All About London's ENORMOUS Suburban Rail Network



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We’ve talked a lot about London’s core urban rail services such as the Tube, the Elizabeth Line, and the Thameslink, but what about the massive network of suburban rail lines of the city? Let’s take a closer look.

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27 thoughts on “All About London's ENORMOUS Suburban Rail Network”

  1. Form memory I tried to guess all the stations in the first 5 minutes, enjoy:
    00:11, Leicester Square
    00:13, Abby road
    00:16, queenstown road (Battersea) ?
    00:22, Farringdon
    00:46, Baker Street
    01:02, Stratford
    01:11, London Bridge
    01:32, Finsbury Park
    01:34, not a station but I was crossing over that bridge on a train last week
    01:54, at pancreas international (themslink)
    02:11, Abby road again
    02:27, chlapham junction
    02:37, Paddington
    02:40, London Waterloo
    02:45, London Liverpool Street
    02:50, London Bridge
    03:02, Chalpham junction
    03:07, Queenstown road (Battersea)
    03:16, London Paddington
    03:23, Abby road
    03:24, Moorgate (tube)
    03:53, not a station but if you are interested in the subject Jago Hazzard made a good video on it
    03:58, Queenstown road (Battersea)
    04:35, City themslink
    04:40, Queenstown road (Battersea)
    04:47, Acton mainline?
    04:52, Queenstown road (Battersea)
    04:55, Stratford
    05:10, St pancreas international (themslink)
    05:17, Canning Town or custom house

    Reply
  2. Citymapper Citymapper Citymapper. The absolute best app for navigating London. Was heading out to Greenwich recently and it mapped out the route perfectly. Missed a train at Charing Cross due to a wrong turn down a tunnel and it rerouted me to another train including platform number leaving like 6 minutes later.

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  3. Fun Fact: the public footbridge at 1:34 – The shot from the canal of the line heading into Marylebone Station – is currently unaccessible due to renovation works along that side of the Regent's Canal towpath. (Or it was as of April this year. Works may have finished, but it's London so……)

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  4. Great video, but I think you missed a trick in not stressing the role of Clapham Junction as a coordinator for Southern and Southwestern networks (esp given your fondness for 'shoulder stations')

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  5. Well done. I travel up to and around London fairly regularly, and it's mind-bogglingly complicated at times. At least I can tap in and out of pay gates with a maximum charge or but a ticket to London with all 6 zones included for trams, busses and tubes.

    Reply
  6. When I lived in London, my Southern station had a train every 15 minutes, which sounded nice, until I realised every second train went to either Victoria or London Bridge, so my commute would always drastically change depending on what time I left lol

    Reply
  7. 13:53 that East Croydon – Watford Junction service used to be much longer, it’s been extended and shortened many times over the decades. I think it went something like this:

    – Gatwick Airport – Rugby
    – Brighton – Rugby
    – Brighton – Milton Keynes Central
    – Three Bridges – Milton Keynes Central (?)
    – East Croydon – Milton Keynes Central
    – East Croydon – Watford Junction (current)

    Sometimes the trains might only run as far as Clapham Junction at the southern end.

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  8. With a network that huge, maybe they should just move to a numbered system! There are so many services, many competing, that is must take quite a lot of time to unravel it all. Is this due to the privatization schemes from Thatcher and onward, a relic of past eras in which multiple companies built lines, or both? It's quite impressive, but there must be s simpler way to brand it all.

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  9. The Hertford Loop trains now all terminate at Stevenage which has a dedicated terminal platform for them and a dedicated route clear of the Kings Cross to Stevenage/Peterborough/Cambridge line.

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  10. This is all possible or because so many competing companies built their termini in London. These built lines offering alternative routes out of London which have now been largely integrated.

    Reply

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