Victoria

Live status — lines serving Victoria

Live departures from Victoria

Victoria is the UK's second-busiest mainline station — handling around 75 million National Rail passengers a year on top of an equally busy Underground complex below. It is the London terminus of the Gatwick Express, the principal funnel for Southern commuters from Sussex and Surrey, and a short walk from Victoria Coach Station, the UK's largest coach hub. The Tube station itself serves three lines and, since the major rebuild completed in 2018, is one of the few central interchanges with full step-free access from street to train on every platform.

If Victoria is closed

• Going on the Victoria line northbound? Walk 7 minutes north to Green Park for the Victoria, Jubilee and Piccadilly lines.
• Going on the Victoria line southbound? Walk 8 minutes south to Pimlico for the next stop on the line — a quiet, uncrowded alternative.
• Going on the Circle or District (westbound)? Walk 6 minutes west to Sloane Square (same lines), or 10 minutes north-west to Hyde Park Corner (Piccadilly).
• Going on the Circle or District (eastbound)? Walk 8 minutes east to St James's Park for the same lines, or further to Westminster (Jubilee, Circle, District).
• Catching Gatwick Express? Thameslink runs an alternative service to Gatwick from many stations along the City Thameslink corridor (London Bridge, Blackfriars, Farringdon, St Pancras International) — slower but unaffected by Victoria-specific issues.
• Mainline (Southern) alternative — many Southern services also stop at Clapham Junction, which is rarely affected when Victoria itself is.

About the station

Victoria is two stations in one — a Victorian mainline terminus above ground and a three-line Underground complex below it. The mainline station opened in stages from 1860 onwards as the terminus for two competing railway companies, the London Brighton & South Coast Railway and the London Chatham & Dover Railway. The two halves were finally unified into a single concourse in 1908. The District and Circle Underground platforms opened in 1868 — they are sub-surface, just below street level, on the original 1868 Metropolitan District Railway alignment. The Victoria line platforms followed in 1969, the line taking its name from the station that anchored its southern central section.

From the late 2000s to 2018, the entire Underground station was rebuilt to handle modern passenger loads. A new Northern Ticket Hall was excavated under Bressenden Place to relieve the cramped original ticket hall under the mainline concourse, and lifts were added to every platform. The result is a complex that processes its huge daily flow with notably less queueing than it used to — and that meets the full step-free access standard.

Lines that serve Victoria

• Victoria line — fast deep-tube line north to Pimlico, Vauxhall, Stockwell and Brixton; south to Green Park, Oxford Circus, Warren Street, Euston, King's Cross and Walthamstow Central. The line takes its name from this station. Step-free.
• Circle line — sub-surface loop around central London via Sloane Square, South Kensington, Paddington, King's Cross and Tower Hill back to Westminster.
• District line — sub-surface line west to Earl's Court, Hammersmith, Richmond, Wimbledon and Ealing Broadway; east to Westminster, Embankment, Tower Hill, Whitechapel and Upminster.

Step-free access

Victoria has full step-free access from street to train on every Tube line it serves — a distinction shared by only a small number of central London stations. Both ticket halls (Main and Northern) are step-free, and lifts connect each ticket hall to every Underground platform.

The sub-surface Circle and District platforms are level-boarding (no gap or step from platform to train carriage). The deep-tube Victoria line platforms have the standard small step and gap from platform to train, as on every deep-tube line on the network. Boarding ramps are available on request.

See the full step-free Tube stations guide for what step-free actually covers and how stations differ.

Exits and what is nearby

• Main Ticket Hall (Terminus Place) — opens directly into the mainline concourse. Closest to Southern, Southeastern, Thameslink and Gatwick Express departures, plus the Victoria Place shopping centre.
• Northern Ticket Hall (Bressenden Place) — the 2018 expansion. Closest to Victoria Street, Westminster Cathedral (5 min walk), Cardinal Place and the Apollo Victoria Theatre.
• Buckingham Palace Road exit — closest to Victoria Coach Station (5 min walk south-west) and Buckingham Palace (15 min walk north-west via Buckingham Palace Road).
• Wilton Road exit — closest to the south side of the mainline station, Wilton Road bus stops and the Pimlico residential area.

A bit of history

The first Victoria station was opened on 1 October 1860 by the London Brighton & South Coast Railway. The London Chatham & Dover Railway opened its own adjacent terminus less than a year later, in 1862 — for half a century the two railway companies operated as physically separate stations under one shared name. They were finally combined into a single concourse in 1908.

The Metropolitan District Railway (now the Circle and District lines) reached Victoria in 1868. The Victoria line — the first new central London tube line for over half a century — opened in stages between 1968 and 1971, with the Victoria platforms among the first to enter service in 1969. The line was deliberately routed via Victoria to relieve pressure on the District and Circle.

The most recent transformation, the Victoria station upgrade, ran from 2010 to 2018. It added the entire Northern Ticket Hall, three new banks of escalators, eight new lifts and 50% more circulation space — a transformation that the post-2018 commuter takes for granted but that the pre-2010 commuter would have struggled to believe.

Common quirks

• Gatwick Express needs no booking from a contactless point of view. Touch in at the gate with a contactless card or Oyster — fares are the same whichever train you take. Allow extra time on the Gatwick Express side: the dedicated platforms are at the far end of the mainline concourse.
• Two ticket halls, different destinations. Use the Main Ticket Hall for the mainline station and Victoria Place shopping; use the Northern Ticket Hall (Bressenden Place) for the Apollo Victoria Theatre, Cardinal Place and the Victoria Street offices.
• Coach station vs Tube station. Victoria Coach Station is a 5-minute walk down Buckingham Palace Road — it is not inside or attached to the Tube station. If you have a coach to catch, allow 15 minutes from the Tube gateline.
• Buckingham Palace is 15 minutes away. Many tourists head for Victoria expecting the Palace next door; it is a healthy walk up Buckingham Palace Road. St James's Park or Green Park are closer.
• The Victoria line is named after the station, not the queen. When the line opened in 1969, it was named for its principal southern terminus — although obviously the station itself is named for Queen Victoria.

Frequently asked questions

Which lines serve Victoria?

Three Underground lines: the Victoria, Circle and District. Victoria is also the UK's second-busiest National Rail station and the London terminus for the Gatwick Express.

Is Victoria step-free?

Yes. Fully step-free from street to train on all three Tube lines following the 2018 rebuild and Northern Ticket Hall addition.

What zone is Victoria in?

Zone 1, for both Underground and National Rail.

How do I get the Gatwick Express?

From the Tube, follow signs to "National Rail" and look for Gatwick Express signage on the main concourse. Trains run every 15 minutes and take around 30 minutes to Gatwick Airport.

How far is Victoria Coach Station?

A 5-minute walk south-west, on Buckingham Palace Road. It is the UK's largest coach hub.

Lines serving this station

Guides