Now, I don't want to be a killjoy, and the thought of the wonderful
story "The Railway Children" being recreated with a real steam engine
in central London fills me with joy (I only heard about it today) and
will certainly wish to see this spectacle at Waterloo Station. But, is
it right that one of London's busiest and most overcrowded stations,
where trains are regularly held up on entering and departing, due to
lack of platform space, should have part of its most valuable space
(which was originally "stolen" from the hard-pressed commuters in the
first place - by crowding together the other platforms and doing away
with the old carriage road) should be put to such use, when that space
is crying out to be used for more important purposes than
entertainment?

M.M.

wrote in message

Now, I don't want to be a killjoy, and the thought of the wonderful
story "The Railway Children" being recreated with a real steam engine
in central London fills me with joy (I only heard about it today) and
will certainly wish to see this spectacle at Waterloo Station. But, is
it right that one of London's busiest and most overcrowded stations,
where trains are regularly held up on entering and departing, due to
lack of platform space, should have part of its most valuable space
(which was originally "stolen" from the hard-pressed commuters in the
first place - by crowding together the other platforms and doing away
with the old carriage road) should be put to such use, when that space
is crying out to be used for more important purposes than
entertainment?

Surely it's better to make occasional use of the platforms for
entertainment than to make no use of them at all? Of course, it would
be better still to see them returned to full-time use as railway
platforms again, but until that happens, they might as well earn some
modest income in other ways.

On 02/05/2010 13:02, wrote:
Now, I don't want to be a killjoy, and the thought of the wonderful
story "The Railway Children" being recreated with a real steam engine
in central London fills me with joy (I only heard about it today) and
will certainly wish to see this spectacle at Waterloo Station. But, is
it right that one of London's busiest and most overcrowded stations,
where trains are regularly held up on entering and departing, due to
lack of platform space, should have part of its most valuable space
(which was originally "stolen" from the hard-pressed commuters in the
first place - by crowding together the other platforms and doing away
with the old carriage road) should be put to such use, when that space
is crying out to be used for more important purposes than
entertainment?

Surely the platforms weren't stolen from the commuters, as only people
from SWT-land ever use Eurostar. This is why Eurostar has run almost
emnpty since moving to King's Cross, where the locals are too busy
putting ferrets down their trousers to need to travel abroad. See
uk.railway passim...

--
Arthur Figgis Surrey, UK

In article ,
lid (Arthur Figgis) wrote:

On 02/05/2010 13:02, wrote:
Now, I don't want to be a killjoy, and the thought of the wonderful
story "The Railway Children" being recreated with a real steam engine
in central London fills me with joy (I only heard about it today) and
will certainly wish to see this spectacle at Waterloo Station. But, is
it right that one of London's busiest and most overcrowded stations,
where trains are regularly held up on entering and departing, due to
lack of platform space, should have part of its most valuable space
(which was originally "stolen" from the hard-pressed commuters in the
first place - by crowding together the other platforms and doing away
with the old carriage road) should be put to such use, when that space
is crying out to be used for more important purposes than
entertainment?

Surely the platforms weren't stolen from the commuters, as only
people from SWT-land ever use Eurostar. This is why Eurostar has
run almost emnpty since moving to King's Cross, where the locals
are too busy putting ferrets down their trousers to need to travel
abroad. See uk.railway passim...

You're overlooking the lost platforms 20 and 21.

--
Colin Rosenstiel

Surely the platforms weren't stolen from the commuters, as only people
from SWT-land ever use Eurostar. This is why Eurostar has run almost
emnpty since moving to King's Cross, where the locals are too busy
putting ferrets down their trousers to need to travel abroad. See
uk.railway passim...

--
Arthur Figgis * * * * * * * * Surrey, UK

I agree,the political decision to move Eurostar to Kings Cross/St
Pancras just to revitalize East London was a waste of money. We now
have 2 stations unused or little used, Waterloo International still
standing empty and Stratford International where Eurostar does not
stop!
I used Eurostar several time each year when it was at Waterloo, but
have only used it once since its move.
The approach journey into London on the new route is mainly in a
tunnel so nothing to see. Getting a train to the south from a station
that serves the North does not seem right, and the old station at St
Pancras is very cold and draughty. The St Pancras old cellar basement
departure lounge, with all those old supporting pillars, is not a
patch on the one that was at Waterloo. the High Speed line should have
been brought into Waterloo. and the existing facility used.
As the space is empty the "old" Eurostar terminal at Waterloo might as
well be used for something (The Railway Children) until trains use it
again.
John

On 04/05/2010 10:04, JohnLon wrote:

Surely the platforms weren't stolen from the commuters, as only people
from SWT-land ever use Eurostar. This is why Eurostar has run almost
emnpty since moving to King's Cross, where the locals are too busy
putting ferrets down their trousers to need to travel abroad. See
uk.railway passim...

--
Arthur Figgis Surrey, UK

I agree,the political decision to move Eurostar to Kings Cross/St
Pancras just to revitalize East London was a waste of money. We now
have 2 stations unused or little used, Waterloo International still
standing empty and Stratford International where Eurostar does not
stop!
I used Eurostar several time each year when it was at Waterloo, but
have only used it once since its move.
The approach journey into London on the new route is mainly in a
tunnel so nothing to see. Getting a train to the south from a station
that serves the North does not seem right, and the old station at St
Pancras is very cold and draughty. The St Pancras old cellar basement
departure lounge, with all those old supporting pillars, is not a
patch on the one that was at Waterloo. the High Speed line should have
been brought into Waterloo. and the existing facility used.

No, I reckon they should have revived Waddon as a site for international
departures from London.

--
Arthur Figgis Surrey, UK

On May 4, 6:51�pm, Arthur Figgis wrote:
On 04/05/2010 10:04, JohnLon wrote:







Surely the platforms weren't stolen from the commuters, as only people
from SWT-land ever use Eurostar. This is why Eurostar has run almost
emnpty since moving to King's Cross, where the locals are too busy
putting ferrets down their trousers to need to travel abroad. See
uk.railway passim...

--
Arthur Figgis � � � � � � � � Surrey, UK

I agree,the political decision to move Eurostar to Kings Cross/St
Pancras just to revitalize East London was a waste of money. We now
have 2 stations unused or little used, Waterloo International still
standing empty and Stratford International where Eurostar does not
stop!
I used Eurostar several time each year when it was at Waterloo, but
have only used it once since its move.
The approach journey into London on the new route is mainly in a
tunnel so nothing to see. Getting a train to the south from a station
that serves the North does not seem right, and the old station at St
Pancras is very cold and draughty. The St Pancras old cellar basement
departure lounge, with all those old supporting pillars, is not a
patch on the one that was at Waterloo. the High Speed line should have
been brought into Waterloo. and the existing facility used.

No, I reckon they should have revived Waddon as a site for international
departures from London.

--
Arthur Figgis � � � � � � � � Surrey, UK- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

But the point that everyone seems to be missing is WHY are the
platforms at Waterloo not being brought into use NOW?

All the effort (and from the outside it looked like a lot of work was
going on under the glass roofs) to make it into a theatre set, instead
of bringing the signalling or whatever needs to be done, and passages/
stairwas to integrate it into the mainline station.

M.M.

On May 5, 8:19*am, " wrote:
But the point that everyone seems to be missing is WHY are the
platforms at Waterloo not being brought into use NOW?

That would cost the railway money they don't have or would rather
spend on other things.

All the effort (and from the outside it looked like a lot of work was
going on under the glass roofs) to make it into a theatre set, instead
of bringing the signalling or whatever needs to be done, and passages/
stairwas to integrate it into the mainline station.

That brings IN money for the railway. It's not like it's an either/or
choice!

--
Abi

That brings IN money for the railway. *It's not like it's an either/or
choice!

The figures quoted for mothballing are breathtaking. There again I
suspect maintaining a guard force on a property 500m long and 70m wide
in Central London requires a substantial number of staff 24/7 365
days. Add on top routine maintenance and you have a big bill, see

http://www.london-se1.co.uk/news/view/4284

OC

wrote:

But the point that everyone seems to be missing is WHY are the
platforms at Waterloo not being brought into use NOW?

Despite all the media hype, because platforms on there own wouldn't help
much if at all. SWT's standard platforming uses 18 of the 19 platforms (one
is usually spare) because they only have enough rolling stock to use that
many, anyway not all trains are run at maximum length yet. Spreading the
current services out amongst more platforms wouldn't increase capacity,
because the approaches into Waterloo from Clapham Junction are the major
limiting factors.

At least two of the five disused platforms, (bearing in mind platform 20 is
already usable if needed) will be brought into use during 2011 before
current platforms 1 and 2 are closed - they are too short for 10 car
operations.

Paul S