Trivia: Different London terminals served by a single station - past & present

[EbbwJunction1]

South West Trains still run three trains a day Mon-Sat (and one on Sunday) from Bristol to Waterloo.

Yes, I see that now ... thanks.

Strangely, there seems to be three direct trains from Bristol to London, but only two direct trains from London to Bristol .... !

 

[sarahj]

Newcastle.
in the past, but not that far in the past.

King X and Waterloo.

Bet you'd all forgotten that one.

 

[Busaholic]

Beckenham Junction - two different ways of going to Victoria, plus Blackfriars and peak trains via the mid-Kent to Charing Cross or Cannon Street.

 

[thedbdiboy]

There used to be an excellent service from Cardiff Central to Waterloo.

It called at Newport, Bristol Temple Meads, Bath and stations to Salisbury where it joined the South West main line to Waterloo. True, it was about an hour longer from Newport, but if you were going to south of the river, it was very useful.

I stay in the Waterloo area when I go to London, so it was my preferred route for a couple of years until they stopped it from Cardiff and ran it just from Bristol. I still used it then, though, but I don't think that even that part runs now.

Oh, and it was cheaper than going to Paddington!

Great fun, but on the occasions that I used it is was pretty much completely empty - and was formed of an HST!

 

[Darren R]

Historically Blackburn had services to three London termini - Euston, St Pancras and Kings Cross. It can also be added to the list of stations from where trains to London departed in opposite directions: Kings Cross services departed eastwards running via Halifax and Wakefield, whereas St Pancras and Euston trains departed westwards and called at Darwen and Bolton en route.

 

[Deepgreen]

Epsom to Dorking and Guildford. Served, either now or in the past, by Waterloo, Victoria and London Bridge (and possibly Holborn Viaduct). Guildford was served by two distinct routes to LBG, via Epsom, or the North Downs line and Redhill (in days of yore).

 

[LLivery]

I'll add Guildford and Upminster

There must be a load of Southestern stations that would qualify.

Upminster only has trains to Fenchurch Street, unless you count Romford as a London terminal...
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Most stations in on Kent Coast (London Victoria, St Pancras)

Brighton - Norwood Junction (Victoria, London Bridge)

Entire Southern & Southeastern Suburban network has trains to at least two, most three (London Bridge, Victoria, Cannon Street, Charing Cross and Blackfriars) accept Anerley, Penge West, Queens Rd Peckham, South Bermonsey and Brixton. However those stations all did have trains not so long ago to Charing Cross/Victoria. Well, apart from Brixton.

Some Chiltern Main Line stations (Marylebone, Paddington)

Reasonably you could call Baker Street a terminal for the Metropolitan Railway and include Amersham - Rickmansworth and Harrow-on-the-Hill. *runs and hides*
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Did Norhampton Castle have trains to Euston and St Pancras once upon a time?

 

[ess]

What was the route Leeds -> Paddington?

 

[Holly]

Afon Wen used to have services to both Paddington and Euston.
Not bad for a place with a population of less than 2000.

 

[EbbwJunction1]

Great fun, but on the occasions that I used it is was pretty much completely empty - and was formed of an HST!

Oh, I don't remember travelling on an HST on that service - and I would have done had I done so!

As far as I know, it was always a (probably) two-car 158 or multiples thereof.

 

[Ash Bridge]

Oh, I don't remember travelling on an HST on that service - and I would have done had I done so!

As far as I know, it was always a (probably) two-car 158 or multiples thereof.

There could be some confusion here, could the HST have been a dedicated E* connecting service (there used to be one from Manchester-Waterloo many moons ago) whilst the 158 was a separate service operated by Regional Railways, W&W or whatever the regional operator was named back then?

 

[MotCO]

On a slightly different tack, presumably the Victoria to London Bridge service is the only one to start and finish at different London terminii.

 

[racyrich]

From next year c2c will have weekend trains via Basildon alternating between Liverpool St and Fenchurch St.

Historically there have been trains from Southend on the LTS going to Fen St, St Pancras, Broad St and straight through to Ealing Broadway, plus coaches attaching to onwards services to Derby.

 

[bb21]

Upminster only has trains to Fenchurch Street, unless you count Romford as a London terminal...

They also have services to Liverpool St.

 

[sarahj]

There could be some confusion here, could the HST have been a dedicated E* connecting service (there used to be one from Manchester-Waterloo many moons ago) whilst the 158 was a separate service operated by Regional Railways, W&W or whatever the regional operator was named back then?

That was also the train I mentioned. A E* connector from Newcastle to Waterloo. Used to see it go out from Newcastle with just a few, if any on it. And yet it was a full HST set.

 

[wimbledonpete]

Wimbledon: Waterloo, London Bridge, Blackfriars, St Pancras.
Plus Victoria, Cannon Street and Paddington on the District line.
Throw in Vauxhall and City Thameslink too (which are 'London Terminals' for ticketing purposes) and that makes 9.

I like this! I guess you could also count Charing Cross (from Embankment) and Fenchurch Street (Tower Hill). And King's Cross being adjacent to St Pancras.

 

[Ash Bridge]

That was also the train I mentioned. A E* connector from Newcastle to Waterloo. Used to see it go out from Newcastle with just a few, if any on it. And yet it was a full HST set.

Used to see the Manchester train quite often making it's call at Stockport, and the loadings on that were just like the Newcastle, I think the fact that it was routed via Oxford & Reading didn't help, rather than sending it straight down the west coast, was probably much quicker to travel electric to Euston then tube to Waterloo.

 

[D6975]

What was the route Leeds -> Paddington?

Sheffield Derby New St Oxford.

 

[Morgsie]

Bournemouth was served by a Connex South Central service to London Victoria over 10 years ago along with the SWT services to London Waterloo

 

[JackTheLad]

On a slightly different tack, presumably the Victoria to London Bridge service is the only one to start and finish at different London terminii.

Yea, although for the time being late evening services out of Charing X are calling at Cannon St and reversing back out again en route to London Bridge and beyond if that counts too.

 

[Cherry_Picker]

Banbury and Kings Sutton still have direct trains to both Marylebone and Paddington every day. Oxford will join that club before much longer, and it will also be one of those fabled places where the London bound trains leave the station in opposite directions from each other.

 

[kieron]

Wrexham General's one which used to have London trains in opposite directions (Virgin north to Euston, Wrexham & Shropshire south to Marylebone).

Smethwick Galton Bridge has trains to Marylebone and Euston leaving roughly at right angles to one another. The Euston trains are about as frequent as Wrexham's are.

 

[Andyjs247]

Banbury and Kings Sutton still have direct trains to both Marylebone and Paddington every day. Oxford will join that club before much longer, and it will also be one of those fabled places where the London bound trains leave the station in opposite directions from each other.

There was a rather unusual Paddington - Paddington service which ran out via Oxford to Birmingham then continued via Worcester Shrub Hill and Oxford back to Paddington. It was about 1980 IIRC and it would have meant Oxford, Banbury, Leamington, Birmingham have all had London bound services leaving in opposite directions at some point, in this case to Paddington. Presumably as a direct service a normal Oxford-Paddington ticket would have been valid on the tour via Birmingham and Worcester! I'm not sure if there was an equivalent working in the reverse direction via Oxford, Worcester, Birmingham and Banbury.

On occasion Birmingham New Street would also have a Euston bound service head west via Perry Barr and Aston and rejoining the normal route at Stechford. Not sure if anything is timetabled to do this currently eg for route retention but it does sometimes happen at times of disruption or if a set ends up in reverse formation and needs to be corrected by running round the houses.

 

[imagination]

South Ruislip.

West Ruislip is in the unusual position of having trains from two London terminals but only to one of them.

 

[gage75]

IIRC West Ruislip does have a single service into London Paddinton

 

[Quakkerillo]

gage, a quick lookup on realtimetrains doesn't give any departing services though, only terminating from PAD.

 

[Cherry_Picker]

The Chiltern Paddington service changes with every timetable. Sometimes it makes it as far as Gerrards Cross, sometimes it terminates at one of the Ruislips. I seem to remember it going all the way to Aylesbury before Evergreen 3. Where it goes to/from simply isn't set in stone.

The Smethwick one is a good call, I'd have never considered that one. The Birmingham trains would leave in different directions too (but they soon become parallel, you don't even need to get as far as The Hawthorns before that happens) I guess it's not as apparent at stations with high and low level platforms.

 

[JRM]

In pre-grouping days, every company tried to compete. Look at the list of destinations on the gateposts at Euston.
They would happily take each other's tickets, too, and reclaim from each other through the Railway Clearing House. I remember being told, for example, if you had booked a Great Western return from Paddington to Swansea, you could present the return half to the LNWR who would happily carry you to Euston via Crewe; but you could bail out at Crewe and ask the Great Northern to get you to Kings Cross via Derby. They were very happy to steal customers from each other.
Not exactly a through train from Swansea to Kings Cross, and not quick. I'm not sure anybody ever did it.
Bring back the Railway Clearing House!