Media centre

Thursday 29 Sep 2016

Passengers asked to plan ahead for major changes at Waterloo during August 2017

Region & Route:

| Southern: Wessex

| Southern

Network Rail and South West Trains are today launching a campaign asking passengers to plan ahead for major changes taking place at London’s Waterloo station between 5-28 August 2017, as they continue to deliver an £800 million upgrade to the station and the railway, and the biggest investment in the London station for 80 years.

Passenger journeys on the lines into Waterloo have more than doubled from 108 million in 1996 to 234 million today. The Waterloo & South West Upgrade will provide more seats, longer trains and a bigger, better Waterloo by:

• Bringing the five platforms of the former international terminal back into use
• Extending platforms 1-4 to accommodate 10-car trains
• Introducing 10-car trains between Waterloo and Reading

The work to extend platforms 1-4 will require platforms 1-9 to be closed between 5-28 August 2017 inclusive.  As a result, there will be significant temporary changes to train services across the South West Trains network.

Stuart Kistruck, route managing director at Network Rail said, “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 re-open 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.”

Christian Roth, Managing Director at South West Trains, added: “The Waterloo and South West Upgrade is the biggest investment in this railway for decades and will provide more trains, more seats and more space for tens of thousands of passengers every day.

“We are doing everything we can to minimise the impact on passengers while the work is carried out but there will be some changes to services next summer, particularly between 5 and 28 August 2017. We are urging passengers, businesses and communities to start planning ahead now while we carry out this work.”

Network Rail and South West Trains are today handing out information leaflets and travel card holders to passengers with details of the changes, so that they can plan ahead for the changes next August. The impact of the changes will vary depending on where and when passengers are travelling, and an indication of the impact at each station can be found at networkrail.co.uk/wswupgrade and www.southwesttrains.co.uk/wswupgrade.

A timetable and more detailed travel advice will be published in the new year.

ENDS

NOTES TO EDITOR

This is the biggest investment in Waterloo for decades. It will provide a bigger and better London Waterloo and 30% more space for passengers during the morning and evenings. This will also allow us to provide more space for longer distance passengers in the near future.

At London Waterloo we are working to:

• Create a spacious, modern and accessible station concourse by rebuilding the former Waterloo International Terminal.
• Increase services by bringing platforms 20-24 back into permanent use and introducing modern facilities along with new track and signalling.
• Allow longer 10-carriage trains to run to London suburban stations by extending platforms 1-4.

Across the network, the Waterloo & South West Upgrade will bring:

• Longer platforms for longer trains, at a number of stations on the Reading line.
• 30 brand new trains, providing 150 extra carriages between London Waterloo and Windsor.
• New technology to make trains more efficient and improve punctuality.
• Improvements to depots and maintenance facilities to look after the network’s biggest ever fleet of trains.