Inside The Old Eurostar Terminal
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- Опубліковано 25 сер 2016
- At London Waterloo, the old Eurostar terminal is being rebuilt for use as platforms for South West Trains services instead. We went for a look around as what remained, and a sneak peek at the works taking place to get it ready for the future.
See the Network Rail video "Building a better Waterloo", here: • Video
Once the work is complete the platforms shall be used as such:
Platforms 1-6 - Main suburban services (Dorking, Epsom, Chessington, Guildford, Hampton Court)
Platforms 7-19 - Mainline services (Portsmouth, Alton, Weymouth, Exeter)
PLatform 20-24 (The current old international terminal) Services to Reading and Windsor
I remember getting the Eurostar from Paris to Waterloo International. The high speed train would exit the channel tunnel in Kent where they attached the horses to drag it into Waterloo.
Not doing quite so well now, eh???????????????
While the French citizens looked on with curiosity, the English just went about their business. 😛
How would you do that
@@EveryYT_tuber it's a joke. The trains had to literally snake their way through the southeastern and southern raillines to waterloo
Damn, you guys got horses to pull the train? In the US we have to get out and push.
It's sad it closed. I loved the idea of French travellers arriving at Waterloo!
For a hundred years we fought from exactly that happening?
ikr
Agreed!
Why? Isn't st Pancras better and faster?
@robk7266 The joke is the Battle of Waterloo where Napoleon (French) lost. So it would be funny if French travellers arrived at Waterloo Station instead.
Whos downvotes Londonist Ltd for something like this???? The amount of work in rail infrastructure your country is performing is mind boggling. What an opportunity for the next generation and what an achievement by all involved to bring this to completion. Just amazing. I wish we in the US had such forward thinking policies and programs. Best of Luck London!
The UK's network HAS to have major work done on it, because frankly it's been suffering from chronic underfunding and neglect for far too long. Without the work, the system would A) cease to function (as it requires constant maintenance) and B) be stretched beyond its structural capacity as demand for reliable (Hah! I doubt most rail operators know the meaning of the word), efficient public transport increases
Down voters are obviously envious folk from the rest of the UK where we have crappy old trains ;) BTW I love these films, thanks from up north.
Thumbs down will be from north of Watford I reckon lol
Norn Iron gang
No, the US just has Interstate highways.
It was odd looking through the window towards the disused gate line for the underground and seeing them all lit up red and green in the darkness. Did no one think to switch them off?
I actually found myself feeling sorry for the ticket gates, powered up all this time, abandoned and unloved, waiting for someone to come along...
That's such a waste of electricity
Sometimes, it costs less to juste keep them powered. If you switch them off, they will make alarms in the system, requiring a programmer to make modifications in a program.
It's probably connected to all the other gates that are actually in use
No one 'thinks' anymore in this country. It's always 'someone else's problem'. We're not big on details, or the 'little things' in the UK, as they are in countries like Japan or Germany. Just look at our PM!
Geoff:"Would you like some information?"
Tourist: "When is the next eurostar service?"
lmfao good one
EthanAfro The train kid Geoff:At Your Death
3 miles to the north
14 years ago?
Geoff: "there is no eurostar services here"
2:10 It's amazing that London is so busy now, that even ghosts need to have their own railway service! O.o
Larry Bundy Jr lol
Best comment i've seen yet!
Hello, you. AGAIN.
Ghosts aren't real
XD
So many great train lines and stations... i wish we had some average train services in USA.
I remember boarding the Eurostar there in 2001.
i boadee my 1st eurostar back jn the 90s. loved thr station
Yeah, it would be great to have an average rail system in the USA. We have Amtrak, but Amtrak only owns a small portion. The problem comes when we try to build railways through cities for much easier access, and practicality.
The closest you can get to Southern England in terms of rail service in the USA....well, certain commuter lines into New York City, even have third rail like many ex-Southern lines (and other lines south of London in England), LIRR and Metro North, that is. And as for longer distance...yes, there's that electrified Northeast Corridor. And....that's almost it! Some people in the UK grouse about rail service being bad, the USA and Canada have it worse (unless you live in parts of the Northeast Corridor)
@@raakone Amtrak is cheaper, but that's about the only advantage outside of the NEC.
The old Terminal won the top Architectural award when it opened. Then the glass panels in the roof started to fall down.
Council house schemes used to win Architectual awards? Same old nonsense.
The disused tickets gates were left ON???
Zsolt B Hey at least they know that the lights work for so long, so they’ll go back to the same company!
The electricity meters must be connected?
Yea thats what happened in the unused Berlin airport, they left the monitors on in an unopened airport for 5 years and then they had to pay like 5k or something to replace them all.
@@Piwde yep, the 10 years or so they were left on exceeded their intended service life, so they had to replace them all - before the airport has even opened!
Energy efficiency at its best !
Since it’s a privatise company they can do whatever they want when they want because they can get the electric dirt cheap if not free.
🧐🤔🇬🇧🤓😂😤
Quite nostalgic seeing the old Eurostar facilities, especially as when they moved to St Pancras, they clearly left a lot of the old fittings behind. A very nice structure the old Waterloo International, a shame it's taken so long to bring it back into use.
I started using this station in 2019 and I never knew this area of Waterloo was all brand new!
Can't wait till the Eurostar reach Amsterdam, just hop on and get out in London
I remember in the late 80's and 90's using this part of Waterloo from Egham (on the Reading line) before it was closed for the Eurostar terminal. It seems to have gone full circle back to South West Trains
I went on the Eurostar last year on July 10 from St Pancras to Gare du Nord. My most memorable train experience.
I'm surprised that the disused ticket gates at 1:24 appear to be operational.
That's something that bothers me here in the UK. You often see offices with their lights on overnight where clearly there's no one working, computers left on over the weekend and so on... As a developed nation the environmental mentality is quite overdue.
I wonder if they were just switched on for this video? It would be amazing if they've left them on since 2007, 10 years!
Old comment I know but its usually for office cleaning staff, supermarkets also leave their lights on but thats more for safety and security. In some offices they usually carry out maintenance work overnight.
Jamie Spong The power has been left on so the security cameras can operate and those just stay on unless you turn the breaker off, but those don't use enough electricity to warrant the need to turn them off.
Goot what
These videos are truly fascinating. :)
Very informative, British workmanship made greater
nice video and asd to see it how it is now. i took my 1st ever eurostar there when i was younger back in 90s. such exciting jorunruy
I love the imagery of the corridor locked and untouched for 10 years with power still turned on the gateways.
I always enjoy your channel, I love London.
Caught a Paris-bound train from here in 2002! As well, saw a live production of "The Railway Children" staged here in 2011,
I recently used Waterloo station to get back to uni and it was only until I re-watched this video did I realise that the platform I used (platform 21) was one of the old Eurostar platforms. Rad!
I remember my one and only trip on a Eurostar out of those platforms! It was to Brussels for my 16th birthday!
I used those platforms during that August 2017 period. Brings back some memories
I go to waterloo often and now i finally know what is on the inside
I actually loved that station... Coming into Waterloo on the Tube, going through Customs into the Eurostar bit - which looked a world away from the above ground station...
Waterloo did really well as an international hub, I thought.
St. Pancras is obviously stunning, but it did cost an immense amount of money (and property...) to link the Eurostar into it.
If the 2012 Olympics hadn't happened, I think we'd still be having a Waterloo terminal...
I luv how I was just there yesterday and you uploaded a video today. To be honest if it wasn't for Pokémon Go I would've walked past it like I've always done.
I've got a pretty big soft spot for the Waterloo upgrade, it always used to be my central London station and it definitely needs more capacity!
Woaahhh... creepy. As part of my 7th B-day treat i went with my dad and had a look around before it closed. Looks just how i remember it -without the trains of course! :)
I worked on the security when they built it and then on scaffolding on it , never knew it had shut so nice to know it will be used again.
I really enjoy your videos, thank you, that was interesting
Great video, thanks
Londonist... For all your train nerd needs! Awesome content guys!
Welcome back in the uk :-) missed your small videos here
It's funny this just popped up on my UA-cam video recommendations
It'll be good to see them open and put to use again, it's become a parallel case to the Millennium Dome, thriving now as the O2, but with such a long drawn out closure period in between. This is pretty much a carbon copy situation, the platforms had a relatively short life for their original purpose, although 13 years was better than just one, in the case of the O2 Dome, and no definite plans in place for further use at the time of closure. At least they have some drawn up now.
Well done lads👏🏼
3:08 best animation ever...
Agreed that is a hell of an animation. Wonder if Geoff did it or it was supplied by the Engineering company?
It was from the Network Rail video.
...which weirdly gives the 444 (white) trains the same coach length as the 450s (blue). A 450 coach is in fact significantly shorter (20.4m) than a 444 (23m).
I remember that Eastenders episode, amazing that the Mitchells could just run to the platform with no ticket or passport!
As I remember it, after passport checks, passengers were corralled in a departure lounge below platform level then allowed up to the train for boarding.
I used to work for TfL in Windsor House in Victoria Street while Waterloo was still the Eurostar terminal, and there was a proposal raised then to build a 1 mile spur from the Waterloo-Reading line a mile south-west of Feltham, through Bedfont Lake and past the Clockhouse Roundabout straight into Heathrow Terminal 4, so that when the Eurostar was redirected into St Pancras, the Waterloo Eurostar terminal would become a London Heathrow-Express terminal, all for very minimal expenditure.
But it never got anywhere, I guess some vested interests squashed it. Now IBM are in a new Business Park covering part of the route.
Late reply but I think they had trouble with capacity on the Windsor/Reading/Hounslow and Kingston loops through Richmond and Barnes. The level crossing gates were already down for 30 minutes every hour without running extra trains - the effect on traffic would have been horrendous if they stayed down for 45-50 minutes each hour.
was in the old departure lounge and walked the old route up to platform 21 in 2011 :) spooky place with the lights off
I hope you visit during the few weeks it is open again as temporary platforms. It will be interesting to see what a temporary train station actually looks like.
Great teachable videos again:)
Love your videos...
Nice video thanks very much.
Gosh, more reasons to make the long trek to London in 2018. Londonist keeps giving me ideas to return each year.
Public works are the worst way to plan your visits.
It's still not done, Crossrail neither...
It's remarkable how similar the current Brussels-South Eurostar Station still looks to the decommissioned Waterloo one. In a sense, they're Both end-of-line stations for the Eurostar.
Interesting video. Massive short-sightedness having all that space lying dormant for so long although when it did close we were just going into recession.
I also used that Waterloo Terminus in 2005. I used the Eurostar again just 4 years later and much preferred the King's Cross St. Pancras Terminal, seemed much better organised for the kinds of traffic that would use Eurostar and need all that processing. Plus, the Eurostar was SLOOOW for the first hour after leaving Waterloo. From Pancras it zipped out :)
Personally, I am surprised that it has taken this long for them to even decide what to do with it. Once Eurostar switched to St Pancras in 2007 the platforms became effectively a white elephants. for years they were left empty with no one having an idea what to do with them. It was almost as though the authorities thought that what became HS1 wouldn't happen for some reason (before closure). The fact that they're going to be brought back into use is great news :) it was the logical thing to do once Eurostar switched to St Pancras
So the "Windsor LIne platforms" will become the Windsor Line platforms once again. One day, the Eurostar years at Waterloo will seem like a small blip in its long history.
I must admit I thought it was Cindy that Phil and Grant tried to stop leaving. Great upload as always.
I remember going into the new platforms on a SWT service from Reading not long after they opened.
That concourse with the escalators in the corner is what I remember most clearly
They started using Platform 20 back in late 2014/early 2015 for a short while, for occasional peak Reading services. Only way you could get to it at that point was to go halfway down Platform 19.
You're right. There was one occasion (morning peak) where my train arrived on platform 20 and we actually walked straight down from 20 and through the area you see at 2:06. I figured that meant we'd be using it more, but it only happened once, and platform 20 has been totally closed off for a year or so now.
I was here to see a production of the Railway childern
I came here in October 2007 and used the Eurostar - it's so weird to think it closed so soon afterwards.
I was wondering what would happen to this. I was part of the team that originally installed the track and renewed the existing track out to the Eurostar depot at Old Oak Common. The spur off to there was a little used freight line that passed through the now long gone Chelsea station. I was told it was the last privately owned station in London.
Wow i think i just fell in love with Owen the media relations guy, he's beautiful
ikr, so hot
fr
Jack War HEY, Lmao 🤣
I always think what a lucky guy to live in London
When I was searching up images of the main concourse of Waterloo international I came across an interesting fact, apparently Eurostar at one point considered keeping Waterloo international open and running a third of their services from Waterloo whilst the rest would be run from st Pancras sadly however it deemed to expensive to maintain both stations. I don’t really mind though st Pancras is just as nice as Waterloo international anyways. Sadly I was to young to go on Eurostar during the Waterloo days.
Ooops, I never even knew Eurostar had moved from Waterloo. Only 9 years behind the times, then.
Either you don't go to Europe much or you should fly (or drive) less.
Personally I would have liked the idea of using them for sleeper services, since it goes in the right direction for the Night Riviera and (if possible) they are the only platforms that would be long enough except for the modern day St Pancras that would be long enough for the caledonian sleeper with all cars being Mark 3s.
The Night Riveria uses Paddington and the Caledonian uses Euston
Good video
I was there on November 24 and it is still closed for work !!!
There used to be a huge underground car park at Eurostar Waterloo where us private hire drivers parked for collecting passengers, what happened to that?
That got turned into the office where the people working on the project now sit! It's fun to see people sitting amongst concrete pillars which are clearly part of a car park design
These platforms should of been integrated back into Waterloo Station a long time ago. Waterloo is always congested during rush hour and it made little sense to not reopen these platforms. Great video though
Should've
Kind of wish I went on the eurostar in the days this was used for some reason.
"Would you like some information?"
They could have started all this work when Eurostar moved to St Pancras in November 2007.
The high speed line ran into St Pancras.
@Green Tealaan The Olympics. They wanted to build an international station at Stratford to make getting to and from the Olympic Stadium quicker and the only way to do that was to move the Eurostar terminus to North London and St Pancras was the most suitable. I've actually used Stratford International when I went to the Anniversary Games in 2013 and I got on a Javelin train to St Pancras, which was quite exciting.
It's hilarious it took them 9 years to start work on it
They may be missing a trick here. What an opportunity to put in water and coaling facilities for steam specials! A Bulleid Pacific would look right at home in these platforms!
MrDavil43
I remember as a small child gazing up at that great malachite wall seemingly hissing stream from various orifices.
What happened to the segmented hanging fish that was in the corridor near the taxi rank?
This must've been filmed some time ago because the 'bridge' over the old Eurostar concourse has been in place for over a year now.
They did have a scaffolding bridge in place and a couple of trains were using those platforms just occasionally, when things went wrong in the main station. But they took that temporary structure down over the last three months or so and now it looks like this video.
Great
2018 is going to be a big year in London rail, Elizabeth Line completed, Thamelink, IEP trains, Waterloo International repatriated, anything I've missed? Are they going to remove the Linford St junction as I believe it's no longer used?
GOBLIN electrification on the Overground?
thats when I'll be 13 and maybe i might get enough money to go on every train. Going on a Javelin next year :-)
It is still sometimes used if trains have to be diverted.
Full line opens on December 2019, but the use of the underground section opens in 2018
+nutfield001 fuck off. we've been told it opens in 2018 and im not waiting any longer so shut it
Your train knowledge scares me Geoff
Subbed
Can we get an update on this video now that all of the old Eurostar platforms are back open for SWR services?
1:18 guess you were really tempted to tap in there. Just interesting if they contact you how you did it
I thought these platforms were still in use by other companies! I hope most of the old signs and stuff with the Eurostar name will b saved!
At the beginning of the video I wasn't sure if I was seeing the actual upload or the Android Pay advert.
Another great video Geoff, thanks for that. Never really understood the logic of closing Waterloo International, and transferring Eurostar services to St Pancras...was that to done to replace the proposed "regional" Eurostar services travelling from the likes of Manchester and Leeds? Could Eurostar not have run to either station? I always remember looking down at the gist Eurostar white and yellow clock, from the BR/National Rail concourse
Because when hs1 opened it could travel more distance on the high speed line. Also they plan to stop at Stratford international soon
@@RalphsWelshLetsPlays Except it makes no sense to stop international trains just 6 minutes out of St Pancras at Stratford. Stratford International was going to be used by Regional Eurostar services but they never materialised
I was there in 1998.
Why did they switch from Waterloo to St.Pancras?
Because HS1 wasnt built when the Eurostar started service - it was on existing tracks from 1994 until 2007; which is why it ran into Waterloo. Once HS1 was built the restriction of running into Waterloo was removed and here we are today.
I remember being there going to euro Disney in 2007 then only find out its shutting at the end of 07
Those original EuroStar trainsets have begun to be scrapped, or may have been finished scrapping.
They're keeping the 8 best or something like that
0.45 Michael Palin to John Cleese, 'Do you want to come back to my place?'
I know it well i used to work there
Why was the service moved to St Pancras?
I caught the Eurostar from here back in 20001
A time traveler are you, from the future. 😲
Two questions about the updates to the old Eurostar terminal:
1/ What's going to be of the area below the new bridge where you used to have to walk into?
2/ Why is there much more space down that concourse where the track was removed?
Shops and restaurants of course. Monetise everything!
Plainly, there will be some more room for shops and cafes, but the main reason the tracks are being cut back is to provide more circulation space, somewhere for Windsor/Reading route customers to wait for their trains clear of the main concourse, where severe crowding is a major concern, particularly during disruption. These passengers will also be able to use the recommissioned connecting passageways shown to get directly to and from the Underground station without having to venture out onto the main concourse. That will help create some space for the passenger growth expected on the main fast and slow services.
+mark townend Makes good sense, thanks for your reply
MTG? :)
+DunDunBaconBun United Kingdom sure!
Would like to see how this looks now
Did you make an update video to this?
Cam we make all trains from France terminate at Waterloo?
are you going to buy the tube map and eurostar window
I remember the East London Line
why has it taken 10 years?!! Great to see it happening though!
It's January 2019 and it isn't even done but st pancras there's so many Eurostar trains
Is there a date set for the opening?
I got confused about the date the video was published since I'm so used to UA-cam saying that videos posted a few minutes ago were posted the day before because of time differences. xD
Any thoughts about returning and doing a new video showing the progress since this video? A midway video, if you will