10-Car Commuter Trains at Wimbledon Station
Planning has been underway for some time, and now construction work has begun at London Waterloo as part of an £800 million upgrade. The works will deliver a 30 per cent increase in peak-time capacity by 2019, through a bigger and better London Waterloo and other improvements to enhance passenger journeys.
As part of this upgrade, work has started to rebuild the former Waterloo International Terminal to allow platforms 20–24 to be brought back into use with modern facilities, new track and signalling and a spacious, accessible concourse suitable for thousands of passengers.
Most importantly, Platforms 1–4 will be extended to accommodate longer 10-car trains on suburban lines, serving Wimbledon, providing a significant increase in space for passengers. In tandem with this project, a £210million fleet of brand new trains will start to be introduced from next year – providing 150 additional carriages for the network – allowing more longer trains to run to all stations.
This month I met with Christian Roth, Managing Director of South West Trains at Waterloo Station.
Mr Roth confirmed that once the initial work to the Waterloo International platforms has been completed, work can then start to extend platforms 1-4 in August next year. This will require platforms 1-9 to be closed for 24 days – which will temporarily reduce the number of trains operating. This period has been chosen to lessen the disruption caused to commuters, since the volume of train journeys made in the summer holidays is much reduced.
A period of testing will follow and then the full peak fleet of longer trains will be in operation from December 2017. I asked about contingencies to ensure the works are completed on time, with Mr Roth running through the extensive contingency planning that has been done.
Continuing to invest in our local transport was a key theme of my election campaign, so I am very pleased that there is a firm timetable to deliver longer commuter trains to Waterloo. These will have a massive impact on overcrowding levels and ensure a more comfortable journey for commuters. I also asked Mr Roth about how South West Trains are working with Crossrail 2, and about plans for improving the Wimbledon station with either a wider concourse or a footbridge between platforms.
Christian Roth, Managing Director of South West Trains, said: “This investment will provide a 30% increase in space for passengers during the busiest times of the day – which we know will be greatly welcomed by passengers. We will be working closely with our partners, including Network Rail and the Department for Transport, to keep passengers well informed throughout this programme of works.
Further investment, such as Crossrail 2, will also be needed to meet the growing numbers of passengers travelling in the future and we are continuing to work with others to provide even more capacity for passengers beyond 2019.”