AN AWARD-WINNING train station on Britain’s busiest rail route could be converted into a shopping complex under government plans to achieve “best value for money” from the building.

Waterloo International, the London terminal for Eurostar trains to Paris and Brussels, will fall empty in 2007 when a new Eurostar station opens at St Pancras.

The Department for Transport has commissioned a study into the “possible future uses” of Waterloo International, which include turning it into shops, offices and luxury flats.

The department has ordered Arup, a consultancy firm, to consider how to maximise the profits from redeveloping the site, despite the urgent need for more platforms for Waterloo’s domestic trains.

In a statement, the department said: “The study will look at possible opportunities for commercial use in case it becomes clear that certain areas of the station will not be needed for rail purposes. 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.”

The consultants are to consider removing the platforms as well as converting the departure lounge underneath into shops or offices.

More than 250,000 people a day use Waterloo and the commuter services are among the most overcrowded in the country. Thousands of passengers each day have to stand and frequently trains are held outside the station because no platforms are available.

South West Trains, the train company serving Waterloo, believes that it could eliminate almost all overcrowding and sharply reduce delays if it was allowed to use the five Eurostar platforms. It said that the quarter-mile-long platforms would allow it to add carriages to its services to Portsmouth, Bournemouth, Southampton, Weymouth and Winchester.

The Government would have to invest at least £100 million to convert Waterloo International for domestic use. A flyover would be needed just north of Clapham Junction to bring long-distance services across to the western side of the tracks into Waterloo.

Brian Cooke, chairman of the London Transport Users’ Committee, said: “We shall fight any plans that would deprive passengers of this vital rail asset.”

It is unclear how much of the structure, designed by Sir Nicholas Grimshaw, will survive. The curving glass and steel station, which cost £120 million, won the Royal Institute of British Architects’ Building of the Year award in 1994.

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