The Train to London... Trivia Quiz

Answer: Marylebone

The route between London Marylebone and Birmingham, which runs to both Birmingham Moor Street and Birmingham Snow Hill, is referred to as the Chiltern Main Line, and operates as one of two main line routes between the two cities, the other being between London Euston and Birmingham New Street. Originally built in three stages by the Great Western Railway between 1852 and 1910, the line was the main line route from London Paddington to Snow Hill. However, although the route was heavily used up to the mid 1960s, particularly during the period when the parallel West Coast Main Line was being electrified, after 1965 express trains were discontinued and services from Paddington stopped in 1967, with Snow Hill closed.

While express services no longer ran, on the southern end of the route, local services between Marylebone and Banbury continued. While these were fairly basic up to the mid 1980s, following the advent of sectorisation in British Rail, these services were taken over by the new Network SouthEast. This part of British Rail decided to extend its services as far as Birmingham, rebuilding Snow Hill and connecting it to Marylebone, with the new service opening in 1993. In 1996, upon privatisation, the route was taken over by Chiltern Trains, who, as part of their franchise agreement, also reinstated Birmingham Moor Street as a second terminus in 2010.

Answer: Victoria

Although the London & Brighton Railway inaugurated its first route, which ran to London Bridge, in 1841, a decade and a half later one of its small proxy companies, the West End of London & Crystal Palace Railway, opened a short line connecting Sydenham in South London to Crystal Palace, from where it was extended to Battersea in 1858, and then to a brand new terminal station at Victoria, which opened in 1860. The new station was the terminus of the new main line between London and Brighton, and consisted of a total of six platforms. Two years after it opened, a second station at Victoria was also inaugurated by the London, Chatham and Dover Railway. The two stations generally existed as separate operations until 1923 when, under the so called "Big Four" grouping, the disparate operators were amalgamated into the new Southern Railway.

Following the grouping under the Southern Railway, the main line between London and Brighton began to be electrified. Initially done using overhead wires, in August 1925, the decision was taken to change this to third rail electrification, with work completed by the beginning of 1933. Electrification allowed faster services to run between Victoria and Brighton, and led to the introduction of the first all-electric Pullman service anywhere in the world - initially a continuation of the non-stop steam hauled "Southern Belle" train, from June 1934 the service was renamed as the "Brighton Belle". Today, following privatisation in the 1990s, services between Victoria and Brighton are still operated by a train company using the name Southern, although non-stop services ended with the demise of the "Brighton Belle" in 1972.

Answer: Paddington

During the first decades of the 19th century, the city of Bristol, which had been seen as the country's second city thanks to its position as the major western port in England, began to fear competition from other cities, most notably Liverpool which, by the 1830s, had been connected to a burgeoning railway network, allowing easier transport of goods for shipping. So, a group of major merchants founded the Great Western Railway company in 1833 to build and then operate trains between Bristol and London. Built between 1838 and 1841, the route used a 7ft gauge that, though expensive to build, was seen as permitting both a smoother and a faster journey. The first section of the route, between the newly built London terminus at Paddington and the town of Maidenhead, opened in June 1838. The full route to the Bristol terminus, Bristol Temple Meads, was open by June 1841.

Owing to the fact that the route utilised a different gauge than much of the rest of the network, between 1854 and 1875 the Great Western converted its route to dual gauge, allowing other operators trains to use their lines. By 1892, the 4ft 8.5in gauge had been adopted as standard, and the Great Western was converted to standard gauge. Little then changed in regards to the operation of the route - unlike other main lines, the line between Paddington and Bristol was not electrified during the 1960s and 70s, leaving it almost entirely operated by diesel trains. Electrification began with a short stretch at the London end due to the start of the Heathrow Express service in 1998, while the route as far as Bristol Temple Meads was electrified by 2019. Since then, services have been operated by bi-mode trains that can use the overhead wires as far as Bristol, services beyond into Cornwall operated using onboard engines.

Answer: Charing Cross

In 1836, authorisation was provided to the newly formed South Eastern Railway company to begin constructing a new railway route from London into Kent. Initially, its focus was on a line to connect to the port of Folkestone, which was initially undertaken using existing lines owned by other companies as far as Reigate, where a junction was constructed with lines owned by the London and Brighton to connect with the South Eastern's new build route. Services as far as Ashford opened at the end of 1842, and Folkestone twelve months later. By this time, the South Eastern was also looking to expand into other parts of Kent, with Canterbury a destination the company sought to include. By 1846, the South Eastern had completed its route to the city, with its station opening in February. However, owing to the direction of the route, the station did not meet with approval, and the rival London, Chatham and Dover Railway elected to build a second route to the Canterbury, which opened in 1860. This led to the two stations in Canterbury requiring different names, with the South Eastern's becoming Canterbury West.

The South Eastern's main London terminus had been at London Bridge from its opening. But, it had long sought a larger terminus closer to the centre of London. In 1857, having abandoned plans to construct a route towards Victoria, the South Eastern came to an agreement to build a new route westwards from London Bridge to a site adjacent to The Strand that had previously been occupied by Hungerford Market. The planned terminus, which was named Charing Cross, opened in January 1864. From that point, the station became one of the major commuter stations in London. It was a focus of the South Eastern's electrification project that ultimately began in 1923 following the company's absorption into the Southern Railway. Services from Charing Cross were electrified as far as Orpington by 1926. However, it was to be more than thirty years before electrification reached Canterbury, with electric trains reaching the city in June 1962. Canterbury West subsequently received other services, with trains connecting to High Speed 1 in 2009 to reach St Pancras.

Answer: Euston

Although named as a single line, the West Coast Main Line is in fact a collection of routes running from London Euston to the north-west and Scotland. As a result, it has a patchwork history having been the result of a number of different railway companies. In 1837, the Grand Junction Railway constructed a route that connected the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, the world's first inter-city passenger rail route, to a new line to Birmingham. The following year, the London and Birmingham Railway opened its route that connected Birmingham to the new terminus at Euston in the capital, allowing for the first time direct rail travel between London, Birmingham, Manchester and Liverpool. The services operated by these two companies, alongside a number of others, were amalgamated into the London and North Western Railway in 1846.

In 1842, a new terminal station in Manchester opened. Initially named Store Street, it was renamed as London Road in 1847, and rapidly became the city's most important terminus, undergoing a number of rebuilds to increase capacity; however, for many years it was operated as two different stations, with one side used by trains operated by the LNWR, and the other by trains of what became the Great Central Railway. This set up continued until the late 1950s when the West Coast Main Line underwent a major modernisation to electrify the route - London Road went through a massive rebuild into a single station, which was renamed as Manchester Piccadilly, with electric services to London Euston introduced in 1966. Piccadilly had another major rebuild completed in 2002.

Answer: Kings Cross

The East Coast Main Line is one of the UK's premier rail routes, connecting London and Edinburgh. However, it was not built in one go, instead being the product of three separate railway companies that undertook work in the 1830s and 1840s, linking their routes together to form a continuous line. The Great Northern Railway (GNR) was the company that constructed the route to London, terminating initially at a temporary station at Maiden Lane upon opening in 1850, before the completion of a grand new terminus in 1852 that was named as King's Cross. The North Eastern Railway (NER) constructed the section between Doncaster and Berwick-upon-Tweed, which included the construction of a grand station serving the major north-eastern town of Newcastle that opened in 1850. Although operated by different companies, the operation of through trains across the entirety of the route proved lucrative, and the GNR and NER, together with the North British Railway, which operated from Berwick to Edinburgh, so began collaborating, with the construction of jointly designed rolling stock.

In 1923, the amalgamation of the then 120 railway companies into just four saw the east coast route come under the auspices of the new London and North Eastern Railway (LNER). The new company proceeded to make major improvements to its route, stations and rolling stock - King's Cross was remodelled to improve the traffic flow and better manage an increasing number of local trains in addition to the inter-city expresses, while new, bigger and faster locomotives allowed for increased non-stop running to the north. However, by the nationalisation of the railways in 1948, there was no major electrification plan in the offing as with the West Coast Main Line. Instead, diesel power ran from London to Newcastle and beyond. It was only in 1976 that electrification began, with suburban routes to King's Cross becoming electrified by 1977. Phase 2 ran from 1985, reaching Newcastle by 1990, with the entire route complete in 1991.

Answer: Liverpool Street

In 1839, the first section of what ultimately became the Great Eastern Main Line opened between a temporary London terminus at Devonshire Street, and Romford in Essex. The route, originally built by the Eastern Counties Railway (ECR), was extended to Colchester in 1843, with a further section, constructed by the Eastern Union Railway (EUR) between Colchester and Ipswich opening in 1846. However, the ECR created a link to a local railway company in Norfolk, the Yarmouth & Norwich, that connected their new London terminus at Shoreditch (renamed as Bishopsgate in 1846) to Norwich at what became Norwich Thorpe station. Although the EUR built their own Norwich terminus, this was poorly sited upon opening, and led to the two companies agreeing a deal that allowed EUR services to use Thorpe station from 1851.

The two companies eventually merged to form the Great Eastern Railway in 1862, which immediately began work on building a brand new London terminus. The new station, Liverpool Street, was built immediately adjacent to the North London Railway's terminus at Broad Street, and opened in stages between February 1874 and November 1875. Initially seen as something of a white elephant, by 1884 Liverpool Street was operating at capacity, and plans were put in place for it to be expanded, with work beginning in 1890. In 1923, the Great Eastern became part of the new London & North Eastern Railway, which began planning to electrify the routes out of Liverpool Street. Work on this only began though after nationalisation - routes to Essex received wires by 1960, while routes north of Colchester as far as Norwich began to be electrified at the start of the 1980s, with electric services into Norwich starting in 1987. It was during the 1980s that Liverpool Street also received a major redevelopment that was completed in 1991.

Answer: St Pancras

Unlike other major rail routes in England, what became the Midland Main Line didn't start from London, with instead its first section, built by the Midland Counties Railway, opening between Nottingham and Derby in June 1839, with an extension to Leicester inaugurated eleven months later. With the major towns of the East Midlands at their heart, a number of routes were constructed over the next five years by different companies that connected with cities northwards, until, in 1844, the Midland Counties, Birmingham and Derby Junction Railway and North Midland Railway amalgamated to form the single Midland Railway. The first station in Nottingham, originally opened by the Midland Counties, was at Carrington Street. However, within ten years, the amount of traffic had outgrown this site, and a new station was required. This opened in May 1848, with more tracks added over the next two decades.

Following the advent of the Midland Railway, the new company sought a route to London. Initially it was forced to use the route of the London & Birmingham with its terminus at Euston. By the 1850s, congestion led to the company to look elsewhere, and it constructed a new route to join up with the Great Northern Railway's (GNR) route as far as Hitchin. However, the GNR insisted that passengers disembark at Hitchin and buy a new ticket for their services to King's Cross. So, the Midland decided to build its own route into London, with its own terminus at St Pancras opening in October 1868. By 1904, a new Nottingham Midland station had begun to be opened, replacing the increasingly cramped original. Under the 1923 grouping, the Midland Main Line came under the control of the London, Midland & Scottish Railway, retaining many significant services northwards. However, after nationalisation in 1948, services north of the East Midlands were truncated, primarily going no further north than South Yorkshire. High Speed Trains were introduced in the 1983, but major investment in the route came when St Pancras was selected as the London terminus for international rail services. This saw the electrification of a sizeable chunk of the line electrified by the mid-2010s.

Answer: Waterloo

The South West Main Line began life when a proposal was published for a rail route linking London and Southampton in 1830. By 1834, an Act of Parliament authorising the route had been passed, and the London and Southampton Railway began raising money to start work. Within four years, the first section of route linking Nine Elms in London and Woking had opened, with an extension to Shapley Heath following soon after. As well as the route from London, the company had also begun working on the route from Southampton, with trains from Winchester to the city starting in June 1839. Basingstoke and Shapley Heath were linked at the same time, with Winchester linked to Basingstoke by May 1840, completing the route. The first direct service between Nine Elms and Southampton ran on 11 May 1840, by which point the company had been renamed as the London & South Western Railway (LSWR).

Nine Elms was always intended as a temporary terminus. By 1844, the LSWR had received authorisation for a new terminus at Waterloo, with work completed and the new station opened in July 1848. Waterloo was initially quite small, but, as traffic increased, the need for expansion became apparent. New platforms were added, but generally on an ad hoc basis so that, by 1899, Waterloo had 16 platforms, but only 10 platform numbers, with many on different levels to each other. As a result, the station underwent a massive rebuilding over the course of twenty years between 1902 and 1922, with the new station boasting 21 platforms and a 700-foot concourse; the following year, Waterloo became part of the new Southern Railway under the grouping. The station suffered severe bomb damage during the Second World War that required significant rebuilding work, which continued after nationalisation. The most significant post-war change came with the advent of international services - Waterloo was the original terminus for Eurostar between 1994 and 2007, with new platforms built. After the departure of Eurostar to St Pancras, these were repurposed to provide increased capacity.

Answer: Fenchurch Street

The London, Tilbury and Southend line began life with the construction of a route by the London & Blackwall Railway (L&BR), initially from Minories in the City of London to Stepney in 1840, with an extension to a newly built terminus at Fenchurch Street opening the following year. Built as a cable hauled railway, it was converted to steam haulage in 1848, after which an extension as far as Bow, with an interchange with the Eastern Counties Railway (ECR), was constructed. In 1852, the L&BR joined forces with the ECR to construct a longer route out towards the Essex coast, connecting the port of Tilbury and the major seaside town of Southend-on-Sea to London. The new route was built in sections from 1852, with the new terminus in Southend opening in March 1856. In 1866, as a result of financial issues for many of the railway companies serving East Anglia, the Great Eastern Railway was formed, with the L&BR and ECR two of the companies amalgamated to form the new concern. The new GER undertook improvements along the route gradually, with the approaches to Fenchurch Street expanded from three to four tracks in 1895, while the extension of the route to Shoeburyness led to Southend ceasing to be the eastern terminus in 1888.

Major work was planned from 1912 that would have seen a major capacity increase at the London terminus which was halted as a result of the First World War. Fenchurch Street was rebuilt to improve capacity in 1935, while electrification of the route came following nationalisation, with electrified trains beginning in 1961. However, the entire route suffered a negative perception, as it provided significant commuter services primarily on infrastructure that had seen little major improvement for decades. As a result, Fenchurch Street received major upgrades after British Rail was privatised, while the entire line was completely re-signalled. This has led to significant increases in the number of both passengers using the line as more people have moved out of London and turned to commuting.