London Waterloo Upgrade and Travel Disruption

• The United Kingdom’s busiest station, London Waterloo, is undergoing improvement works between 05 and 28 August 2017.
• The building work is expected to bring extensive travel delays, dependent on routes taken to the station.
• Once complete, there is expected to be 30 per cent greater capacity at the station.

Travel Information: Network rail have announced that between 05 and 28 August 2017, London Waterloo station is to undergo extensive improvement works. Waterloo is the United Kingdom’s busiest station and this building work is expected to bring delays at the station itself and on lines which terminate or begin there; South West Trains are the most impacted network. 234 million travellers use this line each year, a number that is expected to increase 40 per cent by the year 2043.

This improvement work is part of an £800 million investment scheme, the largest investment to this railway in decades. At the station itself, the aim of the work is to make the station more spacious, modern, and accessible, to increase the capacity of services by bringing platforms 20-24 back into use along with new tracks and signalling, and to extend platforms 1-4 to allow for longer trains on suburban routes. The improvement work should provide space for 30 per cent more passengers during peak time.

On the South West Trains network as a whole, there will also be upgrades at stations for longer trains on the Reading line, 30 new trains (150 extra carriages) between Waterloo and Windsor, new technology to improve efficiency and reliability, and improvements to maintenance facilities.

Between 05 and 28 August 2017, platforms one to nine will be closed at London Waterloo as building work takes place. To try and reduce inconveniences during this period, South West Trains have announced that longer trains will be run throughout the day to provide more space, 1000 extra members of staff will be deployed across the network, and platforms 20 to 24 will be opened temporarily to reduce the impact of platform closures.

During the improvements period, most stations on the South West Trains network will be served by fewer services and stations will likely be busier than usual with queuing outside stations possible (especially during peak periods), some journeys will take longer, a number of stations will be closed altogether, and other operators’ services will be busier during this period. This includes underground, overground, and bus services.