Waterloo International

We went into London earlier this week for lunch with friends, and to see a wonderful and highly recommended performance of "Buddy", currently playing at the Duchess Theatre on the West End. It was terrific, as one would expect from the reviews. Hopefully you will have an opportunity to see it soon.

For a change things went really well with our rail journey. Reports that much of the Easter weekend work had spilled over into the work week were either exaggerated or did not affect our route, because we arrived in Waterloo only 5 minutes late. However, on the trip in I could not help but notice the now defunct Waterloo International Terminal - former home of the Eurostar.

Some hail the move of the Eurostar to St. Pancras, for all reports a brilliant new facility, as a stroke of genius. We, however, are not happy. We used to be able to get on our little Ascot train, change at Waterloo and arrive in central Paris in just 2.5 hours from central London. Our 55 minute trip to Waterloo was not much more than driving to Heathrow and in most cases much less than driving to Gatwick. And you could check into the Eurostar up to 20 minutes prior to departure!

But no more. Now the journey takes almost days, because everyone knows that getting from Waterloo to St. Pancras is impossible. It's completely useless to even try around rush hour (almost anytime in London) - it could take as long as the trip to Paris!

The worst effect of the move, however, one that not only affects us but all Londoners, and indeed British, is the terrible waste of money and effort to build that very functional facility for naught. It now sits there sadly derelict - all boarded up. Where we used to see Eurostar trains bustling back and forth now stand empty platforms. I don't know how many millions of Pounds or Dollars were spent to build this now empty facility, but it certainly was poor management. Let's hope that no one now decides to move the Eurostar to Luton or Stansted!