Urban rail in the United Kingdom
Urban and suburban rail plays a key role in public transport in many of the major cities of the United Kingdom.
Urban rail refers to the train service between city centres and suburbs or nearby towns that acts as a main mode of transport for travellers on a daily basis.
Train services and ticketing are fully integrated with the national rail network and are not considered separate.
[4] A few urban railways offer service during peak times only, and others operate less frequent trains during the evenings and on Sundays.
Services run about every 20 minutes from 06:00 until 00:00 on: Belfast Suburban Rail serves 39 different stations on three lines.
[13] As part of the MetroWest local rail expansion project, a further two suburban lines from Bristol Temple Meads to Henbury and Portishead were due to open in 2021[14] and 2023[15] respectively.
In February 2008, the Ebbw Valley Railway re-opened after 45 years with an hourly service to Cardiff Central.
The Maesteg line is incorporated into the wider network: trains continue to Cheltenham Spa from Cardiff Central.
Local services: Under the Devon Metro project multiple new stations within the city and its environs have opened in recent years, with the goal to eventually establish a rapid-transit style service through incremental improvements to Exeter's existing urban rail network.
Recent advancements in the scheme include the openings of Newcourt, Cranbrook and Marsh Barton railway stations, as well as an increased frequency of 2tph on the Riviera and Avocet Lines.
[22][23] Glasgow is Scotland's biggest city and has the UK's largest suburban rail network outside London.
Liverpool is the nucleus of the network, which sees 100,000 people a day travel through 68 stations on the electrified lines.
The City line is operated by Northern running into Merseyside from outside the region, receiving funding from Merseytravel.
[26] The network includes the following lines: The West Yorkshire Metro oversees Northern suburban trains on 11 lines connecting urban centres such as Leeds, Bradford, Wakefield and Huddersfield and small commuter towns and villages in the Leeds city region, branded as Metro.
Sale, Alderley Edge and Wilmslow are examples of early settlements that had railway stations in the early-mid-19th century and grew into sizable commuter towns.
[29][30] The biggest point of entry to the city is Manchester Piccadilly which accommodates 13 lines[31] on which services are provided up to around every 15 minutes.
London has an integrated ticketing system via the Travelcard or Oyster card for buses, Docklands Light Railway, suburban rail, tram, Underground and Overground.
[33] The Thameslink and Great Northern network extends from Brighton to Bedford and from central London to Norfolk.
Suburban services serve stations such as Alexandra Palace, Enfield Chase and Oakleigh Park.
Greater Anglia operates frequent services from Southend Victoria, Ipswich, Clacton-on-Sea and Braintree to Liverpool Street station throughout the day along the Great Eastern Main Line, as well as from Southminster, Walton-on-the-Naze and Harwich Town during the peak hours.
Great Western Railway operates from Paddington to Greenford, Slough, Reading and Oxford stopping at west London suburbs including Ealing Broadway, Southall and Hayes & Harlington.
It is one of the three National Rail service shown on the London Underground map, the other two being Elizabeth line and Thameslink.
On the West Anglia and Lea Valley lines, four trains per hour go to Chingford and four via Edmonton Green, with two continuing to Enfield Town or Cheshunt.
London Northwestern Railway operates regional/commuter services from Euston to Hertfordshire, Buckinghamshire and Northamptonshire, Warwickshire, Staffordshire and Birmingham Southeastern operates over a large network in south-east London, with services reaching Kent and parts of East Sussex, covering 741 km (460 mi) of railway.
South Western Railway (SWR) operates a suburban network out of London Waterloo via Clapham Junction, which covers as far as Windsor, Reading, Alton, Guildford and Dorking.
SWR also operates longer distance services as far as Weymouth, Portsmouth, Southampton, Bournemouth and Exeter.
[37] As part of its contract, SWR also operates the 8.5 mile Island Line on the Isle of Wight, with services between Ryde Pier Head and Shanklin.
A few years before the central section of the Elizabeth line opened, Transport for London (TfL) began to operate services on pre-existing track, such as Liverpool Street to Shenfield and Gidea Park and Paddington to Hayes and Harlington and Heathrow Terminal 4.
These effectively replaced services run by Greater Anglia and Great Western Railway (GWR).
When the Elizabeth line opened in May 2022, services and stock were then handed over to the new operator (still owned and run by TfL).
