What areas are roughly a 1 hour train commute to the centre of London?

Question

Hi,

I am trying to research towns and cities on the outskirts of London that are roughly a 1 hour commute to the center of London, specifically the Docklands and Canary Wharf.

Thanks for your help in advance.

Brad

Answer 1

Arundel west sussex one hour and 3 mins

Answer 2

Anywhere in the Home Counties - that is, the counties that border on Greater London, e.g. Surrey, Kent, Essex, etc.

Answer 3

Peterborough - aprrox 50 mins to 1 hour from kings cross

Answer 4

Depends - on a lot of days you sit at a red light for half an hour.........especially if there are leaves on the track.

Answer 5

This is by train.  Go from Haywards Heath.  It takes 40 mins to get to Victoria.

Answer 6

The link below gets you the SE England Railway Map.  Hope this helps you choose places within one hour commute of Docklands and Canary Wharf.

http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/system/gal...

Here's the only way to travel by rail. . . .the awesome Sussex Belle Express at Tangmere

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OF2erJout...

Here's how the French are planning future commutes - imagine it, Lyon to Paris in less than 1 hour. . . gonna happen.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWd_xOyX5...

Here are the most awesome railroad locomotives of all time - the Union Pacific Railraod - Big Boy locos.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8f9VFlNy...

Meanwhile here's Mallard holder of the world speed record for a steam locomotive 108MPH [actually hit 112 in the 1950s].

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-wBVP1ar9...

Answer 7

Harwich is bang on an hour, (thats north east essex)

Answer 8

You have a great swath of the country - from about Peterborough in the north the Brighton in the south, to Swindon in the west, to the medway towns in the East. Remember, however, that journey times will differ within that area, depending on your access to fast services. For example, travelling from Worthing, just a short way along the coast from Brighton will take much longer. You refer to Docklands in particular. I would suggest that you seriously look to the east and Kent in particular. Within the next 12 - 18 months high speed trains are to be introduced on services using the Channel Tunnel rail link using new trains being built by Hitachi which will stop at Stratford, giving speedy access to Docklands via the Docklands Light Railway/Jubilee Line. Any commute which takes you to Paddington, Euston, King's Cross or Victoria, for example is going to require a further 20-30 minutes once you land in London. London Bridge and Waterloo are not too bad as they also have direct links to the Jubilee line - which of course has a station at Canary Wharf.

For more details about the Kent High Speed services, see http://www.southeasternrailway.co.uk/mai...

Answer 9

If you're heading for Docklands you will need to keep in mind that your 1 hour commute will have to include transfer time across London from whichever terminus your train arrives at. So you might as well cross Swindon and Peterborough off your list.

For the easiest transfer to Docklands, you will need to aim for connection with the Docklands Light Railway (DLR) or the Jubilee Line. This means Stratford on the Liverpool Street line, Limehouse on the Fenchurch Street line, Lewisham on the lines into London Bridge or London Bridge Station itself. Therefore you're going to be looking primarily at Kent and Essex.

As for what is an hour away, well that depends on precisely which town you pick and how well served it is by the different train services. It's a paradox that some places further away from London have a shorter journey time than others closer in because they are served by faster trains. As has already been mentioned, bear in mind that domestic services using the Channel Tunnel Rail Link might bring the towns of East Kent into your 1 hour range, but these services are not due to start operating for a while yet.

Perhaps your best bet at the moment is to download some train timetables for services operated by National Express East Anglia, c2c and Southeastern Trains and see what your options are.

Answer 10

Now this is a big question, you are looking at a circle encompassing anywhere from Canterbury, Dover, along the channel coast to about Chichester up to Petersfield, Salisbury, Swindon, up to Oxford across to Peterbourgh down towards Norwich and then out to the suffolk coast and down to the thames eastuary finishing around the Margate Canterbury area.

Anywhere within that circle you should be able to get a train into London within about an hour or just slightly more, however then you have to factor getting across from London Terminus Stations to Docklands and considering that it could be peak time, underground / DLR services may be crowded it could take you up to an hour from say Paddington, Marleybone, Victoria and even Waterloo, Euston or Kings Cross to get across to the Docklands / Canary Wharf, in which case the circle is going to be drawn in to really the London Suburbs for that request, say Dartford, Sevenoaks, Redhill, Dorking, Guildford, Farnbourgh, Ealing, Potters Bar, Enfield, Barking and back round to the thames. Of course this will mean during the peak you will be standing most of the journey, the services are more local but with better frequency and obviously being closer in not as expensive, but the housing will be.

Good luck with your search.

Answer 11

Swindon, about 45 minutes by train, plus its practically in the countryside!!