Waterloo East station (officially London Waterloo East) is a railway station in London. A walkway across Waterloo Road connects it to the larger, terminal, station London Waterloo.
History
The South Eastern Railway opened it as Waterloo Junction in January 1869 to replace Blackfriars Road station which was slightly to the east. The Southern Railway renamed it Waterloo Eastern in July 1935 and it took its present name in May 1977.
It is on the line from Charing Cross through London Bridge to Kent. Unusually, the platforms are lettered, not numbered, to avoid confusion with those of the larger station (a stratagem used for the Thameslink platforms at St Pancras International and their predecessors at King’s Cross Thameslink).
There are ticket machines and a ticket office in the main station. Waterloo East is managed by Southeastern. The eastern end of Waterloo East has a pedestrian connection to Southwark station on the London Underground Jubilee Line. Therefore, Waterloo East is unusual for a railway station in having no independent exits of its own.
Formerly a rail connection ran across the concourse of the main station. This saw little service, although H.G. Wells”s novel The War of the Worlds describes its use to convey troop trains to the Martian landing site. The bridge which carried the line over Waterloo Road now supports the walkway between the two stations.
Services
This station has several services run from 4 platforms.
Station layout
The station has four platforms, lettered A, B, C and D:
- Platforms A and C are generally used by down services.
- Platforms B and D are generally used by up services.