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Inner and Outer Suburban

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ChristopherJ

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What are the definitions of Inner and Outer Suburban passengers services?

It's very difficult to find an exact answer and it seems to be dependent on both geographical suburban boundaries and railway service patterns.

This is how I personally understand the definitions, correct me if I'm wrong.

Inner Suburban services begin at a city and serve all of suburbia out to the suburban boundary limit, sometimes penetrating out in to the next region. Example: Liverpool Street - Shenfield Metro, which get to Harold Wood then penetrate in to the East of England for a few stops to Shenfield before returning back to Greater London.

Outer Suburban services begin at a city and run directly to the limit of suburbia, then once outside in the boundary limit call at all stations in the next region. Example Liverpool Street - Southend Victoria, run fast to Stratford (mainly due to the area being a large interchange hub) and Romford (almost the limit of suburbia) then once in the East of England call at all remaining stations, e.g Shenfield, Billericay, Wickford... to Southend Victoria.

Comparing our passenger classifications to those on the continent, I would imagine inner suburban would be classified as Local (L) or RER or S-Bahn and outer suburban would be classified as Inter-Regional (IR) because it crosses regional boundaries (as in my examples: Greater London to the East of England)
 
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exile

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Suburban, to me, implies services within a conurbation. Services connecting outlying towns to a major centre are "commuter" services if they are frequent and allow workers to reach central offices around 9am - journey times up to, say 90 minutes. The green belt confuses matters somewhat as without this London would long ago have extended outwards to absorb towns such as Slough, St Albans and so on.
 

D1009

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What are the definitions of Inner and Outer Suburban passengers services?

I have heard the terms used on FCC GN services to distinguish between trains normally worked by 313 units from the rest, but do any other TOCs use them?
 

IanXC

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I have heard the terms used on FCC GN services to distinguish between trains normally worked by 313 units from the rest, but do any other TOCs use them?

I always think of London Overground as an inner suburban TOC.

 

Eng274

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314s are classed as "inner suburban", whereas 318s, 320s, 334s, 380s (i think) are classed as "outer suburban". I can't speak for other TOCs, but perhaps the toilet provision, performance characteristics (acceleration/top speed), and the route obviously, are the defining factors?

314s with the exception of the occasional Wemyss Bay/Gourock diagram, stay on the 'inner suburban' south Clyde services, whereas the rest go much further afield, e.g. Helensburgh, Milngavie, Motherwell, Edinburgh, North Berwick.
 

John55

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Suburban, to me, implies services within a conurbation. Services connecting outlying towns to a major centre are "commuter" services if they are frequent and allow workers to reach central offices around 9am - journey times up to, say 90 minutes. The green belt confuses matters somewhat as without this London would long ago have extended outwards to absorb towns such as Slough, St Albans and so on.

A commuter service is a service were passengers travel at a commuted rate in exchange for buying a season ticket and paying in advance. Nothing to do with distance travelled. It is an American term. The UK term was contractor but as usual we have copied the US. The key thing is regular travel at a reduced rate.
 

notadriver

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According to OS Nock a train was only designated as an express if its equipment was rated to run at 90 mph or over.
 

34D

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Example Liverpool Street - Southend Victoria, run fast to Stratford (mainly due to the area being a large interchange hub)

Pedant alert, all trains from Liverpool St to Stratford since 1946 have been fast.
 
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