work to lengthen platforms 1 - 4 platforms, 20 - 24 have been opened temporarily to minimise disruption to passengers. Once work to lengthen 1 - 4 is complete after the August bank holiday platforms 20 - 24 will once again close.

Platforms 20 - 24 will eventually fully reopen in December 2018 and will serve the Windsor line allowing up to up to 60[1] trains per hour at peak times. The task of bringing platforms 20 - 24 back in to use has been no small task, they were designed to accommodate infrequent international trains 400m in length, not a high-frequency suburban/urban timetable. 

In order to accommodate a greater number of passengers, 15m of the old rails will be concreted over to increase the size of the concourse, at the same time the disused passport control desks, information desks and bureau de change will be removed to be replaced with new ticket machines and barriers.


The iconic roof of the International station designed by Grimshaw Architects

Work to bring platforms 20 - 24 back into service actually began in March 2016 and a lot of work has already been undertaken with little impact to the travelling public. The image below shows the scale of the work undertaken, and should help to demonstrate why has taken so long to bring the platforms back into use. 

[click to enlarge]


Waterloo upgrade facts and figures 
  • 99m passengers a year currently pass through London Waterloo
  • 10 car suburban trains will operate from platform 1 - 4 from Dec 2017
  • Upgrade cost £800m
  • 1000 engineering working 24 hours a day between August 5th and 28th
  • 30 brand new trains, providing 150 extra carriages introduced from Dec 2018
  • 30% increase in capacity by Dec 2018
  • Enough extra capacity to cater for 45,000 extra passengers every morning and evening
  • Over 2 years from start to completion
For travel information during the upgrade work click here

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Comments

  1. Addisonf13 September 2017 at 10:10

    As I know about Waterloo is quite simple. All the platforms are in a line. It's a very big and busy station all the time, so much rush there. I don't even know what type of fabric structure and other construction technologies used in Waterloo station but overall I'm damn sure it's going to be great.

    ReplyDelete

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