Meeting their Waterloo

That's just depressing.

National railway infrastructure company Network Rail has such a warped view of its purpose that it has just released a press notice which boasts of "75,000 SQ FT OF NEW STATION SHOPPING OPPORTUNITIES". This follows shortly after its boast that 93% of trains run "on time" (by which it actually means up to 10 minutes late) -- so, if you're a commuter, you're pretty much guaranteed that at least one journey every week will be late. Brilliant boasting there from Network Rail.

Anyway, one key element of their shopping boast is a revamp of Waterloo Station: the concourse here has been made stupidly congested by the insertion of vast numbers of tawdry little shop units, blocking the flow of passengers and creating dense herds of people waiting for their train to be announced.

There was a plan a couple of years back to completely rebuild Waterloo on two levels, sinking the concourse to the level of the former international station and extending all the platforms to the outside wall: this would have enabled the widespread introduction of 12-car trains, which would have eased congestion. That plan seems to have sunk without trace (I suspect a decision to "list" the really rather unprepossessing architecture here may have scuppered it).

So instead, all the stupid shop units in the concourse are to be swept away (hurrah!), and a large balcony installed at first floor level. This will make the offices at that level accessible, so they can be converted into 20,000 square feet of shops (sorry, "shopping opportunities").

Apparently, this is all part of a programme based on "a new vision for the future of station retailing which focuses on enhancing passenger experience through the creation of destination stations and building strong partnerships with retailers".

So we're trying to create "destination stations", eh? Am I missing something? I thought that was the whole point of railway stations.

Waterloo was (as rebuilt in the 1920s) designed to handle vast crowds of people at peak times.

It was also the first terminus designed primarily for the operation of electric traction -- the new electric commuter railway. Although in Terence Cuneo's famous painting of the station almost at the end of the steam era, it's the smoke and grime that dominates:

Notice how even back then, in the 1960s, "retail opportunities" had started clogging-up the concourse (although the mail/parcels service road through the middle of the station has long-since disappeared, to be replaced with more platforms).

Things are strangely circular, aren't they?