London station group

For the VIA Rail station in London, Ontario, Canada, see London, Ontario railway station.

The National Rail network of the United Kingdom does not have one main London railway station in London. Rather, there are many stations in central London, belonging to a so-called London station group.

For reasons linked to the original construction of railways in London, the city is served by several main terminus stations, which form a ring around Central London (the majority of which are connected by the Circle Line of the London Underground) and are served by different lines connected to parts of the country. All the main stations are located in Travelcard Zone 1, and most are managed by Network Rail. Most stations are also a principal destination for routes which serve the London suburbs, and all have either direct or nearby connections to the London Underground network.

In the ticketing system of the British rail network, tickets are normally issued to and from individual stations. However, in some instances, such as London, where there is more than one station in a town or other locality - and especially in cases where these are on different lines or routes - it may be desirable for passengers to be able to travel to one station and back from another, or more generally to be able to choose which of the stations they wish to travel to. To accommodate this requirement, British Rail introduced a series of "station groups": notional "common locations" to which tickets from stations outside that group would be issued.

"London group" terminology

Whereas most station groups have had two renderings on tickets, the London group has had four - and two further variations have occasionally been seen.

A "Stop Press" note in National Fares Manual 69 (valid from 24 May 1998 to 26 September 1998 inclusive) stated: "Ticket issuing machines have been downloaded with a new description for London which will now be shown as London Terminals. The new description, however, will not appear in Fare Manuals until they are reissued in September." In practice, the LONDON TERMINALS description gradually appeared on tickets over the course of several months from mid-April 1998 (the same time as the GLASGOW CEN/QST change) ^[1]. Very occasionally, LONDON STATIONS was seen instead of the expected "London Terminals" in late 1998, mainly from certain APTIS machines at London Paddington.

The reason for the early change from LONDON BR to LONDON BRIT RAIL was explained in National Fares Manual 42 (valid from 12 May 1989) as follows: "London BR is being replaced by London Brit Rail to avoid continuing customer confusion with London Bridge. The other "BR" stations [i.e. station group names] will be unchanged." (There was also the potential for confusion in the instance of CATFORD BR, as one of the stations in that group is Catford Bridge, but action was taken only in respect of the London group - perhaps because of its greater importance.)

London: a special case

London is a complex group, for various reasons:

• It has historically included many termini and other stations, all the way round the central area
• In practice, travel was, and still is, only permitted to termini that could be reached via reasonable routes from the origin station, without needing to cross central London by London Underground services or the Thameslink cross-London route
• Two lines cross central London from north to South: the West London Line and, more problematically, the Thameslink route; the stations on these lines had to be considered as well when the group was created
• Some stations' fares are set by, or subject to control from, London Underground
• As mentioned already, the terminology of the "group" and the method of rendering it on tickets has changed several times

The following table lists the stations that have been considered part of the London group, with exceptions highlighted:

Note that above, unlike in the main table, the official names with "London" are given. There are thirteen such stations (Broad Street and Holborn Viaduct have closed, London Bridge's "London" is intrinsic).

Programs such as Travel planners require the "London" inconsistently.

Exceptions

Farringdon station

On the Thameslink route, Farringdon is considered the crossover station; for fare-setting purposes, it is considered a London Underground station, and tickets are always issued to Farringdon specifically.^[2]

Kensington Olympia

On the West London line, the intermediate station, Kensington Olympia, was included within the London group until the issue of National Fares Manual 57 on 29 May 1994, at which point it became a separately priced station (with tickets always issued to or from there specifically). Accordingly, since 1994, tickets to/from the "London group" have not been valid.

(Similarly, the stations on the same line at Shepherd's Bush (which opened in 2008), and West Brompton (which reopened in 1999), have never been part of the London group. Tickets to or from these stations always show the station name itself.)

St Pancras International

St Pancras International is north of the River Thames; it is considered to be within the London group only in respect of other stations north of the Thames. Unless the National Fares Manual and the ticket issuing system being used specifies otherwise, tickets between St Pancras International and stations south of the Thames have to be issued to/from there specifically (rather than to/from the London group), with the fare being (fare to London group) + (London Underground Zone 1 single or return fare, as appropriate).

London Bridge, London Blackfriars and City Thameslink

The same applies in reverse; these stations are considered to primarily serve passengers to London from south of the Thames, and journeys to or from stations north of the Thames have to be issued to/from the station itself, at the fare which includes the Zone 1 supplement.

Moorgate

Moorgate is served by the service on the Northern City Line from Finsbury Park which is operated by First Capital Connect for which "London group" tickets are valid.^[3]

The closed stations

London Broad Street station closed in 1986, months before the APTIS system was introduced. London Holborn Viaduct station closed in 1990, being replaced by City Thameslink nearby. King's Cross Thameslink station closed in 2007, being replaced by the low level platforms at St Pancras International nearby.

All of these stations were included in the London group prior to closure.

The "London Thameslink" group

To improve flexibility for people travelling from stations on the northern Thameslink route (West Hampstead Thameslink to Bedford inclusive), a new station group called London Thameslink (rendered on tickets as LONDON THAMESLNK) was created in 1998. Tickets could be issued from one of the stations on the above route to this destination, and these would be valid on Thameslink services to all of the following stations: King's Cross Thameslink (since replaced by St Pancras International), Farringdon, Barbican, Moorgate, City Thameslink, London Blackfriars, London Bridge and Elephant & Castle. However until 2008, Season Tickets could not be issued from these northern Thameslink stations to "London Thameslink" - they had to be issued to a specific station. London Thameslink are now no longer valid to Barbican and Moorgate.

List of mainline stations

There are around 350 further stations served by National Rail in the Greater London area, of which most can be reached from one of the main central stations. Nine of the ten busiest UK stations are in London (Clapham Junction being the busiest in Europe). Within Central London itself, most of the major stations are terminal stations; a handful of stations with terminal platforms also have through platforms. The main central London stations (including two managed by London Underground) are^[4]:

Station	Location	Managed by	London services	National services	Annual entry/exit (millions) 2002/3	Annual entry/exit (millions) 2004/5	Annual entry/exit (millions) 2005/6	Annual entry/exit (millions) 2006/7	Open date	Terminal platforms	Through platforms
Blackfriars	City of London	First Capital Connect	NW, N, S, SE	Thameslink Gatwick Airport Luton Airport	1.444	7.782	8.259	11.852	1886	0[5]	2
Cannon Street	City of London	Network Rail	SE	Kent East Sussex	1.93	17.460	17.614	21.106	1866	7	0
Charing Cross	Westminster	Network Rail	SE	Kent East Sussex	4.825	28.822	28.562	34.779	1864	6	0
City Thameslink	City of London	First Capital Connect	NW, N, S, SE	Bedford-Brighton Gatwick Airport Luton Airport	12.951	4.010	4.645	5.479	1988	0	2
Euston	Camden	Network Rail	NW	West Coast Main Line Watford DC Line Liverpool Manchester	26.256	26.256	27.162	25.585	1837	18	0
Farringdon#	Islington	London Underground	N, NW, S, SE	Bedford-Brighton Gatwick Airport Luton Airport	14.392 [6]	15.255[6]	16.805[6]	18.285[6]	1863	0	4*
Fenchurch Street	City of London	Network Rail	E	Tilbury Southend-on-Sea	17.019	16.086	15.746	15.189	1841	4	0
Kings Cross	Camden	Network Rail	N	East Coast Main Line Cambridge	49.137	20.805	20.302	22.504	1852	11	0
Liverpool Street	City of London	Network Rail	E, NE	Great Eastern Main Line East of England Stansted Airport	38.968	50.469	47.271	55.266	1874	18	0
London Bridge	Southwark	Network Rail	S, SE, NW	Kent East Sussex Thameslink Gatwick Airport Luton Airport	80.773	37.020	37.416	47.577	1836	9[7]	6
Marylebone	Westminster	Chiltern Railways	NW	Buckinghamshire Oxfordshire Warwickshire Birmingham	6.354	6.949	6.819	11.689	1899	6	0
Moorgate#	City of London	London Underground	NW, N, S, SE	Bedford Luton Airport Hertfordshire	0.000832	7.135	7.263	9.236	1865	4*[8]	4**
Paddington	Westminster	Network Rail	W	Great Western Main Line Heathrow Airport	25.262	25.788	26.501	27.259	1854	14	0^
St Pancras	Camden	Network Rail	N, NW, S, SE	Bedford-Brighton Gatwick Airport Luton Airport Midland Main Line	4.429	5.471	4.893	5.777	1868	10[9]	2
Victoria	Westminster	Network Rail	S, SE, SW	Kent Sussex Gatwick Airport	61.647	48.046	47.860	66.749	1862	19	0
Waterloo	Lambeth	Network Rail	SW	Surrey Hampshire South West England	68.431	62.388	61.036	89.993	1848	19[10]	0
Waterloo East	Lambeth	Southeastern	S, SE	Kent East Sussex	0.439	4.905	4.904	6.329	1869	0	4

• # - Managed by London Underground - LU platforms included in totals

• * - Including 2 London Underground platforms

• ** - All London Underground Platforms, including two deep-level

• ^ - Excluding two Underground platforms

Stations shown with London Underground connections

Closed stations

The large number of major railway stations has broadly escaped any rationalisation despite coming into common ownership in the 1940s. However, a number of stations have closed for one reason or another:

• 19th Century closures
  • Bishopsgate - closed in 1874 and replaced by Liverpool Street
  • Minories - closed in 1854 and replaced by Fenchurch Street

Bishopsgate was converted into a major freight terminal and was in use until 1964 when it was damaged by fire. The majority of the buildings were demolished in 2004 to make way for the new Shoreditch High Street railway station. Minories was utilised as an alternative terminus until the re-siting of Fenchurch Street in 1854. The original site was reused for Tower Gateway DLR station.

• 20th Century closures
  • Holborn Viaduct - closed in 1990 and replaced by City Thameslink
  • Broad Street - closed in 1986 without replacement

Holborn Viaduct was a significant terminal station located close to Blackfriars until it was made redundant by the reopening of the Snow Hill tunnel through route and replaced by City Thameslink. Broad Street was the terminus of a network of commuter lines in east and west London linked using the North London Line. It suffered by the expansion of the bus, tram and tube networks and was finally closed in 1986.

See also

• List of London railway stations

References

External links

• "Stations Run by Network Rail". Network Rail. http://www.networkrail.co.uk/stations/. Retrieved 2008-07-13. 

It has been suggested that this article or section be merged into Template:London transport. ([[: talk:Template:London transport|Discuss]])

v • d • e Railway stations of central London Termini Cannon Street · Charing Cross · Euston · Fenchurch Street · King's Cross · Liverpool Street · London Bridge · Marylebone · Moorgate · Paddington · St Pancras · Victoria · Waterloo Other central stations Blackfriars · City Thameslink · Elephant and Castle · Farringdon · Old Street · Vauxhall · Waterloo East Other London stations: Central area · Greater London area London Transport Portal