The Waterloo & City line, colloquially known as The Drain, is a shuttle line of the London Underground which runs between Waterloo and Bank stations with no intermediate stops. Its primary traffic consists of commuters from south-west London, Surrey and Hampshire arriving at Waterloo main line station and travelling forward to the City of London financial district. For this reason, the line has historically not operated on Sundays or public holidays, except in very limited circumstances. The line was closed during the COVID-19 pandemic; since reopening in October 2021 it is open only on weekdays. It is the only fully-subterranean tube line; the Victoria line runs completely underground in passenger service but has a ground-level depot.
Printed in turquoise on the Tube map, it is by far the shortest line on the Underground network, being long, with an end-to-end journey lasting just four minutes. In absolute terms, it is the least-used Tube line, carrying just over 17 million passengers annually. However, in terms of the average number of journeys per kilometre it is the third-most intensively used line behind the Jubilee and Victoria lines.
The line was built by the Waterloo and City Railway Company and was opened in 1898 (at the time, Bank station was named "City"). When it opened it was the second electric underground railway in London, following the City and South London Railway (now part of the Northern line). Its construction was supported by the London and South Western Railway, whose main line trains ran into Waterloo, and for many years it continued to be owned and operated by the LSWR and its successors as a part of the national railway network, not as part of the London Underground network it resembled. Following a major refurbishment and replacement of rolling stock by Network SouthEast in the early 1990s, operations were transferred to London Underground in 1994.
History Background The London and South Western Railway (LSWR) reached Waterloo Bridge on 11 July 1848, serving routes from Southampton and Richmond. It was officially renamed Waterloo in October 1882.
It was viewed as a serious shortcoming that the station was not within walking distance of the City of London. The LSWR had hoped to build a line eastwards to near London Bridge, but because of the slump following the railway mania, and the high cost of building through the area, this idea was abandoned. When the South Eastern Railway opened an extension from London Bridge to Charing Cross in 1864, a connecting railway line was built from there to Waterloo, but friction and competitive hostility between the companies meant the line saw no regular passenger movements. Under pressure from the LSWR, the SER constructed Waterloo Junction station, now called Waterloo East, on the Charing Cross line. The station opened in January 1869, but through ticketing was refused and the onward connection remained unsatisfactory.
Proposals A Waterloo and Whitehall Railway was promoted in 1864, to construct a tube railway from Great Scotland Yard to Waterloo. It was to use air pressure to propel the vehicles northwards, and exhaust air to draw them southwards, using a pressure differential of oz per sq in (about 11 mbar). The trains themselves would be the pistons. The company capital was to be £100,000. It was suggested that there could be a branch to where the Embankment station is now located: it is not clear how a junction would be managed in a pneumatic railway. There were to be three vehicles, one loading at each terminal and one in motion in the tube, so they must have been intended to pass at the terminals. There were to be three classes of accommodation in the coaches.
Work started on 25 October 1865, but less than a year later it was obvious that the capital was grossly inadequate. Authority for extension of time and more capital was obtained, but by then few investors had any confidence that their investment would gain a return. In 1868, a further extension was granted, but little further work was done, and nearly all the money had gone.
In 1881, an independent Waterloo and City Railway was promoted, to build a surface line to Queen Street. The cost was formidable at £2.3 million, and the proposal soon collapsed.
The Waterloo and City Railway Bill
In 1891, the Corporation of the City of London made a statistical survey which it published ancillary to the National Census taken in that year. 37,694 persons lived in the City, but the daytime occupation was 310,384. On 4 May 1891, 1,186,094 entries to the City were made, i.e., many people entered more than once. Separate statistical information is that about 50,000 persons arrived at Waterloo daily, of whom about 12,000 proceeded to the City by some means.
In November 1891, a bill was deposited to build an underground electric railway from Waterloo to the Mansion House in the City; the capital was to be £500,000; the proposal was supported by the LSWR but was independent. Three other "tube" railways were proposed in the same parliamentary session, the traditional cut-and-cover method being seen as impractical, as was an elevated railway on viaduct. Electric urban railways had been introduced in Germany in 1891 and in the United States of America, and were in daily, widespread use; but in the United Kingdom, only one example was in existence, the City and South London Railway.
The progress of the bill through Parliament was slow, partly because of the novelty of considering tube railway schemes; there were several petitions from the authorities responsible for public works in the city. London County Council tried to insist that the tubes should be made large enough to carry ordinary trains, and that all trains arriving at Waterloo should continue through them to the City. This idea would have required a new subterranean terminal station at the Bank of at least equal size to Waterloo itself.
Numerous petitions against the bill, or requiring additional protections to be included in it, were presented, but eventually on 27 July 1893, the (56 & 57 Vict. c. clxxxvii) gained royal assent.
Construction Following royal assent, the company prepared for construction. The new company issued its prospectus in March 1894 and the subscription list closed on 21 April; 54,000 shares at £10 each were offered and there was a slight over-subscription. A dividend of 3% per annum payable out of capital was promised during the construction phase.
Tenders were acquired for the main tunnel work, and a contract was awarded to John Mowlem & Co for the sum of £229,064 (). The consulting engineers were W. R. Galbraith (of the LSWR) and J. H. Greathead, developer of the tunnelling shield. The resident engineer was H. H. Dalrymple-Hay. Mowlems' engineer in charge was William Rowell.The Engineer (periodical), 26 July 1895
Mowlem began work on 18 June 1894, first building staging in the river about west of Blackfriars Bridge. Piles were driven for a cofferdam and two vertical shafts of internal diameter were constructed as headings for the tunnel drive. The average depth of the tunnels is about , with its deepest points under the River Thames, at underground.
Driving the running tunnels started in November 1894, using the Greathead system of shield excavation, cast iron segment lining, compressed air working, and compressed air grouting behind the tunnel lining. Twenty men worked in each heading.The Engineer (periodical), 2 August 1895
The excavated material was removed from the staging near Blackfriars Bridge; it was conveyed there from the shields by a narrow gauge railway using electric locomotives supplied by the Siemens Company. Two were in use and a third was on order at August 1895. They operated on gauge track with a twin overhead trolley wire (i.e., not using the track for current return) at .
The station works at Waterloo were constructed by Perry and Co. The station tracks run in separate but adjacent arches supporting the main line station, which run transversely to the main line track. The arch piers needed to be underpinned to about lower than the original foundations.
Civil engineering Under the Thames the top of the tube is below the bed of the river. The total length of the line is .
The underground station at Waterloo was located within the existing transverse arches of the main line station, with the arrival and departure platforms in separate arches, and a staircase access. Siding accommodation and a reversing siding were provided beyond the platforms: after disembarkation of passengers, an arriving train would continue forward to the reversing sidings, and then return to the departure platform. An additional lay-by siding was provided later.
At the new City station there were two platforms and either could be used by an arriving train, reversing in the platform. The track connections at the approach were a double slip, not a scissors, so a train could not leave while another was arriving.Diagram in Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers, 1899–1900, reproduced in Gillham, page 104 The left hand platform line was extended by a train length and trains could be stabled in the extension. A large diameter Greathead shield was used to bore the section of tunnel where the track connections would be installed.
The tube section for the platform lines at the City station were in diameter, the largest in the world at the time.
Original signalling In late 1897, contracts were let for the signalling equipment; the electric interlocking was to be carried out by W. R. Sykes, who had a call-off contract with the LSWR; a supplement to their standard prices for the tunnel work was agreed.
There were signal boxes at Waterloo at the south end of the northbound platform, and at south end of the northbound platform at City. There were conventional semaphore signals in the open south of Waterloo station, but all other signals were electric lights only. Sykes' lock-and-block system was used with depression-type treadles. Although there was only one signal section, advance starting signals were provided. The platform starting signals at Waterloo and at City had a lower arm, a "shunt-by signal" which when lowered indicated that the line was clear only to the advance starting signal. The main starting signal when lowered indicated that the line was clear to City.
An electrical traction current interrupt system was installed; a short length of contact bar was provided at each signal, connected to earth when the signal was at danger, and otherwise isolated. A "slipper" contact was fitted on the trains, and if it contacted the contact bar when it was earthed, the traction current was tripped.
Traction electricity On 4 January 1897, a contract was signed with Siemens and Co for the electrical generating and distribution equipment, and the electrical train equipment, for £55,913. Although a German firm, Siemens had a large presence in the UK at the time. There were three lower tenders.
There were five boilers working at driving five (later six) high speed steam engines developing directly coupled to dynamos. The two-pole compound-wound dynamos delivered at no load and under full load; this gave at . Special attention was given to the closeness of the governing to ensure a stable supply voltage. The station lighting circuits were fed from the main switchboard and specially led to maintain lighting supply in the event of a traction current disruption. Station lighting used four lamps in series, with return current via the running rails. (Gas lighting was provided as a back-up.)
There was a short high-level siding within the Waterloo yard area; coal to fuel the boilers was brought in by ordinary LSWR wagons lowered to the running line by the carriage lift; the wagons were drawn through the northbound platform by an electric shunting locomotive, and another lift elevated them to the siding. Boiler ash was disposed of correspondingly.
City station