What was train travel like between Surrey and London in 1993?

The exile said:

Ok - I read it “the other way around”.

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Thanks for explaining, sorry of my original post was unclear

Peter Mugridge said:

Can I just check you do mean 1993 and not 1893...?

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Yeah. 1993.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 30 Jun 2025 ==

writerdruid said:

Hi! This is my first time on this forum.

I’m writing a fictional story set in the UK in 1993 and would really appreciate some help understanding what train travel would have been like during that time, particularly for a journey from Surrey (Woking, specifically) to London (ideally Waterloo, though anywhere in Central London would work).

Would it have been possible to travel from Surrey to London by train in 1993? If so, what kind of trains or stations would have been involved?

I’m also curious about how a passenger would have paid for that fare—would they typically use cash at a manned ticket booth, a machine, or purchase in some other way?

And finally, if anyone is willing, I’d be very grateful for a general walk-through of what a passenger in 1993 might do from buying a ticket in a station in Surrey to arriving in London.

Thank you so much in advance!

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Also, what time would trains stop running? I'm planning to have my character leave for London sometime in the evening. And, how long would the commute be?

writerdruid said:

Also, what time would trains stop running? I'm planning to have my character leave for London sometime in the evening. And, how long would the commute be?

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You’re probably ok till at least 10pm (and later going the other way). Journey time - as stated earlier - between 25 and 40 minutes, depending on the number of stops.

I am not sure what time the booking office would stay open to, but almost certainly until at least 18.00 and quite possibly 20.00 or 21.00. After that you would either pay the man at the barrier who would write a ticket on a pre-printed pad, pay on the train or pay at the barrier at Waterloo, both by the same method. Trains to Waterloo did run at odd times through the night, but there might be long intervals between them.

At many suburban stations, as well as the ticket office closing in the evening, the barrier would be unmanned too, with no ticket checks on anyone entering or exiting the station. The stations could feel quite deserted late at night, when the only sign of life would be the light on in the station office. Only the major stations, such as the termini, Clapham Jcn, etc. still had manned barriers in the evening. Not sure about Woking, perhaps someone else can advise.

As a previous poster said, you were then supposed to buy your ticket on arrival at Waterloo or other terminal. However, it was not uncommon to find the barrier there unmanned too, or if it was manned, for the collector to just point you at the ticket office there.

I can't recall ever having had my ticket checked on the train in the suburban area in BR days. It just wasn't practical on most trains, that had no corridor connection between coaches. Some of the trains between Woking and Waterloo would have been long distance stock with corridors, but I doubt that your traveller would have had his ticket checked or fare taken on the train in the evening in those days.

I suppose most people travelling in the evening would already have a ticket, either a season or making their return journey, and it wasn't considered cost effective putting much effort into getting money from the relatively small number who needed to pay.

Trains were usually cleaned between the morning and afternoon peaks, but by the evening would have been full of all the rubbish left behind by the afternoon peak travellers. In particular, lots of discarded copies of the Evening Standard (or "eeny stannit" as the vendors seemed to pronounce it) which people bought to while away the time on the train. Most then simply discarded it on the train, as there was no point in taking it home (recycling wasn't a thing then). Or threw it out the train window. I recall that there was an advertising campaign about the delays caused by people throwing rubbish out of train windows.

Remember that in those days you didn't get your news pop up on your phone. The first that most people knew that something important had happened was seeing it splashed on the paper vendors' boards. You then either bought the paper to "read all abat it", or went home and turned on the radio and waited for the hourly news broadcast, or turned on the TV for the 6 o'clock or 10 o'clock news.

I am fairly certain that there were services from my local station towards London well past 11pm, and I would be surprised if the same didn't apply at Woking. But the frequency would certainly have thinned out after 10pm. But services stopped earlier on weekends, Sundays in particular.

I know a great many people who commuted from the Woking area to Waterloo in the early 90s.

To add to what others have said:

* typically people commuting from Woking would have office jobs, and not be ‘workmen’
* most Woking commuters went for the fast trains; preferring 25 minutes standing up to 40 sat down (it‘s the same now)
* If you wanted a seat in the morning on the fast trains, there was a good chance of getting one at the very back of the train
* if you wanted a seat in the evening, get to Waterloo a good ten minutes before departure.
* on the way in, most people invariably read the newspaper, a book or some work papers.
* often people got to know each other pretty well through always catching the same train in the same place
* Some people might make use of the facilities in the buffet car (available on some trains on the Portsmouth, Bournemouth snd Salisbury routes), and a subset of them might hold court there with a couple of drinks on the way home, and a subset of the drinkers were known to also have a couple of sharpeners on the way up in the morning (typically journos and city trader types).

The last two trains from Woking to Waterloo on Mondays to Saturdays were ; 1- 2337, it called at Clapham Junction to set down passengers only (2358 Saturday, 0005 Monday to Friday) and arrived at Waterloo at 0005 Saturday or 0013 Monday to Friday. In both cases it was a route 82 working from Guildford.
2- 0014 the following day Tuesdays to Saturdays (so not Monday morning), calling at West Byfleet (0018), Weybridge (0022), Walton on Thames (0025), Surbiton (0032), Wimbledon (0040), Clapham Junction (set down only (0046)) and arriving Waterloo 0053. Route 93 from Weymouth.
Sunday was 2346, calling at Clapham Junction (0009) and Waterloo (0017), route 92 from Brockenhurst and Portsmouth Harbour (one portion from each).

The slam door stock would (certainly in the morning peak at London) have seen the mass opening and disembarking of hordes of passengers before the train was stopped.

Many city workers would be expected to be suited up, their newspapers read on the train in.

As has been noted above, plenty of reading of business papers and documents went on. But writing was another matter. Most of the slam door stock rode sufficiently roughly that writing anything lengthy was a decided challenge. Capital letters for crosswords were fine, but lower case annotations to documents tended towards the illegible - and gave rise to much criticism from PAs and typists asked to interpret them later! Special recognition to those folk who managed to smarten up their make-up successfully as their train hit the points just before their destination!

Rescars said:

As has been noted above, plenty of reading of business papers and documents went on. But writing was another matter. Most of the slam door stock rode sufficiently roughly that writing anything lengthy was a decided challenge. Capital letters for crosswords were fine, but lower case annotations to documents tended towards the illegible - and gave rise to much criticism from PAs and typists asked to interpret them later! Special recognition to those folk who managed to smarten up their make-up successfully as their train hit the points just before their destination!

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I think that those ladies who did their make-up en route would be keeping themselves aware of where the train was: they would know that the train was approaching Wimbledon and hold off, brush or lipstick poised in mid-air, until the train had cleared all the pointwork and they could restart. A number of authors, including Michael Gilbert, are reputed to have done the first draft of books while commuting: notebook on briefcase and tidy and type it up later.

Bald Rick said:

* If you wanted a seat in the morning on the fast trains, there was a good chance of getting one at the very back of the train

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Indeed: the VEPs that ran many of the peak services had a standard-class half-compartment right at the back which was non-smoking (I think smoking was still allowed on trains in 1993?) and typically relatively quiet.

I didn't commute to London in this era but I did school-commute on morning peak services a few years earlier and always found that half-compartment was a good place to go if you wanted quiet.

An interesting thing about the 1993 timetable, incidentally, is that it was one of the very few to have only 2tph south of Guildford off-peak. 1977 was the same, and it remained the case until Sep 1994 when a Haslemere terminator via Cobham (non-stop Waterloo-Guildford) was introduced.

Strangely the 1993 timetable was planned so that there were long turn-arounds at both ends for the '81' Portsmouth Direct fasts (mostly 442s by this stage, IIRC), meaning 5 diagrams were required off-peak compared to the 4 that had been traditionally the case. Basically the timings of the down '81' fast and '82' stopper were swapped while the up services remained the same.

Anyone know why this was done?

4COR said:

The slam door stock would (certainly in the morning peak at London) have seen the mass opening and disembarking of hordes of passengers before the train was stopped.

Many city workers would be expected to be suited up, their newspapers read on the train in.

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The OP has mentioned that they are looking at a passenger heading into London in the evening - so the info about commuting patterns of behaviour that many of us had assumed are probably not the ones the OP will be thinking of now I think about it.

WesternLancer said:

The OP has mentioned that they are looking at a passenger heading into London in the evening - so the info about commuting patterns of behaviour that many of us had assumed are probably not the ones the OP will be thinking of now I think about it.

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Indeed. They presumably want to be able to see things through the eyes of someone making a journey in 1993, not filtered through the memories of people writing now. We don’t know what nationality they were, what language and other competences they had, whether they had ever made the journey or a similar one before, etc. Nor do we know a lot of practical details: luggage, urgency, time of day (there is quite a difference between 19.00 and 22.00), etc. Nor is it likely that they were an enthusiast.

There is a great difference between someone with limited English who has never been to Britain before trying to get to London late at night and an English speaker who lives in Woking but rarely uses the train having to make a sudden journey to London at 19.00.

Just think of the first case:

X may have difficulty finding the station because they don’t realise that the Double-arrow symbol is used on road signs to indicate a station. Goes through the doors and wonders what to do next: if the ticket office is open they probably recognise that and go over, following which a long and confused conversation ensues as they try to explain to the clerk what they want and then have to search through these unfamiliar bank notes to find a suitable one. Then the clerk points to the barrier, hopefully manned, where they get their ticket checked, and then they stand around until the barrier staff point to the stairs and hold up two fingers saying ‘Platform Two’…

Alternatively…

Someone who has at least some familiarity will walk straight to the ticket office, say ‘Single to Waterloo, please’ and put down a fiver. Clerk says ‘£4.50, please’ (*) prints the ticket, puts 50p on top and swings the turntable. The traveller says ‘Thanks’, picks the ticket up, walks to the barrier, shows the ticket, looks at the departure board and walks straight to the stairs.

* - All prices and platform numbers hypothetical for the sake of example.

WesternLancer said:

The one on the right is one with manually opening hinged doors for passengers (all doors closed in the picture so not obvious), such train have all now been withdrawn - the train on the left is one that you could still travel on from Waterloo today - though unsure if that type would have served the route to Woking.

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The 455s did not regularly run on the Waterloo- Surbiton - Woking - Guildford services: they were usually VEPs, with 1st and 2nd class. The 455s do now reach Woking as the construction of the bay there means they can terminate there, and no longer continue to Guildford.

The 455s DID run to Woking on the route via Chertsey, but I don't recall if that was still running in 1993 (I recall using it in 1986)

norbitonflyer said:

The 455s did not regularly run on the Waterloo- Surbiton - Woking - Guildford services: they were usually VEPs, with 1st and 2nd class. The 455s do now reach Woking as the construction of the bay there means they can terminate there, and no longer continue to Guildford.

The 455s DID run to Woking on the route via Chertsey, but I don't recall if that was still running in 1993 (I recall using it in 1986)

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I was hoping someone would clarify that - many thanks

For a visual perspective try these;

Kinolibrary archive footage

1990 Network SouthEast tv ad

1988 Thames TV news piece on timetabling issues

1988 Thames TV b-roll from (I think) the same filming

You'd have been on slam door stock or (ideally) an NSE-liveried Class 455 that would have looked like this inside;
Keith Valla photo on Flickr

You may have bought a Travelcard for the trip.
Here's a period-correct example on eBay


As for the cassettes thing.. by 1993 on my travels all over NSE metals I was toting a personal cd player, admittedly it consumed AA batteries at a rate of knots and was clunky to carry around once adding one or two extra CDs for the trip. Don't think they were the norm though.

nlogax said:

F

You'd have been on slam door stock or (ideally) an NSE-liveried Class 455 that would have looked like this inside;

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Not many 455s at Woking in 1993.

Slam door stock on the local services and the Porstmouth line, but passengers from Woking to Waterloo generally choose the fast services. These were the then fairly-new 442s on the Southampton and Bournemouth fasts, and probably still loco-hauled on the Exeter fasts (the new diesel units for the Exeter line started to be introduced from mid 1993)

Pictures show a class 50 and train in NSE livery - the first is at, I think, Woking. The other I'm not sure - Salisbury?

I think that if we are going to give more practical help we need more details of the character in the OP’s work, such as those mentioned in post 43. Without that the OP is likely to get a mass of information that might be impossible to sift.

One thought. I hope the OP hasn’t got his character at Woking as part of a journey from Heathrow Airport to central London: that would be a very unusual route. It would be best to start a new thread if that is the case.

Gloster said:

One thought. I hope the OP hasn’t got his character at Woking as part of a journey from Heathrow Airport to central London: that would be a very unusual route. It would be best to start a new thread if that is the case.

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Indeed - in 1993 the usual route from Heathrow to central London would be by the Piccadilly Line or by one of the several express (road) coach routes.

There were, and still are, Railair coaches between Heathrow and Woking, but they are aimed at people heading south and west, to avoid having to go via London

norbitonflyer said:

The 455s did not regularly run on the Waterloo- Surbiton - Woking - Guildford services: they were usually VEPs, with 1st and 2nd class. The 455s do now reach Woking as the construction of the bay there means they can terminate there, and no longer continue to Guildford.

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IIRC the Waterloo-Guildford via Woking stoppers were operated with 455s for a short period, from around May 1992 to May 1997. I recall the traditional '73' Waterloo-Portsmouth and Southsea stopper being split into two separate services either side of Guildford in May 1992 and I seem to remember that this was so that 455s could be used north of Guildford.

In fact this is shown in the 1996 Waterloo-Woking-Guildford timetable from Timetable World. See screenshot below, 'S' = standard class only, therefore must be 455. Looks like the 1010 was an exception: presumably VEPs for operational reasons.


However by 1997 it was indeed mostly VEPs (with the odd CIG) again on the Guildford stoppers once more. The services now skipped Byfleet and New Haw, Hersham and Esher due to the separate Woking terminators (455s) serving the smaller stations. So from 1997 West Byfleet, Weybridge and Walton gained 4tph. Then in 1999 the Guildfords called all stations Woking to Surbiton giving all stations on this stretch 4tph - and decently-spaced too.

norbitonflyer said:

The 455s DID run to Woking on the route via Chertsey, but I don't recall if that was still running in 1993 (I recall using it in 1986)

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Did Chertsey services to Woking really start as early as 1986? Not saying they didn't but I had it in my head that they began in 1988. They were definitely there by March 1989 as I used one.

You're right - I misremembered the date of the event that took place on the day I made that journey. It was in 1988.

norbitonflyer said:

Not many 455s at Woking in 1993.

Slam door stock on the local services and the Porstmouth line, but passengers from Woking to Waterloo generally choose the fast services. These were the then fairly-new 442s on the Southampton and Bournemouth fasts, and probably still loco-hauled on the Exeter fasts (the new diesel units for the Exeter line started to be introduced from mid 1993)

Pictures show a class 50 and train in NSE livery - the first is at, I think, Woking. The other I'm not sure - Salisbury?

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Yes, that second one does look very like Salisbury.

norbitonflyer said:

Not many 455s at Woking in 1993.

Slam door stock on the local services and the Porstmouth line, but passengers from Woking to Waterloo generally choose the fast services. These were the then fairly-new 442s on the Southampton and Bournemouth fasts, and probably still loco-hauled on the Exeter fasts (the new diesel units for the Exeter line started to be introduced from mid 1993)

Pictures show a class 50 and train in NSE livery - the first is at, I think, Woking. The other I'm not sure - Salisbury?

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First one is platform 2 at Woking

Relative to today, I would expect there would probably be fewer women travelling, and the average age of commuters would be slightly higher. The off peak service would be quiet, certainly heading into London in the evening, with fewer groups of young people. The racial and socioeconomic mix might also be slightly different.

nw1 said:

Did Chertsey services to Woking really start as early as 1986? Not saying they didn't but I had it in my head that they began in 1988. They were definitely there by March 1989 as I used one.

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(Reply about the Chertsey-Woking service posted in this thread: https://www.railforums.co.uk/thread...ervice-have-to-wait-at-virginia-water.288662/).

writerdruid said:

Also, what time would trains stop running? I'm planning to have my character leave for London sometime in the evening. And, how long would the commute be?

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Do you mean leaving London in the evening, or heading to London in the evening? 'Commute' usually refers to workers catching the same train day in, day out; few would travel (commute) to work in the evening, unless maybe they were in the newspaper business, but Fleet Street was beginning to cease being the centre for producing newspapers by 1993.

The other comment about commuting is that some people would fall asleep, and miraculously would wake up just in time to alight at their home station.

writerdruid said:

Also, what time would trains stop running? I'm planning to have my character leave for London sometime in the evening. And, how long would the commute be?

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Could generally get suburban trains back from London until about 23:30 with some routes last trains being after Midnight.

Until Autumn 1998 (date from memory) pubs had defined drinking hours and called closing time at 11pm. In the business districts (The City of London), many shut earlier Monday-Wednesday at around 9pm as their customers would drink at lunchtime or after work, not late into evening. The business area (City) would be virtually dead after 9pm (except Fridays) and was like a ghost town at weekends.

Late evening activities tended to be in a part of London called the West End, and apart from nightclubs were generally all closed by 23:30. To some extent these hours were still fairly common in 1993 as decades of fixed closing hours had defined peoples behaviour, it did slowly slip until nearer midnight through the 1990s, but trying to leave after about 00:15 would not have meant no tubes or bus in London, and no train home, until breakfast time.

Snow1964 said:

Could generally get suburban trains back from London until about 23:30 with some routes last trains being after Midnight.

Until Autumn 1998 (date from memory) pubs had defined drinking hours and called closing time at 11pm. In the business districts (The City of London), many shut earlier Monday-Wednesday at around 9pm as their customers would drink at lunchtime or after work, not late into evening. The business area (City) would be virtually dead after 9pm (except Fridays) and was like a ghost town at weekends.

Late evening activities tended to be in a part of London called the West End, and apart from nightclubs were generally all closed by 23:30. To some extent these hours were still fairly common in 1993 as decades of fixed closing hours had defined peoples behaviour, it did slowly slip until nearer midnight through the 1990s, but trying to leave after about 00:15 would not have meant no tubes or bus in London, and no train home, until breakfast time.

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Note - the OP is talking about evening trains up to London. Anyone arriving in the late evening (particularly after 10, by which time “last trains” would be leaving) would very much have the impression they were going “against the flow”. That flow could be an eclectic mixture of the tired and weary, the well- dressed concert and theatre crowd (obviously a bit later) clutching their programmes, and the over-exuberant (putting it politely).

Snow1964 said:

Could generally get suburban trains back from London until about 23:30 with some routes last trains being after Midnight.

Until Autumn 1998 (date from memory) pubs had defined drinking hours and called closing time at 11pm. In the business districts (The City of London), many shut earlier Monday-Wednesday at around 9pm as their customers would drink at lunchtime or after work, not late into evening. The business area (City) would be virtually dead after 9pm (except Fridays) and was like a ghost town at weekends.

Late evening activities tended to be in a part of London called the West End, and apart from nightclubs were generally all closed by 23:30. To some extent these hours were still fairly common in 1993 as decades of fixed closing hours had defined peoples behaviour, it did slowly slip until nearer midnight through the 1990s, but trying to leave after about 00:15 would not have meant no tubes or bus in London, and no train home, until breakfast time.

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There was of course the famous 0105 Waterloo-Southampton. Definitely existed in May 1994, as the WTT for that date is available from Network Rail. This called at Vauxhall, Clapham Junction, Wimbledon, Surbiton and Woking.

You also had the 0005 to Guildford (all stations from Surbiton) and the 0030 to Portsmouth Harbour.

Maybe a bit OT but does anyone remember when the 0105 started? I'm sure I remember seeing it in timetables in the 80s, though it didn't exist in 1982.

Looking at today's timetables incidentally I see that late night Waterloo-Southampton appears to have been dramatically cut back post-Covid. Not only does the 0105 not seem to exist anymore, but neither does the 0005. (Thinking about it, I may have looked this up last year too). Last train back is 2335, whereas in 1994 there was a 2353 in addition to the 0105. So the current late-night service is probably worse than what existed in the late 80s, if my memories of the 0105 existing in the 80s are accurate - and certainly worse than the 1994 offering.

nw1 said:

There was of course the famous 0105 Waterloo-Southampton. Definitely existed in May 1994, as the WTT for that date is available from Network Rail. This called at Vauxhall, Wimbledon, Surbiton and Woking.

You also had the 0005 to Guildford (all stations from Surbiton) and the 0030 to Portsmouth Harbour.

Maybe a bit OT but does anyone remember when the 0105 started? I'm sure I remember seeing it in timetables in the 80s, though it didn't exist in 1982.

Looking at today's timetables incidentally I see that late night Waterloo-Southampton appears to have been dramatically cut back post-Covid. Not only does the 0105 not seem to exist anymore, but neither does the 0005. Last train back is 2335, whereas in 1994 there was a 2353 in addition to the 0105. So the current late-night service is probably worse than what existed in the late 80s, if my memories of the 0105 existing in the 80s are accurate - and certainly worse than the 1994 offering.

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The 0105 still runs Friday and Saturday nights (strictly speaking Saturday and Sunday mornings), when it is most needed. It still calls Vauxhall, Clapham J, Wimbledon, Surbiton then Woking snd principal stations.

On Sunday nights (Monday mornings) there is an 0010.