Victoria Line

The Victoria Line is a line of the London Underground, coloured light blue on the Tube map. It is a deep-level "tube" line which runs from the south-west to the north-east of London. It was built in the 1960s, to relieve congestion on other lines, in particular the Piccadilly Line. The Victoria line was designed to maximize the possible interchanges, yet keep a large distance between stations for trains to build up speed.

Many stations on the route were rearranged for so-called "cross-platform interchange": each Victoria Line platform was placed adjacent to and parallel with that of the equivalent direction track of the other line, thus making them essentially two faces of a single platform (though they were in different tunnels). This allows quick transfer between lines at stations. For example, at Oxford Circus, switching from a northbound Victoria line train to a northbound Bakerloo train is a matter of a 20 metre walk no matter how far along the platform you are; likewise for southbound. In some cases this was achieved simply by placing the Victoria Line tubes on either side of the existing station; in other places the Victoria Line uses one of the old platforms while the older line was diverted into a new platform. At Euston station the track layout is particular in that while northbound Victoria and Northern Line (City branch) trains run along adjacent platforms, they are going in opposite directions along them.

Map

Geographically accurate map of the Victoria Line ()

Stations

in order from north to south

• Walthamstow Central, opened: September 1, 1968.
• Blackhorse Road, opened: September 1, 1968.
• Tottenham Hale, opened: September 1, 1968.
• Seven Sisters, opened: September 1, 1968.
• Finsbury Park, opened: September 1, 1968.
• Highbury & Islington, opened: September 1, 1968.
• King's Cross St. Pancras, opened: December 1, 1968.
• Euston, opened: December 1, 1968.
• Warren Street, opened: December 1, 1968.
• Oxford Circus, opened: March 7, 1969.
• Green Park, opened: March 7, 1969.
• Victoria, opened: March 7, 1969 (railway station)
• Pimlico, opened: September 14, 1972.
• Vauxhall, opened: July 23, 1971.
• Stockwell, opened: July 23, 1971.
• Brixton, opened: July 23, 1971.

External links:

• http://www.davros.org/rail/culg/victoria.html