UK Trains

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (the United Kingdom or the UK) is a constitutional monarchy in western Europe, and one of the world's wealthiest nations.
The Union comprises four constituent nations: England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. It occupies all of the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern portion of the island of Ireland and most of the remaining British Isles. It counts Ireland, France, Belgium and Netherlands as its nearest neighbours.
The UK today is a diverse patchwork of native and immigrant cultures, possessing a fascinating history and dynamic modern culture, both of which remain hugely influential in the wider world. Although Britannia no longer rules the waves, the UK is still a popular destination for many travellers. The capital city of the United Kingdom (and the largest city) is London.
Many cities and towns in the United Kingdom are of interest to travellers outside the capital city of London.

Following is an alphabetical selection of nine - others are listed under their specific regions:
• Belfast - capital of Northern Ireland and becoming a popular tourist destination
• Birmingham - central England's main city, features great shopping, and is home of the    famous Balti and great culture
• Brighton - a popular sea-side resort near London
• Bristol - an historical city famed for its Georgian architecture and nautical heritage
• Cardiff - capital of Wales, host to varied cultural events and many other modern and    historical     attractions
• Edinburgh - capital of Scotland, home to the largest arts festival in the world and numerous    tourist attractions as well as being the second most visited city in the UK
• Glasgow - Scotland's largest city, new cultural hotspot, former European City of Culture
• Manchester - Thriving bohemian music scene, gay quarter, home to the world's only new   work arts festival and dozens of tourist attractions as well as being the third most visited   city in the UK.
• Newcastle upon Tyne - largest city in the north east of England with a busy nightlife, a   rejuvenated cultural scene and Hadrian's Wall.

Official Train in UK
Since 1995, Britain's rail network has been run by 20+ private companies.  However, the government makes sure they work together as National Rail, with co-ordinated  fares, ticketing & information.  You can find train times & fares for all operators all on one website, and you can buy a ticket between any two stations, with tickets normally valid on any operator's trains. 
The UK has an extensive privatised train network, covering most of the country, from Penzance in Cornwall to Thurso in the North of Scotland.

National Rail Enquiries
National Rail Enquiries are the official information service for National Rail. National Rail is the collective name for the train companies who operate Britain's rail service. We provide impartial advice on rail travel, and our performance is strictly regulated by the Department for Transport.
We provide impartial advice on all aspects of journey planning; fares and buying tickets, live train running updates and other useful information.
We operate a number of channels, including:
o A network of call centres
oThe National Rail webste
oThe National Rail WAP site
oTrainTracker™ - an automated voice service giving you up-to-the-minute information on   your chosen trains for both arrivals and departures
o TrainTrackerText™ (the SMS version of TrainTracker™)
o TextMe JourneyPlanner – lets you send a copy of your journey details to your mobile    phone.
o Provide data feeds from the content held on our website e.g for Station information. For    more details on data feeds,
 

Train Operating Companies in UK
  1.   Arriva Trains Wales
  2.   C2C 
  3.   Chiltern Railways
  4.   CrossCountry
  5.   East Midlands Trains
  6.   Eurostar
  7.   First Capital Connect
  8.   First Great Western
  9.   First ScotRail
  10. First Transpennine Express
  11. Gatwick Express
  12. Grand Central
  13. Heathrow Connect
  14. Heathrow Express
  15. Hull Trains
  16. Island Line
  17. London Midland
  18. London Overground
  19. London Underground
  20. Merseyrail
  21. National Express East Anglia
  22. National Express East Coast
  23. Northern Rail
  24. South West Trains
  25. Southeastern
  26. Southern
  27. Stansted Express
  28. Virgin Trains
  29. Wrexham & Shropshire

Cross Border Train Services

From Belgium and France
Eurostar services run between London (St Pancras International), Ebbsfleet and Ashford and Paris (Gare du Nord), Lille and Brussels through the Channel Tunnel. Journey times average two hours fifteen minutes from Paris. A second class return from Paris to London costs between €85 and €230, although it can be cheaper to fly from London to Paris using a low-cost airline (but bear in mind that the journeys to the airports will cost an extra €40-60). There are a limited number of direct services from other destinations in France also.
The main benefit of using the Eurostar is that it runs between the central zones of its destination cities, removing the necessity of accessing the relevant airports on the outskirts of cities (potentially very time-consuming!), and of undergoing several uncomfortable modal changes.

From The Netherlands
Stena Line (Hook of Holland to Harwich) Combined train and ferry tickets are available to travellers from stations in the Netherlands to train stations in East Anglia, Essex and East London. This service may be a useful alternative to Eurostar for travellers from Northern Europe, or for those wishing to travel to East Anglia. The interchange between the ferry terminal and the train station at both ports is very simple and user friendly. Express trains from Harwich International are timed to meet the ferry and allow a simple transfer to London Liverpool Street. The Dutch Flyer website only gives prices for tickets purchased in Great Britain; it does, however, give timetable information. Stena's Dutch language website allows booking of tickets for journeys starting from the Netherlands.

From the Republic of Ireland
From Dublin in Ireland, the Enterprise takes just over 2 hours to Belfast and Irish Rail  is advertising return tickets from €36.50 (November 2006).
Services to the British Mainland
Combined Rail & Sail tickets are available from Ireland and Northern Ireland to any railway station in Great Britain. Although the SailRail  website only gives prices for tickets purchased in Great Britain, tickets can be bought from the railway company and ferry operators in Ireland, with a price of €35 to €41 one-way (January 2007); actual price depends on origin and destination, but (London-Dublin via Holyhead is €41). Through tickets are available via other sea corridors also. Fares are slightly higher during July and August. Virgin Trains may be offering advance-purchase tickets from London to Dublin from £32 return, although these are hard to obtain and only possible for journeys starting in Great Britain. It is also possible to cross from Southern Ireland into South-West Wales on a Stena Line ferry which is met by a train on each side. The stations are immediately next to the mooring point.

Travelling to and via london
With 12 major stations around the capital, London is well served by trains to and from all parts of the UK. Travelling across London to connect with another National Rail service
If your journey involves travelling via London, you may find your ticket includes travel on London Underground, Docklands Light Railway or First Capital Connect's Thameslink route between London terminals at no additional cost.
You can 'break your journey' and leave the Underground service en route. However, you'll need to buy another ticket in order to continue your journey.
You can find out if travel across London is included in your ticket - simply look for a '†' symbol, which will be at the beginning of the tickets route information. e.g: [†Any Permitted].
Tickets displaying the 'cross-London' marker are valid for travel between any two stations shown in the Station List, as appropriate to the route of the through rail journey being made.

Aldgate                                                                                        Lewisham

  Amersham                                                                                  Limehouse

  Baker Street                                                                                Liverpool Street

Balham                                                                                        London Bridge

  Bank                                                                                             Marylebone

  Barking                                                                                         Moorgate

  Blackfriars                                                                                   Old Street

Blackhorse Road                                                                       Paddington

  Cannon Street                                                                              Queens Park

  Charing Cross                                                                              Richmond

  Ealing Broadway                                                                         Seven Sisters

  Edgware Road                                                                            Southwark

  Elephant & Castle                                                                        Stratford

  Embankment                                                                                Tottenham Hale

  Euston                                                                                            Tower Hill

  Euston Square                                                                              Upminster

  Farringdon                                                                                     Vauxhall

  Finsbury Park                                                                                Victoria

  Greenwich                                                                                      Walthamstow Central

  Highbury & Islington                                                                      Waterloo

  Kensington Olympia                                                                     West Brompton

  Kentish Town                                                                                 West Ham

  King's Cross/St Pancras                                                              West Hampstead

  Lancaster Gate                                                         Wimbledon

Name of  12 national Terminals

There are no less than 12 main line National Rail terminals. With the exception of Fenchurch Street (nearest tube: Tower Hill) these are on the London Underground. Most are on the circle line. Clockwise starting at Paddington, major National Rail stations are:
• London Paddington
  serves South West England and Wales including Slough, Maidenhead, Reading, Oxford,     Bath, Bristol,  Taunton, Exeter, Plymouth and Cardiff and Swansea. Also the downtown     terminus of the Heathrow Airport Express  and serves some suburban stations such as     Acton Main Line and Ealing Broadway.
• London Marylebone,
   serves some north western suburban stations such as Amersham, Harrow on the Hill and      Wembley Stadium. Also serves Aylesbury, High Wycombe, Banbury, Stratford-upon-Avon    and the city of Birmingham. It is much cheaper but slightly slower to take a train from      Marylebone to Birmingham instead of a train from London Euston.
• London Euston, serves the Midlands, north-west England and west Scotland: Birmingham,     Manchester, Liverpool, Chester, Oxenholme Lake District, Carlisle, Glasgow, and        Holyhead for connecting ferries to/from both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland.     Sleeper trains to Scotland leave from Euston.
• St Pancras International, serves Paris, Brussels, Luton Airport and the East Midlands:      Leicester, Nottingham, Derby and Sheffield.
• London King's Cross, serves East Anglia, north-east England and east Scotland:     Cambridge, Doncaster, Leeds, York, Kingston upon Hull, Newcastle upon Tyne,     Edinburgh   and Aberdeen. Platform 9 3/4 from the Harry Potter books is marked with a   special sign,   although platform 9 itself is actually in the fairly unpleasant metallic extension   used by   Cambridge trains.
• London Moorgate
  serves some northern suburbs.
• London Liverpool Street
  serves East Anglia: Ipswich and Norwich. Also the downtown terminus of the Stansted     Airport Express.
• London Fenchurch Street
  serves commuter towns north of the Thames estuary to Southend.
• London Bridge, London Cannon Street, London Waterloo East and London Charing     Cross
  serve south and south east London and England: Brighton, Dover, Eastbourne, Hastings     and Ramsgate.
• London Blackfriars 
  serves Luton Airport and Brighton.
• London Waterloo
  serves south west London and England: Portsmouth, Winchester, Southampton,     Bournemouth, Weymouth, Salisbury and Exeter.
• London Victoria
  serves south east London and England: Brighton, Dover, Eastbourne, Hastings and     Ramsgate. Also the downtown terminus of the Gatwick Airport Express.
  In South London many areas only have National Rail services (no London Underground     services but there are buses). London Bridge, Victoria, Cannon Street and Charing Cross     serve the South East. London Waterloo serves the South West. First Capital Connect     (frequently referred to as Thameslink) is a cross London route between Bedford and     Brighton via Luton Airport (Parkway), St Pancras International, Farringdon, City Thameslink,   Blackfriars, London Bridge and Gatwick Airport.

Tickets facilities in London

  Making a Single or Return journey within London
If you're making just one single or return journey, you can buy inidividual tickets for your journeys. Simply ask when buying your National Rail ticket or at an Underground station ticket office.
The cost of your ticket will depend on which Zones you need to travel through. 
 

  Visiting London and making several journeys?
If you are planning to make several journeys or to visit different places around London, you'll find you'll save money with a Travelcard. You'll save money and you can use your Travelcard to use public transport when you want it, without having to buy separate tickets for each journey.
The cost of your ticket will depend on which Zones you need to travel through.

Where can I use a Travelcard?
You can use your Travelcard on:
• Tube, Docklands Light Railway and National Rail services
• Bus services within the entire Greater London area (regardless of the zone the Travelcard actually covers)
• Trams where your Travelcard includes Zone 3, 4, 5 or 6
• National Rail (excluding Heathrow Connect between Hayes & Harlington and Heathrow, and on Heathrow Express)
• Scheduled Riverboat services at 1/3 off the normal fare - just show your Travelcard or Oyster card with a Travelcar don it at the time of travel 

 When can I use my Travelcard?
Your Travelcard must be valid for all the zones you travel through:

DAY TRAVELCARDS (PEAK)
Can be used all day Mondays to Fridays, on the day of validity and for any journey that starts before 0430 the following day. On public holidays it is cheaper to buy an Off-Peak Day Travelcard.

DAY TRAVELCARDS (OFF-PEAK)
Can be used from 0930 Mondays to Fridays, all day Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays, on the day of validity and for any journey that starts before 0430 on the following day.

Oyster Cards
If you regularly visit London, or will be travelling for more than one day, you might want to get an 'Oyster Card'. You simply add money to your card, and it's deducted as you use it - this is called 'Pay as you Go' (PAYG).
Oyster Cards are just for £3 (which is refundable if you return the card to a ticket office if no longer required) with no credit preloaded. You simply add money to the card when you're ready.

Where to buy your London Travel tickets
You can buy your tickets:
• At National Rail stations
• At London Travel Information Centres
• Underground, DLR and Tramlink station ticket offices
• Underground stations have self-service ticket machines in five languages
• Oystercards can be purchased from the TfL Website

Ticket Options
National Express East Coast provides a wide range of tickets and fares to suit your rail travel requirements and your budget. You’ll find summaries of our ticket types below.

Advance tickets
Buy in Advance, Specified Trains - Advance single tickets to help you get the best value rail fares on each stage of your journey.

Off-Peak tickets
Buy Anytime, Travel Off-Peak - Excellent value off-peak fares available up to a few minutes before your train departs.

Anytime tickets
Buy Anytime, Travel Anytime - Fully flexible open tickets available up to a few minutes before departure.

All-Inclusive Ticket Packages
Ideal for business travellers, this premium ticket includes on-board refreshments and car parking.

Season Tickets
Available monthly and annually and can be purchased for any duration between one and 12 months

Mobile and Self Print Ticketing
Self service online delivery methods make travel simpler

Train Company's own timetables 
If you prefer more traditional timetables, by selecting a train operating company from the list below; you can then select, download and print the latest version of the timetable from their website.
  Arriva Trains Wales
 C2C
Chiltern Railways 
Cross Country 
East Midlands Trains 
Eurostar   
First Capital Connect 
First Great Western 
First ScotRail 
First TransPennine Express 
Grand Central 
Gatwick Express 
Heathrow Connect 
Heathrow Express 
Hull Trains 
Island Line 
London Midland 
London Overground 
Merseyrail
National Express East Anglia 
National Express East Coast 
Northern Rail   
Southeastern
Southern 
South West Trains 
Virgin Trains