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Railfanning London‘s Railways

Visitors to London who are also transport enthusiasts (‘railfans’) sometimes ask for advice as to the ‘best’ things to see on London’s railway network. This page is part of a guide which aims to answer that question.

If this is the first time you have reached these pages then it is best to go to the Opening Page which sets the scene, explains the difference between the small and the large profile trains, offers advice on the best type of ticket to buy and photography tips.

Alternatively, it is possible to view everything on one page

Waterloo and City Line

Entirely underground.

Click map to see larger version in a new window!

This line closed completely during the 2020 virus pandemic. Although it has now reopened the service is only Mondays - Friday rush hours.

At Bank the platforms are housed in individual tunnels which are linked by small cross-passages and join up to form a circulating area at the northern end. At Waterloo there are separate arrival and departure platforms which have independent platform accesses, and between journeys the trains go into the depot - which can be seen from both platforms.

Until railway privatisation in 1994 this line was part of British Railways - Network SouthEast - and on some station platforms you will still see some Network SouthEast logos.

Services on this line are provided by trains which were built at the same time as the Central line 1992 Tube Stock. At the time British Railways called them Class 482, but nowadays they are known as 1992 Tube Stock. The Waterloo & City line variants of the fleet have internal CCTV cameras and different train control systems, so therefore are electrically incompatible with the Central line's trains.

The Waterloo and City line is unique in London in that it is not directly connected to any other railway tracks. The only way for trains to 'get in' (or out) is by crane through an access hatch in Spur Road, which is near the exit from the mainline station next to platform 1 - cross the taxi road at the pedestrian traffic signals; pass through the opening in the wall; turn left and descend the steps / ramp along Spur Road and the crane & hatch will be on your left.

A link to a Google map showing this location can be found below
http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=spur+road+waterloo+london&hl=en&ll=51.502332,-0.109756&spn=0.00561,0

Extra Information

The Waterloo & City line has a different history than most of London's tube lines in that it was built by an existing mainline steam railway - the London and South Western Railway (L&SWR). The reason was that the L&SWR wanted to link its large terminus station at Waterloo with London's Financial District.

Although over the years there have been suggestions that the line should be extended so that it becomes more than a simple two station shuttle. However this is unlikely to happen. The line is so busy in the rush hours that there is a very good case for leaving it exactly as it is.

Two changes which could yet come to pass are:

1) A small platform extension at Bank station to make it possible to use longer five carriage trains. This would be to help ease severe rush hour overcrowding. The platforms at Waterloo can already accept longer trains.

2) Conversion of the line to have London's first fully automated driverless passenger trains - such systems already operate in many overseas cities very successfully and as this line only has two stations it could act as a present-era demonstration system for similar train operations elsewhere on the London Underground.
For those who have heard of the terminologies, what is being proposed here conform to the International Association of Public Transport (UITP) classification grade of automation 4 (GoA 4) and unattended train operation (UTO).

The use of unstaffed trains in London has historical precedents. The former Post Office railway used unstaffed trains but these only carried mail - and not passengers. In the 1970's unattended train operation was tested on the Hainault - Woodford section of the Central line, albeit not in public service. This project was called FACT - Fully Automatic Control of Trains. It is understood to have concluded in 1978, due to a lack of finance.