PREPARES FOR DOMESTIC SERVICES
WATERLOO IS the country’s busiest main line station and is set to get even busier. ‘The 90 million passengers handled at Waterloo in 2014-15 represent a 70% increase on the numbers seen in 1998; a further 40% rise is expected by 2043’ says Paula Haustead, Network Rail’s Senior Sponsor for the Waterloo and South West upgrade. More recent figures show that in 2015-16 these numbers reached nearly 100 million.
As explained in a feature in the November 2016 issue (p62), the £800 million Wessex upgrade is seeing a package of infrastructure and rolling stock measures introduced that will result in a 30% increase in capacity at peak times.
A central plank of the programme is lengthening the suburban platforms at Waterloo so that they will be able to host 10-car trains, a project set to be undertaken in a blockade in August 2017. In order to accommodate the services that will be displaced from the suburban side when the blockade is underway, the platforms at Waterloo International are being brought back into use for domestic services.
A number of modifications are needed to make the former Eurostar station fit for its new role. Level access from the main concourse is required, alo…
