Tens of thousands of commuters in southern England will find their journey times substantially increased as they head into work on Monday morning as a result of major works at Waterloo station. Ten platforms have been shut at Britain’s busiest station, which serves about 270,000 customers a day, including 130,000 during the morning rush hour, and the knock-on effects will be felt across large parts of the South West Trains network.
The work to extend four platforms at Waterloo for bigger trains, which began on Saturday and is expected to be completed on 28 August, will see seven stations completely shut for at least some of the time and more than 23 likely to have “significantly fewer trains”.
Scores more will also see a reduced service and are expected to be busier than usual. Queueing systems will be brought in at some stations in expectation of rush hours being even more crowded than usual. The disruption will extend to commuters in south London, Surrey, Berkshire, Hampshire, Dorset and Somerset.
As well as Waterloo, passengers are being urged to avoid Clapham Junction during rush hour and Vauxhall – both also among the capital’s busiest stations.
Major works at Waterloo till 28 August. Temporary timetable with a reduced service in place. Trains are very busy. https://t.co/o3JI2FzFcJ pic.twitter.com/ih11fvJ5J8
— South West Trains (@SW_Trains) August 6, 2017
The work, part of an £800m upgrade, is being carried out over the summer and the August Bank holiday weekend because up to 50% fewer passengers use the network during that time, according to Network Rail.
Platforms 20 to 24 at Waterloo, formerly used for Eurostar, are being temporarily opened to reduce the impact, and more than 1,000 extra staff will be deployed at affected stations.
Nevertheless, Mark Carne, Network Rail’s chief executive, has previously admitted he is “worried there will be challenging days” and accepted that “there are going to be days when the service is very difficult for people”. Passengers have been warned that there could be queues of up to half an hour just to enter suburban stations on the network, such as Wimbledon and Surbiton.
A signal failure compounded the disruption on the first day of the works on Saturday, but the pinch is really expected to be felt by passengers during the weekday rush hours.
There is some reason for optimism, as the passenger group Transport Focus says its research suggests that while half of passengers will continue to use trains during the main period of disruption, more than a third will work at home or more accessible places on certain days. Nearly a quarter are taking leave at some point during the works and almost a fifth plan to use different route where one is available.
Alternative routes will not be an option for everyone. Engineering works are planned at a number of other major stations during August, particularly over the bank holiday weekend.
Euston will be closed entirely on 26-27 August to allow the first major engineering work to take place for HS2, the £55bn high-speed railway, affecting some services on the West Coast Main Line to Birmingham and other cities further north. London Bridge and Charing Cross will be closed to Southeastern services from 26 August to 2 September.
A month of delays on the route from London Paddington to Wales will also start on 19 August, and Liverpool Street will also be affected. The remaining major stations are likely to be busier than usual as people take other routes into the capital.
The work at Waterloo will eventually create capacity for 30% more passengers during the busiest times of the day, with 30 new trains providing 150 extra carriages. Network Rail says it is necessary because the number of passenger journeys on the railway has more than doubled to 234m. The Waterloo and South West Upgrade programme is an £800m investment to create 30% more space for passengers at the busiest times.
David Sidebottom, the director of Transport Focus, said management of the work over the next month would be key to passengers’ trust in the rail industry. “They need to know when the work is being done, what it means to them and their journey, and they should be appropriately compensated,” he said.
