Calling at... British railway stations: London Waterloo (WAT)

London Waterloo is the largest and busiest railway station in the UK, serving lines out of London into the South West as far as Portsmouth, Southampton and Exeter as well as busy commuter services.

An SWR 455 stands at London Waterloo

Information
Type:	National Rail (London South Western Lines)
Station code:	WAT
Opened:	1848
Platforms:	24

The station was opened by the London South Western Railway in 1848 as Waterloo Bridge Station. The station was designed as a through station not a terminus and was renamed Waterloo in 1882. The station was continually expanded throughout the latter nineteenth century as it got busier. However, the haphazard nature of the expansion, and the unfulfilled dream to make Waterloo a through station, meant that the station gained a bad name and the butt of many a music hall joke for a lack of facilities and the confused nature of the station layout (pairs of platforms shared a number for example [1]).

The LSWR eventually gave up their dream of expanding from Waterloo into the city, instead building a separate underground railway in 1898 between Waterloo and Bank station in the city. This remained part of British Rail until being transferred to the London Underground in 1994 as the Waterloo & City Line.

In the early twentieth century the LSWR finally began the badly needed rebuild of Waterloo. The new booking hall opened in 1911 but delays due to the First World War meant the new station was not officially opened until 1922, just a few months before the LSWR became part of the Southern Railway.

Waterloo was the initial terminus of Eurostar services via the Channel Tunnel, new platforms opening in 1994. Eurostar services transferred to London St Pancras in 2007. The former Eurostar platforms were converted for domestic use, the extra capacity desperately needed due to the sheer volume of passengers using the station. Over ninety million passengers use London Waterloo a year. Underneath the station is the large Waterloo underground station which serves four tube lines. Next to London Waterloo is Waterloo East, a through station used by Southeastern services.