London Victoria station

Victoria Station
	The Grosvenor Hotel, the frontage of the Brighton Main Line platforms
Location	Belgravia
Local authority	City of Westminster
Managed by	Network Rail
Station code	VIC
Number of platforms	19
Fare zone	1
National Rail annual entry and exit
2004–05	48.047 million
2005–06	47.860 million
2006–07	66.749 million
2007–08	77.462 million
Other information
Lists of stations	DLR; Underground; National Rail; Tramlink;
External links	Departures; Layout; Facilities; Buses;
	;

Victoria station is a major National Rail, London Underground and coach station in the City of Westminster. It is the second busiest railway terminus in London after Waterloo. It is in Travelcard Zone 1. It is named after Queen Victoria.

National Rail

The National Rail station is officially named 'London Victoria',^[2] a name that is sometimes used outside London, but never by Londoners. The station has two separate parts:

The eastern (Chatham) side, platforms 1–8, is the terminus for services to Kent on the Chatham Main Line and its branches.
The western (Brighton) side, platforms 9–19, is the terminus for services to Surrey and Sussex, including Gatwick Airport and Brighton on the Brighton Main Line and its branches.

This split is generally held to, as the track layout does not allow much swapping, with only a small number of connecting flyovers between the main lines in the Battersea area, and a single track connection just outside the station. As the Brighton side is the busier of the two, disruption on that line sometimes results in some of its suburban services using the eastern side. This is often true of the Gatwick Express, which travels along the Brighton Main Line, as it will often divert over Chatham side tracks during engineering works in order to maintain service levels.

Victoria also serves as the London terminus for the Venice Simplon Orient Express, from Platform 2, the longest platform.

There are ticket barriers to platforms 1-12 and 15-19. Platforms 13 and 14 don't have ticket barriers and this is where the Gatwick Express service departs.

Preceding station		Following station
Terminus	Southeastern Catford Loop Line	Denmark Hill
Terminus	Southeastern Chatham Main Line (via Herne Hill)	Brixton or Bromley South
Terminus	Southern Brighton Main Line	Battersea Park or Clapham Junction
Terminus	Southern Gatwick Express	Gatwick Airport
Terminus	Venice Simplon Orient Express London-Paris-Venice	Folkestone West

London Underground

The London Underground station lies to the north of the mainline station concourse.It is currently the busiest station on the system with around 76 million using the station (not including interchanging passengers) as of 2007, 60.2 million (including interchanges) using the Victoria Line platforms.^[3] There are two ticket halls. The newer hall, closer to the mainline station, serves the Victoria Line; the other, farther north, serves the District and Circle Lines. The ticket halls are connected by a pedestrian passage beneath the Bus station.

Preceding station	London Underground	Following station
Sloane Square towards Hammersmith	Circle line	St. James's Park towards Aldgate
Sloane Square towards Wimbledon, Richmond or Ealing Broadway	District line	St. James's Park towards Upminster
Pimlico towards Brixton	Victoria line	Green Park towards Walthamstow Central

Proposed

Preceding station		London Underground		Following station
Sloane Square towards Wimbledon		Chelsea-Hackney line Crossrail 2		Piccadilly Circus towards Epping

Gallery

Northbound Victoria line platform looking south (undergoing refurbishment, photo taken August 2008)
The southbound Victoria Line platform.
Platform roundel on Victoria line platform

Coach and bus stations

Victoria coach station

Victoria coach station is half a mile south-west of the railway stations. It is the largest and most significant coach station in London. It serves long distance coach services and is also the departure point for many countryside coach tours originating from London. It serves all parts of the UK, and mainland Europe.

Victoria bus station

The Victoria bus station is directly outside Victoria Station. It services only London Buses,^[4] with 19 routes and 200 buses per hour at busy times. Bus 'spider' maps are available from TfL; they are designed like tube maps.^[5]

Green Line coach station

The Green Line Coach Station is another coach station near Victoria Station. The station offers long distance coach services by Green Line Coaches and Greyhound UK.^[6]

London Victoria Station Media

The approaches to Victoria Station in 1912. The line leading to the station is top right, the 'Brighton line' (shown in green) is bottom left and the 'Chatham line' (pink) bottom right. The connection to the GWR and LNWR (purple) is top left.
Plan of Victoria Station as it was in 1888. The 'Chatham' side was rebuilt in 1906 and the 'Brighton' side in 1898–1908
The London Chatham and Dover Station as rebuilt by the South Eastern and Chatham Railway.
Victoria (Eastern Section) Station, with SR 2-6-0 working empty stock.*View towards buffer-stops from the end of Platforms 1/2: ex-SE&C (Chatham Section) main terminus from Ramsgate, Dover etc. Maunsell class N 2-6-0 No. 31408 (built 9/32, withdrawn 6/66) is on empty stock work at Platform 5.
The Brighton side concourse in 1955
The Central side in 1961 with train from Tunbridge Wells West
The Golden Arrow leaving Victoria Station, 1953
Gatwick Express service at Victoria in 2003
Lines on the floor of the concourse leading to various facilities.