A whole lotta nothing, is the simple answer.
When the platforms closed two years ago as St Pancras International opened, we reported that the Eurostar's former London home was being converted for suburban use, to the extortionate tune of £100,000.
That work was supposed to be completed last December, yet today a Department for Transport document released under the Freedom Of Information act revealed that the platforms won't re-open to passengers until 2014. That's a total of seven years out of action, costing the taxpayer £500,000 annually just to keep them closed.
The main reason, according to the document, is that the platforms are being lengthened to accommodate 10-carriage trains run by South West Trains, the sole operator to work out of Waterloo. The challenge of integrating the Eurostar tracks — which were carefully laid to avoid the logjam of traffic coming into the station — into the wider network is also a tough one. Yet the apparent lack of action on this is shocking, and for all the plaudits heaped on St Pancras and the success of High Speed One, those forlorn and forgotten platforms perched at the end of the Waterloo concourse remain the ugly sisters that most people prefer to ignore.
Image of Waterloo station by the author
