A £4.5 million upgrade programme is to be carried out at Waterloo Rail Station this Christmas.

The work will result in longer trains being able to operate on suburban lines running out of Waterloo, providing more space for passengers.

The project is being delivered by Network Rail and will see improvements to signalling, as well as replacing sets of points at Queenstown Road. In addition, demolition work will continue in the former International Terminal as part of plans to re-open the five former international platforms.


Work is to begin on Christmas Eve, with platforms re-opening to passengers on 27 December.

Maggie Eddy, a scheme project manager for Network Rail, said: "Platforms 1-4 will be extended next August, but by installing the stairwells now it actually makes the construction work to extend the platforms easier.

"The holes will be safely covered once this initial work is complete, then once we have extended platforms 1-4 we'll install the new staircases.

"Given the sheer scale of the work involved, we can only complete it when there are no passengers around, and Christmas gives us a great opportunity to carry out these enabling works while causing the minimum amount of disruption possible."

(LM/JP)