Trains in London
There are 334 train stations and 270 Underground (Tube) stations in Greater London, not to mention the capital is home to nine out of ten of the busiest railway stations in the UK and a total passenger count of just under 1.5 billion in 2019-20. That’s a lot of trains!
You can quickly pop in the stations you need to travel to/from in our Journey Planner and buy cheap tickets to London stations in a flash. Or you can travel around London with an Oyster card, Travelcard or Contactless bank card.
Read on for information on London train stations (including London Terminals), train companies in London, and an interactive map of major London stations.
What are London Terminal stations?
The important thing to know about London Terminals is you can choose to travel to/from several different London Terminal stations if 'to/from London Terminals' is listed on your ticket. We’ll explain this below.
There are 18 railway stations in London classed as ‘London Terminals’:
- Blackfriars
- Cannon Street
- Charing Cross
- Euston
- Fenchurch Street
- Kings Cross
- Liverpool Street
- London Bridge
- Marylebone
- Moorgate
- Paddington
- St Pancras International
- Victoria
- Waterloo
- City Thameslink
- Vauxhall
- Waterloo East
Most of these stations are actual termini. That means railway services end their journeys here (terminate) and reverse out of the station to complete the return journey.
My ticket says ‘to/from London Terminals’
This means you can travel to or from any London Terminal provided it’s on a reasonable line of route. For instance, a ticket from Cambridge to London Terminals would be valid for travel to:
- London Kings Cross
- London Liverpool Street
- Moorgate
- Old Street
- London St Pancras International
However, you would not be able to travel to London Paddington with this ticket, as that would require a connecting journey on a non-mainline rail service, such as the Tube. Paddington is therefore not on a ‘reasonable line of route’ from Cambridge.
Similarly, a ticket from London Terminals to Brighton is valid for travel from London Blackfriars, City Thameslink or London Bridge. You could not travel from London Liverpool Street to Brighton on this ticket as this would require a connecting Tube journey.
Also, you could not travel from St Pancras or Farringdon to Dover on a London Terminals ticket unless it has the route 'Plus High Speed' noted on it.
My ticket says ‘Not valid for travel via London Terminals’
Your journey cannot involve at change at one of the 18 stations listed above. For instance, a ticket from Watford Junction to Coventry would not allow travel into London before catching a train to Coventry – you must head directly to your destination station.
Major train stations in London
As the starting point for several of the major railway lines in the UK, London is home to the busiest and biggest stations in the country.
London Waterloo
With thousands of commuters passing through its gates every day, Waterloo is the busiest station in the country by passenger volume. It is managed by South Western Railway and serves major destinations in the South West, such as Portsmouth, Southampton and Exeter.
The station is close to tourist hotspots such as the London Eye and Westminster. It is also perfectly placed to explore the trendy pop-up stalls on the South Bank.
London Kings Cross
Kings Cross is the terminus for East Coast Main Line services. It provides important links to York, Doncaster, Newcastle and Edinburgh.
Harry Potter fans will know it as the site of Platform 9¾ (which still attracts plenty of curious visitors every day); venture just out of the station and you’ll find The British Library to the West and the bustling Granary Square to the North, which is home to a number of excellent eateries.
London Euston
Just over half a mile down the road from Kings Cross, Euston serves Birmingham, Manchester, Glasgow and other key destinations on the West Coast Main Line.
Built in 1837, Euston cemented its place in history as London’s first intercity station. However, the original building was demolished to make way for the highly functional (if slightly unattractive) station we know today. A piece of the mighty Arch that used to front the station – lost in the demolition – now lives behind the bar in The Doric Arch pub.
London Paddington
The station entrance is tucked away on the corner of Praed Street in West London, but its unassuming entrance gives way to an impressive wrought-iron train shed, built in 1854 by the iconic civil engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel.
Paddington is the terminus for the Great Western Main Line; the station serves major destinations in the west of the UK, including Bristol, Reading, Oxford, Swansea and Cornwall.
London Terminals Map
Our map of major train stations in London shows the locations of all 18 London Terminals. Every station is located within the TfL Zone 1 fare area - outlined in green.
How to get cheap train tickets in London
Follow our handy tips and tricks, and you’ll be in with a great chance at securing cheaper train tickets. First off, make sure to pick up a National Railcard. One will only set you back £30 for the year (£20 if you get the Disabled Persons Railcard) and it’ll then allow you to save up to 1/3 off the price of your train tickets*.
When using your Railcard, make sure to book an Advance ticket. Most train companies release their Advance tickets for routes around 12 weeks ahead of the departure dates. It’s at this stage when the tickets are usually at their cheapest, so make sure to grab an early deal and book your tickets.
To learn more, visit our Advance train tickets page for a complete guide.
More handy tips
Another way you can cut the pounds off the cost of your train tickets is to travel during off-peak times. Off-peak times are usually when services are at their quietest. For example, if you travel at the weekend, then your train ticket will be classified as Off-Peak.
For more info, head over to our Off-Peak train tickets page.
Last up – if you’re travelling into or out of London in a group of three to nine people, you could make use of the 34% discount applied to Off-Peak services thanks to GroupSave, a type of discount that doesn’t require you to purchase a Railcard (but which does appear in the Railcard dropdown when making a booking). Please bear in mind that GroupSave is not applicable for all journeys by the various train companies and will be automatically applied if valid for your journey and selected in the Railcard dropdown. All tickets must be purchased in a single booking, and all passengers must travel together on the day of departure.
Want more handy hints on how to save money on train tickets? Check out our cheap train tickets page.
*Conditions and peak travel time exclusions may apply on some Railcard types.
Getting around by bus and tube
Travelling around London will, of course, involve some tube and bus journeys, and it’s easy to pay for these by grabbing a Visitor Oyster Card, a regular Oyster Card (if you’re staying in London a bit longer), or by using a contactless bank card. Oyster Cards are most easily purchased at Underground stations. Alternatively, you can purchase a Travelcard, which can cover some or all zones of travel in London and allow you to use different modes of transport.
Train companies in London
As the capital of England and a bustling hub for work and major events, London has dozens of train companies serving its stations every day, offering routes to pretty much every corner of the country and beyond. Find them below and see where you could go!
- Greater Anglia – from London to Essex, Norfolk, Suffolk, Hertfordshire and Cambridgeshire, as well as parts of the East of England.
- c2c – from London to Essex.
- Caledonian Sleeper – from London to Scotland (overnight services).
- Chiltern Railways – from London to Buckinghamshire, Warwickshire, Oxfordshire and the West Midlands.
- Docklands Light Railway – For services within London’s Docklands area.
- East Midlands Railway – from London to the East Midlands and Yorkshire, as well as the East of England.
- Eurostar – from London to Amsterdam, Brussels, Lyon, Paris, Rotterdam and more.
- Gatwick Express – from London to Gatwick Airport and Brighton.
- Grand Central – from London to Bradford and Sunderland.
- Great Western Railway – from London to Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire, the West of England, South Wales and the South Coast of England.
- Heathrow Express – from London to Heathrow Airport.
- Elizabeth line – the new rail commuter service running between central London and Heathrow Airport, Abbey Wood, Reading and Shenfield.
- Hull trains – from London to Hull/Beverley.
- London North Eastern Railway – from London to the North East of England and Scotland.
- London Overground – for services within London.
- South Western Railway – from London to Surrey, Hampshire, Dorset, Berkshire, Wiltshire, Somerset and Devon.
- Southeastern – from London to Kent and East Sussex.
- Southern – from London to Sussex, Hampshire, Kent and Surrey.
- Stansted Express – from London to Stansted Airport.
- TfL Rail – from London to Shenfield and Heathrow Airport.
- Thameslink – from London to Sutton, Horsham, Sevenoaks and Brighton.
- Great Northern – from London to North East England, Yorkshire, Scotland, as well as Peterborough and Cambridge.
- Avanti West Coast – from London to the West Midlands, the North of Wales, the North West of England and Scotland.
- West Midland Trains – from London to the West Midlands, Liverpool and North Wales.
- Lumo – the new operator running between London Kings Cross and Edinburgh via the East Coast Main Line.
All London stations
There are over 330 mainline railway stations in London. Click on any station in our alphabetically-sorted list to learn more about it, including live departures and facility information.