LONDON Waterloo station will be partially closed for refurbishment for three weeks starting today, leading to delays on services through Bournemouth and Poole.

Network Rail and South West Trains have advised passengers to expect long waiting times during busy periods while major upgrade works take place at London Waterloo.

Until August 28, platforms 1 to 10 at Waterloo will be closed while engineers extend platforms 1 to 4 to accommodate longer 10-car trains, and modify platforms 5 to 8.

View a temporary timetable for Weymouth and Bournemouth to London Waterloo ptt-28-aug-2017.pdf

View a temporary timetable for Brockenhurst to Lymington Monday to Friday Brockenhurst to Lymington.pdf

Significantly fewer trains will be running across the south west during this time and stations across the network will become more crowded.

Also, some journeys are likely to take longer.

Waiting times at Waterloo are expected to be around 30 minutes, whilst waiting times at Clapham Junction could reach 45 minutes.

Becky Lumlock, route managing director at Network Rail, said: “Doing major improvement work is always disruptive, so we’re providing these estimates on waiting times to make sure that passengers have everything they need to plan ahead.

“At the same time, we’re also continuing to advise passengers to travel earlier or later than normal to avoid the busiest times of day, or to consider working from home where possible.”

“We’ll be doing everything we can to make journeys as smooth as possible.”

Coach firm National Express has reported a 10 per cent rise in bookings during the disruption.

The station is due to reopen fully on August 28.

Research carried out by Transport Focus, an independent transport watchdog, reported that 84 percent of passengers are aware of the Waterloo upgrade.

South West Trains said: “We are investing over £800million to provide the biggest package of improvements for passengers travelling on the railway to and from London Waterloo for decades.

“The number of passenger journeys on this line has more than doubled in the last twenty years to 234million and is expected to increase by a further 40% by 2043.”

Passengers can check how their journey will be impacted by visiting southwesttrains.co.uk/wswupgrade.