The five Eurostar platforms at Waterloo are to lie empty for at least year, the Government has admitted.

Despite knowing more than three years ago that all Eurostar services would switch to St Pancras, the Department for Transport has failed to produce plans for using the platforms to relieve severe congestion at Waterloo.

South West Trains, which operates Britain’s most overcrowded services, wants to use the platforms for its longest trains that serve Basingstoke, Winchester, Southampton and Portsmouth.

Tom Harris, the rail minister, said in a written answer yesterdat that only one of the five platforms - platform 20 - was likely to be brought back into use by December next year for “some domestic passenger services”. He was silent on the fate of the other four platforms.

London TravelWatch, the passenger watchdog, said it would cost £500,000 a year to mothball the Eurostar platforms. Brian Cooke, the watchdog's chairman, said: “It is a scandal that the Department for Transport has not come up with plans or funds to do something about this.

“We understand that changing the use of platforms will be complicated – changing passenger movements around the station, and reconfiguring tracks and signals. However, it is vital that these platforms are utilised as quickly as possible to boost capacity at Waterloo.”

Mr Cooke said it would cost only £5 million to adapt the platforms for domestic services.

However, to make the most effective use of the platforms would require investment of more than £100 million to allow trains to cross, via a flyover near Clapham Junction, from the South West main line to the tracks leading into Waterloo International.

The Eurostar platforms are the longest in Britain and can accommodate trains with 18 carriages. SWT runs 12 and 10-carriage trains on the main line but hopes to extend these services to at least 14 carriages.

Without the flyover, the Eurostar platforms could be used by only eight-carriage local trains, probably from the Windsor line.

Matthew Elliott, chief executive of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: “Yet again a short-sighted failure to plan for the future costs taxpayers vast amounts of money.

“Paying for platforms to stand empty rubs salt into the wound for all those paying high taxes and wondering where their money goes. Those in charge of the Department for Transport clearly lack the experience to manage large projects properly.”

A spokesman for the Department for Transport said: “The aim of using Eurostar platforms for domestic use was announced in October 2005. We’ve said this on numerous occasions since then. We intend that the first domestic service will run by the end of next year.

“Work will be carried out by Network Rail to make this happen. Eventually, we want all five platforms to be used for domestic services. We’re also looking at how Waterloo can be used to expand capacity right across the South Western franchise.”

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