I find it very sad that London's rail links are being allowed to decline
like this.

A good example being the commuter services into Waterloo, which are pretty
much at the limit of their capacity. The move to St Pancras of the Eurostar
terminal is a perfect opportunity to vastly improve services into Waterloo -
in the words of SWT:

"South West Trains... believes that it could eliminate almost all
overcrowding and sharply reduce delays if it was allowed to use the five
Eurostar platforms." (ok, they would say that, but there can be little doubt
that more platforms at Waterloo would be a Good Thing for rail users)

However the Department of Transport take a different view. Their
responsibility, they argue, is not to improve transport services, but to
raise as much money as possible in the short term by selling off the
railway's assets. From a DoT statement:

"The facilities at Waterloo and North Pole (the Eurostar maintenance depot,
which is also closing) represent significant assets and the department
requires that their future use achieves the best value for money."

So instead of much needed investment, we get a quick cash-grab, and rather
than providing us with an integrated transport policy the govt. gets to
raise a few hundred million that it can put towards something really useful,
like ID cards for everyone.

And once we get these much-needed offices and shops built on the railway's
land, how are people going to travel to them, anyway?

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article...557246,00.html