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Waterloo station revamp on the cards

London SE1 website team

Network Rail has confirmed that in the next few months it intends to seek a private sector partner for a multi-million pound redevelopment of Waterloo station.

In addition to the advanced plans already announced for King's Cross and Paddington, Network Rail has signalled that it will go to market on proposals for Euston and Victoria by the end of this year, shortly followed by Waterloo.

The company has identified the need for up to £4 billion of additional private-partner investment in stations across the network. This programme will enhance capacity at stations, improve facilities and provide opportunities for commercial development.

Last year a Network Rail representative spoke to the South Bank Forum about the capacity crisis at Waterloo and outlined some of the possibilities for future development at the station.

Meanwhile the report of a Department for Transport study into the future of Waterloo International station once it is vacated by Eurostar in 2007 is keenly awaited.

John Armitt, Network Rail's chief executive, commented: "With punctuality improving and new trains on much of the network, public perception of the railway is rising all the time. Stations are the 'shop window' of the railway and are next in line for investment and modernisation.

"Our plans may well be ambitious, but they fuse imagination with reality in order to leverage additional private capital into improving our assets. This will result in upgraded facilities that passengers rightly demand and, for commercial partners, the right to exploit some of Britain's most landmark development sites.

"With the greatest number of people using the railways in four decades, public expectation of first-class facilities at stations is increasing. Our schemes aim to achieve just that."

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