Taking a series of trains, buses and fun facts about them
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So you’re near the shard, (alt text says London Bridge station). You’ll have at least 2 different train operating companies, as south eastern, covering Kent and Brighton etc and others passing through. You’ll also have underground and possibly dock lands light railway (autonomous) as well as London overground. DLR, overground and underground are transport for london, the others are separate companies thanks to privatisation, as per another comment.
In essence loads of trains and lots of different companies.
A big advantage is if you pick up an Oyster card or a travel card from a station you can use any of the TFL routes on the same card. If you’re willing to use a debit card or have a mobile phone with apple pay in, you can just tap to get through the barriers. Check with the station staff.
Also. See it, say it, sorted. You’ll get fed up of that message pretty damn quickly.
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@skinnylatte yes, exactly, though a lot more frequently than US commuter rail: you typically get hourly service or better in both directions all day.
South London and southern England have a huge network of electric (third rail) trains going to towns and villages on the coast.
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@skinnylatte was fully confused for a sec bc youve been posting abt new york & i saw the trains & was like 'wait those r the trains we have here'
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14. Made it to London!
Thameslink train from Gatwick
@skinnylatte Welcome! I hope you have a wonderful time here.
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@skinnylatte *waves from my flat* That looks like Thameslink and Southeastern? I sometimes take Thameslink into work when the tube is borked or it's too hot. Thameslink has AC!
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@skinnylatte The last vestiges of a messy and failed privatisation system in which a bunch of different companies (many ultimately owned by other countries' governments) provided all the mainline trains in England and some of Wales.
By the back end of next year, everything will once again be nationalised and part of the new Great British Rail organisation.
@RolloTreadway @skinnylatte One can only hope!
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14. Made it to London!
Thameslink train from Gatwick
@skinnylatte Glad to see you on this side of the Big Pond
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Yay welcome to London!
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@skinnylatte Welcome to London!
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@RolloTreadway @skinnylatte One can only hope!
@mplouffe @skinnylatte It will be. The law was passed in the autumn of 2024. It'll just take until September next year for all the existing private contracts to expire.
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@skinnylatte I've given up on trying to understand trains and the different operators in the UK
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@mplouffe @skinnylatte It will be. The law was passed in the autumn of 2024. It'll just take until September next year for all the existing private contracts to expire.
@RolloTreadway
Awesome! I remember a lot of chatter about it but wasn't aware that anything actually happened.
@skinnylatte -
14. Made it to London!
Thameslink train from Gatwick
@skinnylatte brings back memories of living in Brighton and travelling on those trains
Hope you enjoy your trip 
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@skinnylatte one of my fav things about living here now - trains everywhere
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@timrichards @skinnylatte plus you’ve perfectly timed your visit for the infrequent depot open days https://www.ltmuseum.co.uk/whats-on/depot-open-days/icons-london
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I really like cities that are best by bus. I love the Tube, but London buses are very familiar to me (mostly coz we’ve got similar buses and bus routes in Singapore / Hong Kong). For local travel I prefer buses, most places.
Buses don’t have to suck (they’re so good in places where they’re good!)
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I really like cities that are best by bus. I love the Tube, but London buses are very familiar to me (mostly coz we’ve got similar buses and bus routes in Singapore / Hong Kong). For local travel I prefer buses, most places.
Buses don’t have to suck (they’re so good in places where they’re good!)
@skinnylatte a growing number of our busses are electric, too, which has been a huge quality-of-life improvement.
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The other indispensable travel accessory for me: a portable bidet. With pressure control. (Way better than using a water bottle)
I just can’t with toilet paper
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The other indispensable travel accessory for me: a portable bidet. With pressure control. (Way better than using a water bottle)
I just can’t with toilet paper
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I really like cities that are best by bus. I love the Tube, but London buses are very familiar to me (mostly coz we’ve got similar buses and bus routes in Singapore / Hong Kong). For local travel I prefer buses, most places.
Buses don’t have to suck (they’re so good in places where they’re good!)
@skinnylatte I agree up to a point, especially for shorter distances. Long journeys are far faster by tube though.
And I agree about Singapore, I naturally tend to gravitate towards metro/undergound, but in Singapore I realised there are lots of places that are actually quicker and easier to get to by bus (it probably helped that there was a bus stop right outside the place we stayed at
). And Singapore buses have AC, which London ones are mostly lacking...
