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.

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 StreetBishopsgate 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 replacementHolborn 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

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