Waterloo & City Line

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Colour on map

Teal

Year opened

1898

Line type

Deep Tube

Rolling stock

1992 Tube Stock

Stations served

Length (km)

2.5

Length (miles)

1.5

Depots

Waterloo

Journeys made

9,616,000 (per annum)

Rail lines of
Transport for London

London Underground lines
	Bakerloo
	Central
	Circle
	District
	East London
	Hammersmith & City
	Jubilee
	Metropolitan
	Northern
	Piccadilly
	Victoria
	Waterloo & City
Other lines
	Docklands Light Railway
	Tramlink
	Overground (starts November 2007)

Tube Portal

The Waterloo & City Line is a short underground railway line in London, which formally opened on 11 July 1898. It has only two stations, Waterloo and Bank (formerly called "City", hence the name of the line), between which it passes under the River Thames.

It exists almost exclusively to serve commuters between Waterloo mainline station and the City of London, and does not operate late in the evening or on Sundays. By far the shortest line on the London Underground, at only 1.5 miles (2.5 km), it takes only three minutes to travel from end to end. It was the second electric tube railway to open in London, after the City and South London Railway.

1 History
2 Trains
3 Map and stations
4 Refurbishment
5 Use as a filming location
6 References
7 External links

[edit] History

The line was designed by civil engineer W.R. Galbraith and James Henry Greathead. Originally part of the London and South Western Railway, it became part of the Southern Railway in 1923. It was nationalised with the main-line railways in 1948. The line served as an extension of the main line into Waterloo, which had originally been intended to run to the City but was prevented from doing so by the 1846 ban on surface railways running through the central area of London. Its ticketing was fully integrated with the national network and passengers could buy through tickets from mainline rail stations to Bank. It became part of London Underground in 1994, when it was sold for the nominal sum of one pound.

The Waterloo & City is colloquially known as The Drain. While the reason for this is not known for certain, there are several theories: some believe it relates to the smell of the marshy ground on which Waterloo is built - certainly a strange smell pervades the Waterloo end of the line to this day. Others believe it relates to the drain-like round deep-level tunnels, which were nicknamed "tubes" on the other lines, or that it refers to it being the only line without above ground access so trains can only see the light of day when they are pulled out of the drain, which is the entrance on the ground surface. It may also refer to its effect of draining the prosperous City of London bank & office workers to the stockbroker belts to the South - served by mainline trains from Waterloo.

A carriage being lifted out of Waterloo depot

One curiosity of the Waterloo & City is that uniquely among Underground lines it is underground for its entire length (the Victoria Line's only non-underground section is to the depot), and has no physical connection to the rest of the Underground network. This presents considerable difficulties in transporting trains to and from the line. Before the construction of Waterloo International terminal in 1990, the trains were vertically hoisted, one carriage at a time, using an Armstrong lift outside the north wall of Waterloo main-line station.This is now done using a road-mounted crane in a shaft adjacent to the depot and south of Waterloo mainline station. When the Waterloo & City had its own power station, coal was delivered from Waterloo main-line station using a second, smaller lift (known as the Abbotts Lift), which explains the continued presence of a wagon turntable in Waterloo depot. The remaining stub of the siding tunnel that led to the Armstrong Lift can still be seen on the left hand side of the train shortly after leaving Waterloo for Bank. The lift itself was demolished (along with the entire Western sidings)in 1992 due to the construction of Waterloo International - The Eurostar terminal.

In January 2003 the Waterloo & City was closed for over three weeks for safety checks due to a major derailment on the Central Line, which required all 1992 stock trains to be modified. That same year, responsibility for the line's maintenance was given to the Metronet consortium under the terms of a Public-Private Partnership arrangement.

[edit] Trains

A train of modified 1992 stock in its original Network SouthEast livery stands at Bank station on the Waterloo and City Line.

A newly-refurbished unit in London Underground livery at Doncaster Works in 2006.

The line has had only three types of rolling stock in its lifetime.

The original wooden stock, consisting of 11 motor and 11 trailer carriages, built by Jackson and Sharp of Wilmington, Delaware, USA, using Siemens electrical motors and switch-gear, was used until 1940. The trains were operated as five trains of four carriages each, with one spare motor and trailer. The trains were of a novel design, being able to be driven from a small semi-open cab at either end of the train. This was achieved by running cables from both motors the length of the train, which allowed the rear motor carriage's motors to be controlled by the front switch-gear. Another cable (making nine in all) connected the current collectors at both ends in order to eliminate the power loss that occurs at interruptions in the third rail at junctions (known as 'gapping'). The Board of Trade was, not surprisingly, horrified by this arrangement and forbade traction current being conveyed between carriages on any further tube projects, forcing the Central London Railway to revert to a conventional locomotive scheme. The problem of gapping was never solved and still exists on every third-rail railway. The inconvenience to passengers has been partially eliminated by feeding half the car lights from the motor car at one end of the unit, and half from the other. Five additional single motor cars were ordered from Dick, Kerr and Co. of Preston in 1899 for single carriage operation outside rush hours.

The original rolling stock was replaced in 1940 by electric multiple units manufactured by the English Electric company. It is remarkable that the demands of the Second World War did not delay new rolling stock until after the war - virtually every other tube project was either delayed or cancelled altogether. This new stock was eventually classified Class 487 in the TOPS system. The switchgear on this stock was of the older low-voltage solenoid type that required a large switch compartment behind one of the driving cabs. All other tube stock of the period used the American pneumatic cam (or the later pneumatic cam modified) under the floor, yielding about 33% more passenger space in the motor cars. Unusually for tube trains, the motor cars (the term 'carriage' was dropped in the 1930s for tube use) had driving cabs at both ends permitting lightweight services to be run during slack periods.

The stock was replaced by Class 482 units in 1992, which were virtually identical to the 1992 tube stock used on the Central Line. The line was converted to four-rail operation in common with other tube lines: the original steel positive rail was retained, with the new negative rail made from aluminium. Since its introduction, this stock on the Waterloo & City has diverged sufficiently from that used on the Central Line through various modifications, primarily to the latter with the introduction of Automatic Train Operation, that the two are no longer interchangeable. It was almost immediately after the introduction of this stock that management of the line was transferred to London Underground.

Up to the time of closure due to refurbishment (see below) the Class 482 trains carried the original blue British Rail Network SouthEast livery that they had when they were introduced, despite having been part of London Underground for more than ten years.

[edit] Map and stations

Bank, opened, 8 August 1898 (as City); renamed 28 October 1940.
Waterloo, opened 8 August 1898.

The line has been closed on a number of occasions for repairs and vehicle checks, including between 31 March 1994 and 5 April 1994.

[edit] Refurbishment

New battery powered locomotive for works during the closure.

The line was shut on 1 April 2006 for refurbishment works. It re-opened on 11 September 2006, eleven days after the predicted completion date of the project. As well as the repainting and cleaning of the trains, the work included refurbishment of the tunnels, platforms and depot, and an upgrade of the track and signalling systems. These and other works to be completed by 2007 are expected to boost rush-hour capacity by 25% and line capability by 12% at a cost of tens of millions of pounds. It is also claimed the average journey will be up to forty seconds faster. Four new 75-hp battery-powered locomotives named Walter, Lou, Anne and Kitty were built by Clayton Equipment in Derby to haul materials and plant along the line during the closure.

Beyond these changes Metronet plan to refurbish Bank station by 2011.

[edit] Use as a filming location

Because of its Sunday closures, the Waterloo & City has become a well-established and convenient location for filming, not least because in the days of British Rail (and predecessor) ownership, it could be used in the event of London Transport being either unable or unwilling to allow access to their stations or lines. It can be seen in the second series of the BBC's Survivors, representing various parts of the Central and Northern lines, and in the 1984 adaptation of The Tripods, where it masquerades as Porte de la Chapelle station on the Paris Métro. It was also used in the 1998 Peter Howitt film Sliding Doors, portraying Embankment and one other unknown station.