A
new £25m balcony that features ten new retail outlets has opened at Waterloo
Station’s main concourse in time for the Olympic Games.
The new balcony, opened on 17 July,is designed to reduce congestion on
the concoursefor 300,000 daily passengers and improve access to and from
Waterloo East.
BAM in the London region has completed the new 220 metre balcony - the longest
at any British rail on time for the Olympic Games, when it estimated the
station will have more than 1,000,000 extra visitors.
The rejuvenation of Waterloo Station is part of Network Rail’s on-going
programme of investment in key stations across the country to provide more
space, reduce congestion and improve the facilities for passengers..
This has been achieved by installing escalators and repositioning retail
outlets previously located in the middle of the main concourse onto the
balcony. With new escalators and lifts, installed earlier in May, Waterloo
station now has step-free access to Waterloo East.
The new balcony will provide passengers with a wider choice of places to eat
and shop with an extra 20,000 sq. ft. of retail space.
David Biggs, director of property at Network Rail, comments: 'We are dedicated
to improving the facilities, layout and retail experiences for millions of
commuters nationwide through various station expansion projects within
Britain’s major cities. The Waterloo balcony project forms part of our wider
retail strategy to create ‘destination’ stations for both rail passengers and
non-travelling customers. It also provides a crucial, sustainable source of
income for the station, which can be reinvested directly into the rail network
to continuously improve our services to passengers.'
Tim Shoveller, Managing Director of the Network Rail/South West Trains alliance
said: 'Waterloo, as many of our customers know, is a very busy station. We have
over 90m passengers passing through every year and there is 30% growth
predicted by 2030. Our challenge is to deliver extra capacity so our passengers
can get the rail services they rely on.
'We needed to find a radical solution to improve the space and facilities at
Waterloo. The opening of the balcony, with the removal of retail units from the
concourse, crucially reduces congestion while still providing the facilities
expected at a modern station. Passengers will now find it easier to get to and
from their trains.'
Waterloo station is one of the UK's major transport hubs connecting London to
popular destinations such as Bournemouth, Poole, Southampton, Portsmouth,
Reading and Windsor. Click here to view image.
Normal
0
false
false
false
EN-GB
X-NONE
X-NONE
MicrosoftInternetExplorer4
/* Style Definitions */
table.MsoNormalTable
{mso-style-name:"Table Normal";
mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;
mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;
mso-style-noshow:yes;
mso-style-priority:99;
mso-style-parent:"";
mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt;
mso-para-margin:0cm;
mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-fareast-language:EN-US;}