Waterloo Train Station

This image, of the escalators at Waterloo tube station in 1979, was created by Oxfordian Kissuth. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.

Both Waterloo Tube Station and the Waterloo Train Station are effectively within the same overall structure. The London Transport tubes, of course, run deep beneath ground, while British Rail trains run on surface tracks between different metropolitan terminals. The tube trains are accessed by great escalators. One of these escalators, the older wooden tread kind, caught fire at King’s Cross Station (also a conjoined tube and train station) in 1987, resulting in 31 fatalities. And then, of course, there was the July 7th 2005 terrorist bombing of British Transport (bus and tube)

You can easily get confused in the maze that is Waterloo. If Jamie had not caught up with Katarin before she got to the British Rail platforms, he might have lost her. Fortunately, he knew exactly where she was heading, so even though she had a head start, he could find her.

Looking at the old escalator descent, you can’t help but be struck by how grimy the transport system was in 1979. The surface trains were much the same: sad, tired, dilapidated.


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