Waterloo International Current Platform Length

[Doomotron]

When the former Eurostar platforms at Waterloo were properly converted for normal use a few years ago I remember that part of the track was covered over to extend the concourse. As the station is now, roughly how long are those platforms? I assume they're not long enough anymore for a Class 373, but I imagine they're longer than the current 12x20m formations that can use the platforms.

 

[paok]

When the former Eurostar platforms at Waterloo were properly converted for normal use a few years ago I remember that part of the track was covered over to extend the concourse. As the station is now, roughly how long are those platforms? I assume they're not long enough anymore for a Class 373, but I imagine they're longer than the current 12x20m formations that can use the platforms.

They're all 246m long

 

[Doomotron]

That's a huge amount of platform length removed, to the point that it seems like a bit of a liability should train lengths in that area need to expand.

 

[Taunton]

That's a huge amount of platform length removed, to the point that it seems like a bit of a liability should train lengths in that area need to expand.

When you bear in mind that these platforms are served by the Windsor Lines tracks, where nothing longer than 8-car runs, and that all the platforms out in suburbia and beyond served by these lines have the same (or at several, less) length, with quite a number being effectively unextendible, the chances of wanting to extend these platforms at Waterloo are really zero.

 

[ainsworth74]

When you bear in mind that these platforms are served by the Windsor Lines tracks, where nothing longer than 8-car runs, and that all the platforms out in suburbia and beyond served by these lines have the same (or at several, less) length, with quite a number being effectively unextendible, the chances of wanting to extend these platforms at Waterloo are really zero.

And 246m still allows you to fit a 10-car train with a 23m car length or a 12-car train with a 20m car length (you can even do a 9-car train with a 26m car length should someone want to run an IET derivative of that length for some reason). I can't imagine that there'd ever be a realistic need to run anything longer (even if it was practical to do so)?

 

[Peter Mugridge]

And 246m still allows you to fit a 10-car train with a 23m car length or a 12-car train with a 20m car length (you can even do a 9-car train with a 26m car length should someone want to run an IET derivative of that length for some reason). I can't imagine that there'd ever be a realistic need to run anything longer (even if it was practical to do so)?

When you bear in mind that these platforms are served by the Windsor Lines tracks, where nothing longer than 8-car runs, and that all the platforms out in suburbia and beyond served by these lines have the same (or at several, less) length, with quite a number being effectively unextendible, the chances of wanting to extend these platforms at Waterloo are really zero.

...and they do run 10 car sets daily on the Windsor lines, including into the old International platforms, as 701 046 demonstrates on 6th May:

 

[TT-ONR-NRN]

When you bear in mind that these platforms are served by the Windsor Lines tracks, where nothing longer than 8-car runs

That hasn’t been the case since March 2014.

 

[southern442]

I cannot feasibly see anything longer than 12-car ever running on SWR suburban services. Once you get past that point then you need to start looking at other ways to increase capacity (as they already are!)

 

[swt_passenger]

That's a huge amount of platform length removed, to the point that it seems like a bit of a liability should train lengths in that area need to expand.

They also needed more space at the outer ends to fit in extra S&C to allow more parallel moves in and out. Unusually some of the various crossovers are now fully under the roof.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 23 Jul 2025 ==

When you bear in mind that these platforms are served by the Windsor Lines tracks, where nothing longer than 8-car runs, and that all the platforms out in suburbia and beyond served by these lines have the same (or at several, less) length, with quite a number being effectively unextendible, the chances of wanting to extend these platforms at Waterloo are really zero.

But ignoring more recent fleet changes, ie 701s, where do you think most of the 10 car 458/5 services were operating after they were first extended?

 

[Doomotron]

I can't imagine that there'd ever be a realistic need to run anything longer (even if it was practical to do so)?

I agree that at the moment there isn't a need for them to be longer. I don't think it's that important, I just found it surprising at how much shorter they are now compared to when they were being used by Eurostar.

 

[MarkyT]

I agree that at the moment there isn't a need for them to be longer. I don't think it's that important, I just found it surprising at how much shorter they are now compared to when they were being used by Eurostar.

Like much of the former Southern, the SW is a 12 car max railway, and other recent new construction has followed the ~240m rule, e.g platforms 4,5,6 at Reading. Many major stations along the main line would have problems dealing with longer trains not just overhanging the platforms, but blocking back over throat junctions, preventing trains from arriving at or leaving other platforms. With little chance of longer trains running in the foreseeable future, there is no benefit in having longer platforms at Waterloo, so the excess length of the former International platforms was better used for the additional layout parallelism offered by the extra pointwork in the extended throat, and the new concourse area and tube passageways offer some relief to the excessive crowding that often develops on the main concourse, especially during disruption.

 

[Palmerston]

This was how much room there is at the end of a 10 car train. A lot of roof, not so far to the crossing point