Victoria line
Light blue and entirely underground: 16 stations from Brixton to Walthamstow Central via Victoria, Oxford Circus and King’s Cross.
About the Victoria line
The Victoria line is a single route of 16 stations from Brixton in south London to Walthamstow Central in the north-east, cutting diagonally under the West End. It has no branches and runs completely underground, the only other tube line to do so being the Waterloo & City line. It appears in light blue on the tube map.
It was built in the 1960s, the first entirely new Underground line in London for 50 years, chiefly to take pressure off the Piccadilly line and the Charing Cross branch of the Northern line. Its route ties together three main-line termini – Victoria, Euston and King’s Cross St Pancras – and on the way calls at Green Park, Oxford Circus and Warren Street. North of King’s Cross it continues via Highbury & Islington, Finsbury Park, Seven Sisters and Tottenham Hale.
Every station except Pimlico offers an interchange with another TfL or National Rail service, which makes the line a fast way to cross London between transport hubs. The busiest stations in 2024 were King’s Cross St Pancras (77.13 million entries and exits), Victoria (62.69 million) and Oxford Circus (53.18 million).
Victoria line stations
16 stations, 8 of them with a change to another tube line (marked with a navy ring and the colours of the other lines).
Brixton to Walthamstow Central
Main route, 16 stations
History
A railway along this corridor was first proposed in the County of London Plan of 1943. In 1948 a British Transport Commission working party suggested a tube from Victoria to Walthamstow, and planners used cost–benefit analysis for the first time to test it. Known during planning as Route C, the line was authorised by the British Transport Commission Act 1955; the name “Victoria line” also dates from 1955, beating suggestions such as “Walvic” and “Viking”. In 1961 it was decided to end at Walthamstow (Hoe Street) rather than Wood Street, and that station was renamed Walthamstow Central on 6 May 1968.
Test tunnels under Seven Sisters Road, dug with an experimental “drum digger”, were started in January 1960, and the government approved a £56 million budget on 20 August 1962. The first section, Walthamstow Central to Highbury & Islington, opened without ceremony on 1 September 1968; the first train left Walthamstow at 7:32 a.m. Warren Street followed on 1 December 1968. On 7 March 1969, with the line complete to Victoria, Queen Elizabeth II formally opened it, travelling from Green Park to Victoria on a 5d ticket and becoming the first reigning monarch to ride the Underground.
The 3.5-mile extension to Brixton, with stations at Vauxhall and Stockwell, was opened on 23 July 1971 by Princess Alexandra; it was the first new Underground section south of the Thames since 1926. Pimlico, the last station, opened on 14 September 1972. At Blackhorse Road the main-line station was moved across the road and linked to the tube on 14 December 1981.
The original automatic train operation, which made the Victoria line the world’s first full-scale automatic railway, ran until 2012. Its replacement allowed a new timetable in February 2013 with up to 33 trains an hour, and from May 2017 trains have run every 100 seconds at peak times. On 23 January 2014 workers upgrading Victoria station flooded the signalling room with quick-setting concrete, suspending services south of Warren Street until the next day.
Trains and service
All trains run between Brixton and Walthamstow Central. On weekdays the first train from Brixton is at 05:27 and the last at 00:28; from Walthamstow Central the first is at 05:25 and the last at 00:53. In the busiest hour 36 trains leave each terminus on weekdays and Fridays, 30 on Saturdays and 27 on Sundays. On Friday and Saturday nights the Night Tube keeps the whole line open, so trains run all night from both ends; the last Sunday trains leave Brixton at 23:52 and Walthamstow Central at 00:06.
Interchanges are the line’s strength. Oxford Circus connects with the Bakerloo and Central lines, Victoria with the Circle and District lines and National Rail, Green Park with the Jubilee and Piccadilly lines, and Euston, Warren Street and Stockwell with the Northern line. The Overground can be reached at Blackhorse Road, Highbury & Islington, Seven Sisters and Walthamstow Central, and National Rail also at Vauxhall and Brixton. Check tube times for full timetables.
The trains
The line is worked by the 2009 Tube Stock, a fleet of 47 eight-car trains built by Bombardier. Replacement of the original 1967 Tube Stock began in July 2009 and the last 1967 train ran on 30 June 2011. The newer trains have a wider profile and slightly longer carriages than other tube stock, so they cannot run on any other deep-level line. Trains are driven by automatic train operation but every one carries a driver, and they can reach 50 mph (80 km/h). The stations help: they are hump-backed, so trains climb as they brake and descend as they leave, saving 5% of energy and running 9% faster. Trains are kept at Northumberland Park depot, the only part of the line above ground.