Waterloo International Station

Waterloo International

 

By 1990, the 1885-built ''Windsor'' platforms had been boarded off from the rest of Waterloo station; dismantling of the trainshed began, as did demolition of the supporting brick arches. The work was being undertaken to make way for a new international passenger terminus to serve what were to become the Trans Manche Super Trains (Class 373 or, if you like, ''Eurostar''). The project was priced at £100 million and replaced domestic platforms 16 to 21 of the country's largest station; more than a year was to be spent on demolition work before any building of the new trainshed began. The latter finally started on 11th December 1991 when the then Transport Minister Roger Freeman officially announced the beginning of construction. Boring of the Channel Tunnel had previously been completed on 28th June of the same year.

 

Essentially, the structure would consist of four levels: platforms; departures / arrivals; customs and immigration; car park (basement). The platforms would be protected by a distorted curved roof designed by architects ''Nicholas Grimshaw & Partners'', measuring a width of 180 foot at its widest point, reduced to 115 foot after narrowing at the ''country end''. By British standards, the international trains to be accommodated here were incredibly long, comprising of no less than twenty vehicles (including power cars), thus the platform lengths were impressive:

The international station was formally completed on 17th May 1993, but international passenger services did not commence operation until 14th November 1994. The building cost of the station had since risen to £130 million and when ''Eurostar'' services first began, the station accounted for just eight pathways in and out of Waterloo station as a whole, split between trains to and from Paris and Brussels - this later rocketed to fifty international pathways to and from the terminus. The international station was subsequently transferred to London & Continental Railways in 1996 during privatisation, with a book value of £136 million; the domestic station had become part of Railtrack on 1st April 1994, the latter organisation being floated on the London Stock Exchange on 20th May 1996. With the confirmed relocation of international trains to north of the Thames, at St Pancras, consideration was at first given to keeping the present Waterloo International station active, operating approximately a third of Eurostar trains out of there. However, the cost of maintaining two station hubs was deemed too great, and Waterloo was scheduled to cease serving Eurostar services on 13th November 2007. It was announced that the station would transfer from London & Continental Railways to Government ownership, in exchange for the new maintenance depot at Temple Mills. Since the initial announcement outlining the closure of Waterloo International, two schemes in particular came to the forefront of deciding what to do with the structure: that of either converting it into a shopping centre, or allowing domestic services to make use of much needed platform capacity. The latter option was eventually settled on.

 

In November 2007, the Government confirmed that it would be over a year until the first domestic services could use the vacated international station platforms. The works required for the conversion operation are extensive, and these include the demolition of the Nine Elms Flyover, which links the station with the ''Chatham'' main line. A Department for Transport report concluded that sufficient capacity to run scheduled services over this connection was not available, since the single-track viaduct could only accommodate an absolute maximum of eight trains every hour. The lengthy station platforms also require heightening, since they have been constructed to the lower European profile. Eurostar gutted much of the security equipment from Waterloo International for reuse at Ebbsfleet International, the latter being scheduled to open five days later than the rest of the CTRL's ''Section 2''. The ''domestication'' of Waterloo International forms part of a three-stage strategy created by Network Rail, involving a comprehensive redevelopment of the whole Waterloo station site. The project has been enshrined within the infrastructure company's business plan stretching between 2009 and 2014, and includes moving the entire station concourse down to a lower level, to link in with a new City Square development planned around the adjacent Waterloo Road. Limited domestic services using the former international site are scheduled to commence in December 2008, at the start of the National Winter Timetable. It is envisaged that only platform 20 will be in use by this time; since it is effectively the other half of domestic platform 19, it can easily be accessed from the main concourse. Conversely, platforms 21 to 24 can only be reached by means of the ''low-level'' international concourse, via escalators and lifts, thus require greater modification to make them available. South West Trains ran the first test train into platform 20 of the former international station on 4th June 2008, marking the start of driver training.

 

London Waterloo: Domestic & International

 

Today's track layout, complete with international station platforms. Click on the above image

for a full-size version. Drawn by David Glasspool

 

1995

 

The curved trainshed is constituted of steel structural members, with weather protection provided in the form

of strengthened glass. A pleasing aspect of the design criteria was to make the station as light and airy as possible,

which always helps to create a pleasant environment. In this 1995 view, the entrance can be seen below - it is linked

to the platforms above by both lifts and escalators. Mike Glasspool

 

14th March 2004

 

A large canvas cube-shaped banner was once in evidence above the lower concourse area, suspended from a

roof in desperate need of restoration. David Glasspool

 

 

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