Commuters urged to go on HOLIDAY as UK's busiest station to undergo major engineering work
COMMUTERS have been urged to work from home or take a holiday next month as the country’s busiest station is set to undergo major engineering works, fuelling fears of commuter chaos amongst the nation’s transport network.
Britain's busiest station set to undergo major engineering works during August
During August, half of London Waterloo train station’s platforms will be closed, along with the shutdown of seven stations across the South West trains network, which has prompted the chief executive of Network Rail to advice commuters to stay at home or travel outside peak hours.
An average of 270,000 journeys are made to or from Waterloo every day, with 100 million passengers using it each year.
Passengers have been told to expect queues of up to half an hour just to enter some suburban stations.
Rising costs are a "significant disappointment" says Network Rail
We have obviously been advising people to change your work pattern
Twenty stations will run “significantly” fewer trains and 190 stations as far away as Exeter will be unusually busy at peak times.
The work will close ten platforms and result in a 40 per cent drop in the number of trains serving busy commuter stations such as Woking, Guildford and Surbiton.
Mark Carne, chief executive of Network Rail told the Times: “Shutting such a large part of Waterloo for such a sustained period of time is going to be very challenging.
Network Rail boss Mark Carne urges commuters to change their work patterns
“It’s the busiest station in the entire country. But this work is going to increase the capacity of that station by 30 per cent, so that’s another 35,000 people every day.
“We have obviously been advising people to either try to work from home and, if you do need to come in, to change your work pattern so that you come in outside the peak that will also help.”
The work which will take place from August 5 to 28 is being carried out to extend platforms and allow the station to take longer trains.
But it will be completed on the August bank holiday weekend when other upgrades will be made across the network.
Network Rail said the £133 million being invested in the rail network over the August bank holiday was the biggest amount spent in one weekend and represented a number of “mega-projects reaching their crescendo”.
The engineering work at Waterloo is set to cause major disruption
The affected stations
London Waterloo: Half closed between August 5 to 28, with “significant reductions” to South West services.
London Bridge, Waterloo East and Charing Cross: No Southeastern services between 26 August and 2 September, while London Bridge and the surrounding railway is rebuilt for Thameslink.
Cannon Street and Blackfriars: No Southeastern trains on August 26 and 27.
London Euston: No trains at all on August 26 to 27, due to enabling works for HS2.
London Liverpool Street: No trains to/from Shenfield/Barking on August 27 and 28, due to work for the new Crossrail or Elizabeth line services.