Britain’s Busiest Railway Stations No 5

Saturday 13th July 2024

I’m back on the the top ten countdown of Britain’s Busiest Railway Stations and at Number 5 it’s Victoria where Southern and Gatwick Express meet Southeastern in a divided station which historically was two separate entities from rival companies.

Southeastern uses eight platforms (1-8) Southern uses nine (9-12 and 15-19) with platforms 13 and 14 allocated to Gatwick Express but also occasional use by Southern.

Although platform 8 doesn’t get a mention in the posters pictured above, situated on the western side of the Southeastern building, it does see the occasional arrival and departure and has the luxury of its very own exclusive set of eight ticket gates. Presumably that’s why it doesn’t get used much as these gates have to be staffed.

As you can see in the above photo, just to the left hand side of the platform, and adjacent to platform 7, is a left luggage facility…

… which also has tourist information and a ‘Lost and Found’ section on the first floor.

In a typical off-peak hour at Victoria, Southeastern’s platforms see 11 trains arriving and 11 departing providing a 15 minute frequency of fast trains to Bromley South with alternate trains continuing half hourly to Ashford (via Maidstone East); or Dover Priory and Ramsgate (via Faversham where afternoon trains split and continue via Canterbury East or Herne Bay); another 15 minute frequency stopping train via Herne Hill to Bromley South and Orpington; a half hourly frequency to Gravesend (via Lewisham and Bexleyheath) and an hourly service to Gillingham (via Denmark Hill, Bromley South, Swanley and Rochester).

Southern provide a half hourly service to Epsom Downs; half hourly to Horsham (via Hackbridge) and a 15 minute frequency to Crystal Palace continuing alternately to either West Croydon or round to London Bridge making for eight arrivals/departures an hour usually on platforms 9-12 (supplemented by an extra half hourly frequency to Sutton via Norbury in the peak) while platforms 15-19 see a 10 minute frequency (give or take a minute) to East Croydon and Gatwick Airport with half hourly extensions to Eastbourne and/or Ore; Littlehampton; and Portsmouth Harbour/Portsmouth & Southsea supplemented by a half hourly frequency to East Croydon and Redhill and Reigate and half hourly to East Grinstead, making for another ten arrivals/departures an hour.

Gatwick Express operates half hourly to Gatwick Airport, Haywards Heath and Brighton with Burgess Hill, Hassocks and Preston Park served in the peaks.

Travelling on those 18 journeys arriving and 18 journeys departing each hour in the year ended March 2023 were 45,563,972 passengers and the Office of Rail and Road tell us that 10% of those (4,584,101) came from, or travelled to, Gatwick Airport making it the most popular destination connected to Victoria.

By comparison with Euston (Britain’s 10th Busiest Railway Station), Victoria sees around 50% more passengers using the station in a year, and like at Euston, Network Rail has been working on a project to declutter the station concourse of some retail units to make way for a much more extensive gate line for both Southeastern passengers and Southern’s passengers using platforms.

There’ll be a near 50% increase in the number of ticket gates taking the total to 125.

This work is still continuing and in the last few weeks has seen the old Southern gateline swept away and a much more extensive new gateline installed further back giving more space for when passengers alight from arriving trains.

It’ll be a great improvement when the work is completed and all the new signs installed.

There’s an extensive ticket office at the northern end of the concourse on the Southern side of the station but these days only three or four windows are usually open…

… while a ridiculous policy of dedicating another window to Gatwick Express continues. Sometimes all these windows are closed which must mystify passengers from abroad unfamiliar with the crazy way we do things in Britain.

There’s also a large bank of Ticket Vending Machines (TVMs) but again, these days, it’s rare to see more than a few of them in use at any one time. Other TVMs can be found elsewhere on the concourse.

Signage encourages passengers to “Go contactless” but it’s rather short on detail and is negated by a somewhat negative poster…

… located nearby. Why can’t rail companies use positive language when conveying information?

The area in front of platforms 9 to 14 in the Southern building has a large circulating area…

… with an information pod installed relatively recently…

… and a new, easier to read, departure board.

The area is often used for third party promotional acitivity.

The equivalent area on the Southeastern side is less extensive….

… but also includes an information pod…

… while alongside the retail units which separate the two buildings…

… (including a Wetherspoon’s on the first floor)…

… there are now plenty of the new style slatted seats installed on both the Southeastern side…

… and on the Southern concourse.

Another interesting building – facing the Southeastern concourse and located alongside the connecting archway between the two buildings is this one, now used as a Currency Exchange – was it used as a ticket office at one time? It looks like it might have been.

Just to the right of this building is an entrance to the Underground (for the Victoria line and a subway to the District and Circle lines) and a Visitor Centre.

There’s a more extensive access to the Underground at the northern end of the Southern building…

… and oddly, that Visitor Centre can only be accessed from inside the station with the entrance to the outside now blocked off.

Taxis are conveniently available from outside the front of the station where there’s also the bus station.

As well as three access points from here into the Southern side …

… there are also access points into the Southeastern side including a narrow passgeway.

.., and from Buckingham Palace Road on the western side of the station.

Toilets can be found on both the Southern side…

… and Southeastern, albeit the latter were closed on the day I visited to take these photos.

Also when I took these photos a few weeks ago, one of the regular British Pullman trains was in platform 2…

… ready to take its excited passengers on a luxury journey to somewhere in the south of England.

It was proving popular and was being given a suitable ‘period’ send off…

… from the the company’s dedicated reception and bar area for passengers prior to boarding their train.

A bespoke entrance to platform 2 is opened up…

…rather than the more mudane gateline which also serves platforms 1, as well as 2.

Also adding to the authentic travel experience at Victoria, are smartly dressed ‘ambassadors’ who can be found out the front of the station to help visitors find their way to a tourist hotspot.

Meanwhile, for railway nerds, also out the front, if you know where to look…

… there’s an original Network South East digital clock – in corporate colours and still giving excellent accurate service.

And, if there aren’t enough shops to satisfy passengers on the ground floor, Victoria Place above the platforms awaits your credit card.

Finally, as is common practice these days, new large electronic screens have been installed which passengers can use to find out various pieces of information and which go unused for much of the time. Yet another waste of money gimmick.

Roger French

Previous blogs in this Britain’s Busiest Railway Stations series: No 10 Euston; No 9 Farringdon; No 8 St Pancras International; No 7 Tottenham Court Road; No 6 Stratford.

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