Stations with multiple routes to London (or other big cities)

[ATW Alex 101]

It went via Shrewsbury, Newport, Bristol, Bath, Salisbury and Woking. I think I am right in saying it avoided Cardiff. Took about five hours, and was a 156 or 158 (I think)

It stopped running maybe ten years ago?

It was a 158 operating under wales and borders (or it could have been wales and west)

 

[AndyLandy]

It was a 158 operating under wales and borders (or it could have been wales and west)

That sounds like a horrendous journey to make! I've travelled the Welsh Marches line on a 158 and that's tedious enough. I can't imagine doing MAN-NWP-WAT on a 158, it must've taken hours!

 

[Lrd]

it must've taken hours!

As said above, about 5.

 

[AndyLandy]

As said above, about 5.

Oops. So it did!

 

[starlightEXPRESS]

Dorking, Leatherhead and Epsom have services to London Victoria (Southern) and London Waterloo (SWT) all day. They also have services from London Bridge (Southern) in the evening peak. Epsom has services to London Bridge in the morning peak.

Box Hill & Westhumble has services to London Victoria (Southern) all day, services to/from London Waterloo (SWT) in the peaks and a single evening peak service from London Bridge (Southern).

Bookham, Effingham Junction, Horsley, Clandon, London Road and Guildford have services to/from London Waterloo (SWT) all day and services to/from London Bridge (Southern) in the peaks.

 

[al78]

Horsham have services to London Victoria and London Bridge.
Three Bridges also have services to Victoria, London Bridge and in addition London St Pancras.

Around 15 years ago there used to be a service between Manchester Piccadilly and London Paddington via Birmingham and Reading, not sure if it is still running now.

 

[TheWalrus]

Trowbridge and Bradford-on-Avon into Paddington and Waterloo.

 

[12CSVT]

Around 15 years ago there used to be a service between Manchester Piccadilly and London Paddington via Birmingham and Reading, not sure if it is still running now.

Cross Country stopped running to Paddington several years ago.

 

[MCR247]

That sounds like a horrendous journey to make! I've travelled the Welsh Marches line on a 158 and that's tedious enough. I can't imagine doing MAN-NWP-WAT on a 158, it must've taken hours!

It wasn't really intended for through passengers I don't think

 

[cyclebytrain]

I think Rochester should be mentioned here - direct trains to St Pancras, Charing Cross and Victoria throughout the day, with Cannon Street and Thameslink stations via Elephant and Castle in the peaks. They all take reasonably different routes too.

 

[AndyLandy]

It wasn't really intended for through passengers I don't think

Oh, indeed, although I daresay there'd have been Apex through fares available if anyone was crazy enough!

 

[mister-sparky]

Horsham have services to London Victoria and London Bridge.
Three Bridges also have services to Victoria, London Bridge and in addition London St Pancras.

Horsham and Three Bridges also used to have services to Charing Cross in the peaks.

 

[ATW Alex 101]

Tonbridge has Southeastern and southern services to different London Termini. Bridge, and I think Victoria, Charing X and Cannon street. Apologies if mentioned already, I did use the search thread function though.

 

[Monty]

Dorking, Leatherhead and Epsom have services to London Victoria (Southern) and London Waterloo (SWT) all day. They also have services from London Bridge (Southern) in the evening peak. Epsom has services to London Bridge in the morning peak.

Box Hill & Westhumble has services to London Victoria (Southern) all day, services to/from London Waterloo (SWT) in the peaks and a single evening peak service from London Bridge (Southern).

Bookham, Effingham Junction, Horsley, Clandon, London Road and Guildford have services to/from London Waterloo (SWT) all day and services to/from London Bridge (Southern) in the peaks.

It's also worth mentioning SWT run Waterloo to Guildford via no less than three seperate routes:
London Waterloo - Guildford Via the Portsmouth Direct Line
London Waterloo - Guildford Via Cobham & Stoke D'Abernon
London Waterloo - Guildford Via Leatherhead

Thats four if you include the Southern service to Victoria you have already mentioned.

 

[merlodlliw]

Hartford used to have services into Paddington and Euston once upon a time. Nowadays it has no London services at all.

Also, Manchester to Waterloo?! What route did that take? I'm aware of the others listed, but that one's a new one on me!

I recall this train, it took six hours on the down, calling at Newport on the down only, & failed several times, it was mentioned when a programme was on BBC1 about the boss of WAGN , he was recorded playing hell about it when it was laid up on a platform causing delays to his trains.

And of course up to a couple of years ago Wrexham had trains to Euston & Marylebone

 

[ReverendFozz]

What about Motherwell, do they have an East Coast Service to Kings Cross and a service to Euston down the. WCML

Sent from my GT-P3110 using Tapatalk 2

 

[D6975]

What about Motherwell, do they have an East Coast Service to Kings Cross and a service to Euston down the. WCML

Sent from my GT-P3110 using Tapatalk 2

Motherwell has an appalling direct service to/from London compared to what it used to have. East Coast have all but pulled out, there's 1 train a day left I think.
Virgin west coast have stopped the regular service from/to there too, only 2 trains a day from London set down at Motherwell and they are less than 20 mins apart.

 

[61653 HTAFC]

It wasn't really intended for through passengers I don't think

I remember using this service in the down direction once on my way home to Huddersfield from London. It wasn't all that bad being sat on a 158 for so long really... no worse than Preston-Taunton on a Voyager anyway!

When Eurostar first started, weren't there intercity services to Waterloo from Manchester/Bristol and maybe a few others? I don't think they lasted long but I've a vague memory of seeing a HST in Piccadilly heading to Waterloo. Not sure of the route it would've taken though- Presumably via the WLL rather than Oxford/Reading/Bracknell.

 

[PR1Berske]

How far back you thinking? I'm glad to have had my vague memories of Preston to Paddington confirmed, but not sure how much of false memory syndrome is kicking in with knowing/remembering/hearing about Manchester to anywhere other than Euston (though I'm 32 so don't go telling me about services in the way beyonds I wasn't around to know )

 

[DynamicSpirit]

How about Wimbledon?

SWT service to Waterloo,
Thameslink Service to Blackfriars/St Pancras and beyond either via Sutton or Tooting
Victoria, Blackfriars and Paddington via the LUL District line.

that's 6

Actually you've missed a couple out. Waterloo - alternative route via Kingston, and a couple of Southern trains in the rush hours to London Bridge.

On the other hand, counting the District Line is possibly cheating a little - especially counting Victoria and Blackfriars separately - same District Line route. Not to mention the fact that Wimbledon is already in London, so getting a train from there to London isn't quite the same as something like - say - Chatham to London

 

[SussexSpotter]

Horsham and Three Bridges also used to have services to Charing Cross in the peaks.

I don't think Horsham has ever had a Southeastern service. I think they only ever went as far as Three Bridges.

 

[Andyjs247]

Banbury has services to Birmingham New Street via 2 routes - via Coventry or via Solihull; and services to Birmingham Moor Street and Snow Hill.

Banbury has services to London Marylebone and London Paddington. Services to Paddington were via 2 routes too - via Oxford or via High Wycombe. Now they just run via Oxford and Reading. There was at one time technically a 3rd routing to Paddington as in the 70s a service ran Paddington - Birmingham New Street - Paddington via Oxford, Solihull, Worcester and Oxford (again).

Oxford will soon have services to London Marylebone as well as Paddington. London Marylebone will soon have services to Bicester Town as well as Bicester North.

 

[mister-sparky]

I don't think Horsham has ever had a Southeastern service. I think they only ever went as far as Three Bridges.

The Horsham to Charing Cross weren't Southeastern, that was back in the early 90's. Used to get them almost every weekday to work.

However, Southeastern did indeed run to Horsham, from Tunbridge Wells. 1tph went to London Bridge via Redhill, 1 tph went to Horsham reversing at Redhill.

 

[SussexSpotter]

The Horsham to Charing Cross weren't Southeastern, that was back in the early 90's. Used to get them almost every weekday to work.

However, Southeastern did indeed run to Horsham, from Tunbridge Wells. 1tph went to London Bridge via Redhill, 1 tph went to Horsham reversing at Redhill.

When did that Tunbridge Wells service stop running? Would have thought that would have been a useful service as it provided a direct link to Gatwick Airport from Kent. Seems odd that they got rid of it

 

[tsr]

When did that Tunbridge Wells service stop running? Would have thought that would have been a useful service as it provided a direct link to Gatwick Airport from Kent. Seems odd that they got rid of it

I seem to remember reading that a lack of realistic paths between Redhill and Gatwick was the killer of that service. I think a work around would be as follows: the (usually) 4- or 8-coach London (generally London Bridge, off-peak) to Horsham services could simply have a 4-coach unit from Tunbridge Wells attached at Redhill, and they could run together to Horsham. You'd then have the issue of Southern having to run to Tunbridge Wells, or Southeastern having to run from London Terminals to Horsham, though. I'm not sure if there's sufficient flexibility to do that.

Wasn't the Tunbridge Wells service sent to Haywards Heath at one point?

 

[GuyBarry]

What about stations on lines that have a London terminus at both ends? They all qualify, surely. I was going to nominate the Inner South London line from Victoria to London Bridge (Battersea Park, Wandsworth road, Denmark Hill, Peckham Rye, Queens Road Peckham, South Bermondsey), but it looks as though this may have been recently taken over by London Overground.

However, there's also the Outer South London line between the same termini (Battersea Park, Clapham Junction, Wandsworth Common, Balham, Streatham Hill, West Norwood, Gipsy Hill, Crystal Palace, Sydenham, Forest Hill, Honor Oak Park, Brockley, New Cross Gate). Don't all these stations count?

 

[SussexSpotter]

I seem to remember reading that a lack of realistic paths between Redhill and Gatwick was the killer of that service. I think a work around would be as follows: the (usually) 4- or 8-coach London (generally London Bridge, off-peak) to Horsham services could simply have a 4-coach unit from Tunbridge Wells attached at Redhill, and they could run together to Horsham. You'd then have the issue of Southern having to run to Tunbridge Wells, or Southeastern having to run from London Terminals to Horsham, though. I'm not sure if there's sufficient flexibility to do that.

Wasn't the Tunbridge Wells service sent to Haywards Heath at one point?

Thanks for explaining that.

 

[TorqueOfTheDevil]

I was going to nominate the Inner South London line from Victoria to London Bridge (Battersea Park, Wandsworth road, Denmark Hill, Peckham Rye, Queens Road Peckham, South Bermondsey), but it looks as though this may have been recently taken over by London Overground.

Except that the Victoria to London Bridge service via the Inner South London line is a thing of the past!

 

[GuyBarry]

So I see - according to Wikipedia, it ended last month. Oh well. I presume the Outer South London line is still there? Are there any other lines that connect two London termini?

I always wondered which was regarded as the "up" line.