1.
National Rail
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The name and the accompanying double arrow symbol are the intellectual property of the Secretary of State for Transport. The National Rail logo was introduced by ATOC in 1999, and was used on the Great Britain public timetable for the first time in the edition valid from 26 September in that year. Rules for its use are set out in the Corporate Identity Style Guidelines published by the Rail Delivery Group, the NR title is sometimes described as a brand. As it was used by British Rail, the operator before franchising, its use also maintains continuity and public familiarity. National Rail should not be confused with Network Rail, the two networks are generally coincident where passenger services are run. Most major Network Rail lines carry traffic and some lines are freight only. About twenty privately owned operating companies, each franchised for a defined term by government. The Rail Delivery Group is the association representing the TOCs and provides core services. It also runs Rail Settlement Plan, which allocates ticket revenue to the various TOCs, and Rail Staff Travel and it does not compile the national timetable, which is the joint responsibility of the Office of Rail Regulation and Network Rail. Since the privatisation of British Rail there is no longer a single approach to design on railways in Great Britain, the look and feel of signage, liveries and marketing material is largely the preserve of the individual TOCs. However, National Rail continues to use BRs famous double-arrow symbol and it has been incorporated in the National Rail logotype and is displayed on tickets, the National Rail website and other publicity. The trademark rights to the arrow symbol remain state-owned, being vested in the Secretary of State for Transport. The double arrow was already prescribed for indicating a railway station, the lettering used in the National Rail logotype is a modified form of the typeface Sassoon Bold. It is a misconception that Rail Alphabet was also used for printed material. The British Rail typefaces of choice from 1965 were Helvetica and Univers, TOCs may use what they like, examples include Futura, Helvetica, Frutiger, Bliss, and a modified version of Precious by London Midland. Several conurbations have their own metro or tram systems, most of which are not part of National Rail, LO now also possesses some infrastructure in its own right, following the reopening of the former East London line of London Underground as the East London Railway of LO. Heathrow Express and Eurostar are also not part of the National Rail network despite sharing of stations, northern Ireland Railways were never part of British Rail, which was always confined to Great Britain, and therefore are not part of the National Rail network. National Rail services have a common ticketing structure inherited from British Rail, through tickets are available between any pair of stations on the network, and can be bought from any station ticket office
2.
Rugby, Warwickshire
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Rugby is a market town in Warwickshire, England, close to the River Avon. The town has a population of 70,628 making it the second largest town in the county, the enclosing Borough of Rugby has a population of 100,500. Rugby is 13 miles east of Coventry, on the edge of Warwickshire. The town is credited with being the birthplace of rugby football, Early Iron age settlement existed in the Rugby area, and a few miles outside what is now Rugby, existed a Roman settlement known as Tripontium. Rugby was originally a small Anglo-Saxon farming settlement, and was mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086 as Rocheberie, Rugby obtained a charter to hold a market in 1255, and soon developed into a small country market town. Rugby School was founded in 1567 with money left in the will of Lawrence Sheriff, a locally born grocer, Rugby School was originally intended as a school for local boys, but over time became a mostly fee-paying private school. The Lawrence Sheriff School was eventually founded in the late 19th century to carry on Sheriffs original intentions, Rugby remained a sleepy country market town until the 19th century and the coming of the railways. In 1838 the London and Birmingham Railway was constructed past it, Rugby became an important railway junction, and the proliferation of rail yards and workshops attracted workers. Rugbys population grew from just 2,500 in 1835, to over 10,000 by the 1880s, in the 1890s and 1900s heavy engineering industries began to set up in the town, and Rugby rapidly grew into a major industrial centre. Rugby expanded rapidly in the decades of the 20th century as workers moved in. By the 1940s, the population of Rugby had grown to over 40,000, in the postwar years, Rugby became well served by the motorway network, with the M1 and M6 merging close to the town. Rugby is most famous for the invention of rugby football, which is played throughout the world, the invention of the game is credited to William Webb Ellis whilst breaking the existing rules of a football match played in 1823 at Rugby School. Rugby School is one of Englands oldest and most prestigious public schools, a substantial part of the 2004 dramatisation of the novel, starring Stephen Fry, was filmed on location at Rugby School. Hughes later set up a colony in America for the sons of the English gentry. The town of Rugby, Tennessee still exists, Rugby is a birthplace of the jet engine. Much of his work was carried out at nearby Lutterworth, holography was invented in Rugby by the Hungarian inventor Dennis Gabor in 1947. In the 19th century, Rugby became famous for its once important railway junction which was the setting for Charles Dickenss story Mugby Junction, Rugby also includes the areas of New Bilton, Overslade and Hillside. The spread of Rugby has nearly reached the villages of Clifton-upon-Dunsmore, Cawston, Dunchurch, the town centre is mostly Victorian and early 20th century, however a few much older buildings survive, along with some more modern developments
3.
Borough of Rugby
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The Borough of Rugby is a local government district with borough status in eastern Warwickshire, England. The borough comprises the town of Rugby where the council has its headquarters, the borough has a population of just over 91,000. Of these, over 60,000 live in the town of Rugby, the borough stretches from Coventry to the west, to the borders with Northamptonshire and Leicestershire to the east. It borders the Warwickshire districts of Warwick to the south-west, Stratford to the south, the present borough was created on 1 April 1974 by the Local Government Act 1972. It was created by a merger of the borough of Rugby. The town of Rugby had gained the status of a district in 1894. At the same time the Rugby Rural District was created covering the surrounding countryside, the town and rural district had separate councils, both based in Rugby. In 1932, Rugbys status was upgraded to that of a municipal borough, the headquarters of Rugby Borough Council are based at Rugby Town Hall on Evereux Way in the town centre. The last elections to the council were held in May 2007, one third of council seats are elected every year, with one year without an election. The political makeup of the council in the past few elections has been, The borough is divided into 20 wards, for a list of wards in Rugby borough by population see here. The borough of Rugby has 39 civil parishes, some of which contain several settlements, Rugby town is unparished and so does not have a separate town council
4.
Geographic coordinate system
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A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
5.
Ordnance Survey National Grid
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The Ordnance Survey National Grid reference system is a system of geographic grid references used in Great Britain, different from using Latitude and Longitude. It is often called British National Grid, the Ordnance Survey devised the national grid reference system, and it is heavily used in their survey data, and in maps based on those surveys. Grid references are commonly quoted in other publications and data sources. The Universal Transverse Mercator coordinate system is used to provide references for worldwide locations. European-wide agencies also use UTM when mapping locations, or may use the Military Grid Reference System system, the grid is based on the OSGB36 datum, and was introduced after the retriangulation of 1936–1962. It replaced the previously used Cassini Grid which, up to the end of World War Two, had issued only to the military. The Airy ellipsoid is a regional best fit for Britain, more modern mapping tends to use the GRS80 ellipsoid used by the GPS, the British maps adopt a Transverse Mercator projection with an origin at 49° N, 2° W. Over the Airy ellipsoid a straight grid, the National Grid, is placed with a new false origin. This false origin is located south-west of the Isles of Scilly, the distortion created between the OS grid and the projection is countered by a scale factor in the longitude to create two lines of longitude with zero distortion rather than one. Grid north and true north are aligned on the 400 km easting of the grid which is 2° W. 2° 0′ 5″ W. OSGB36 was also used by Admiralty nautical charts until 2000 after which WGS84 has been used, a geodetic transformation between OSGB36 and other terrestrial reference systems can become quite tedious if attempted manually. The most common transformation is called the Helmert datum transformation, which results in a typical 7 m error from true, the definitive transformation from ETRS89 that is published by the OSGB is called the National Grid Transformation OSTN02. This models the detailed distortions in the 1936–1962 retriangulation, and achieves backwards compatibility in grid coordinates to sub-metre accuracy, the difference between the coordinates on different datums varies from place to place. The longitude and latitude positions on OSGB36 are the same as for WGS84 at a point in the Atlantic Ocean well to the west of Great Britain. In Cornwall, the WGS84 longitude lines are about 70 metres east of their OSGB36 equivalents, the smallest datum shift is on the west coast of Scotland and the greatest in Kent. But Great Britain has not shrunk by 100+ metres, a point near Lands End now computes to be 27.6 metres closer to a point near Duncansby Head than it did under OSGB36. For the first letter, the grid is divided into squares of size 500 km by 500 km, there are four of these which contain significant land area within Great Britain, S, T, N and H. The O square contains an area of North Yorkshire, almost all of which lies below mean high tide
6.
Virgin Trains
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Virgin Trains is a train operating company in the United Kingdom owned by Virgin Rail Group and Stagecoach that has operated the InterCity West Coast franchise since 9 March 1997. Virgin Trains operates long-distance passenger services on the West Coast Main Line between London, West Midlands, North West England, North Wales and Scotland. The service connects six of the UKs largest cities, London, Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool, Glasgow and Edinburgh, Virgin Rail Group was awarded the InterCity West Coast franchise in January 1997 after beating Sea Containers and Stagecoach with operations commencing on 9 March 1997. In October 1998 Virgin Group sold 49% of the shares in Virgin Rail Group to Stagecoach, when Virgin won the franchise, Railtrack was to upgrade the West Coast Main Line to allow tilting trains to operate at 140 mph by 2005. Due to costs having blown out from £2.5 billion to £10 billion there were cutbacks to the upgrade, in May 1998 Virgin introduced new services from London Euston to Shrewsbury and Blackpool North. The former ceased in 1999, the latter in May 2003, in December 2014, a daily weekday service between London Euston and Blackpool North and a twice daily service between London Euston and Shrewsbury were reintroduced. In September 2004 a London Euston to Llandudno service was introduced ceasing in December 2008, in September 2005 Virgin introduced its first 125 mph timetable following the completion of Stage 1 of the upgrade. In December 2008 a Wrexham to London Euston service was introduced operating south in the morning with an evening return, in February 2009 an hourly London Euston to Chester service was introduced. From January 2009 Virgin Trains gradually rolled out a new Very High Frequency timetable to take advantage of the completed West Coast Main Line upgrade, there were many timetable changes from 8 December 2013. Edinburgh/Glasgow services now run to/from London and call at Sandwell & Dudley replacing the hourly Wolverhampton to Euston service, in addition most Liverpool services will additionally call at Crewe. This has resulted in the latter being serviced by four Virgin trains in each direction per hour to/from London instead of the previous two, Virgin Trains suffered poor punctuality compared with some other transport operators between 2001 and 2006, according to Office of Rail Regulation statistics. Punctuality did gradually improve until the introduction of a new timetable, following the upgrade of the West Coast Main Line, performance subsequently recovered and peaked during 2010-2011, but then fell again and reached a new low for the year ending 31 March 2013 of 83. 6%. Financial year to 31 March 2008,86. 2%, financial year to 31 March 2009,80. 0%. Financial year to 31 March 2010,84. 6%, financial year to 31 March 2011,86. 6%. Financial year to 31 March 2012,85. 9%, financial year to 31 March 2013,83. 6%. Financial year to 31 March 2014,85. 8%, financial year to 31 March 2015,84. 7%. Latest figures published by Network Rail for the period of 2013-2014 recorded PPM of 92. 2% for the period. The PPM performance for the period is down 2.7 percentage points on the figure from the same period last year
7.
London and Birmingham Railway
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This is about the 19th century railway company. For the 21st century train operating company, see London Midland, the London and Birmingham Railway was an early railway company in the United Kingdom from 1833 to 1846, when it became part of the London and North Western Railway. The 112-mile railway line which the company opened in 1838 between London and Birmingham was the first intercity line to be built into London and it is now the southern section of the West Coast Main Line. The line was engineered by Robert Stephenson and it started at Euston Station in London, went north-north-west to Rugby, where it turned west to Coventry and on to Birmingham. It terminated at Curzon Street Station, which it shared with the Grand Junction Railway, soon afterwards a rival company was formed by Francis Giles whose line would have been through the Watford Gap and Coventry. Neither company obtained backing for its scheme, and in late 1830 the two decided to merge. The new company appointed Robert Stephenson chief engineer, and he chose the route through Coventry, the prospectus for the London and Birmingham Railway offered the following inducements to potential investors, The company was created with an initial capitalisation of £5,500,000. Much of the funds came from Lancashire, where great profits were being made in the cotton industries. The construction of the line was the subject of opposition by landowners. Turbulent public meetings were held in West Hertfordshire towns to protest against the project, the anatomist Sir Astley Cooper was also in attendance, intent on preventing the new railway from cutting across his Gadebridge Estate. The L&BR Companys first application for an Act of Parliament to construct the line was rejected in 1832, due to pressure from landowners and road, the railway route proposals through Hertfordshire were modified and in May 1833 a second act was approved and the line received the royal assent. Construction began in November of that year, in particular, he suggested that the effort to build the Great Pyramid of Giza amounted to the lifting of 15,733,000,000 cubic feet of stone by 1 foot. The railway, excluding a string of tasks – drainage, ballasting. The pyramid involved, he says, the effort of 300,000 men or 100,000 for twenty years, the railway involved 20,000 men for five years. The line had been planned to open at the time as the Grand Junction Railway which entered Birmingham from the north. However great difficulty in constructing the Kilsby Tunnel in Northamptonshire delayed the opening, the first part of the line between Euston Station and Boxmoor opened on 20 July 1837. The line was fully opened on 17 September 1838 with the first passenger train from London to Birmingham arriving that day. The first London to Birmingham trains took 5 1⁄2 hours to complete the 112 1⁄2 mile journey, the railway opened from Euston on 20 July 1837, the stationary engines and rope haulage did not commence until 27 September, and handled all trains from 14 October 1837
8.
London and North Western Railway
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The London and North Western Railway was a British railway company between 1846 and 1922. In the late 19th century the L&NWR was the largest joint stock company in the world, the company was formed on 16 July 1846 by the amalgamation of the Grand Junction Railway, London and Birmingham Railway and the Manchester and Birmingham Railway. This move was prompted in part by the Great Western Railways plans for a railway north from Oxford to Birmingham, the company initially had a network of approximately 350 miles, connecting London with Birmingham, Crewe, Chester, Liverpool and Manchester. The headquarters were at Euston railway station, as traffic increased it was greatly expanded with the opening in 1849 of the Great Hall, designed by Philip Charles Hardwick in classical style. It was 126 ft long,61 ft wide and 64 ft high, the station stood on Drummond Street. Further expansion resulted in two platforms in the 1870s, and four more in the 1890s, bringing the total to 15. The LNWR described itself as the Premier Line, as the largest joint stock company in the United Kingdom, it collected a greater revenue than any other railway company of its era. With the Grand Union Railway acquisition of the North Union Railway in 1846, in 1858 they merged with the Chester and Holyhead Railway and became responsible for the lucrative Irish Mail trains via the North Wales Main Line to Holyhead and handled the Irish Mail. On 1 February 1859 the company launched the limited mail service, the Postmaster General was always willing to allow a fourth coach provided the increased weight did not cause time to be lost in running. The train was timed to leave Euston at 20.30 and operated until the GPO instituted its own post train, wholly of Post Office vehicles, on 1 October 1873 the first sleeping carriage ran between Euston and Glasgow, attached to the limited mail. It ran three nights a week in each direction, on 1 February 1874 a second carriage was provided and the service ran every night. In 1860 the company pioneered the use of the water trough designed by John Ramsbottom and it was introduced on a section of level track at Mochdre, between Llandudno Junction and Colwyn Bay. At the core of the LNWR system was the main line network connecting London Euston with the cities of Birmingham, Liverpool and Manchester. This route is known as the West Coast Main Line. The LNWR also had a line connecting Liverpool and Manchester with Leeds. At its peak just before World War I, it ran a route mileage of more than 1,500 miles, in 1913 the company achieved a total revenue of £17,219,060 with working expenses of £11,322,164. With this, the LNWR achieved a route mileage of 2,707.88 miles, the LNWR became a constituent of the London, Midland and Scottish railway when the railways of Great Britain were merged in the grouping of 1923. Ex-LNWR lines formed the core of the LMSs Western Division, nationalisation followed in 1948, with the English and Welsh lines of the LMS becoming the London Midland Region of British Railways
9.
London, Midland and Scottish Railway
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The London, Midland and Scottish Railway was a British railway company. It was formed on 1 January 1923 under the Railways Act of 1921, the resulting company was an unwieldy construction, with numerous interests other than railway operation. Besides being the worlds largest transport organisation, it was also the largest commercial enterprise in the British Empire, the LMS also claimed to be the largest joint stock organisation in the world. In 1938, the LMS operated 6,870 miles of railway, under the Transport Act 1947, along with the other members of the Big Four British railway companies, the LMS was nationalised on 1 January 1948, becoming part of the state-owned British Railways. The LMS was the largest of the Big Four railway companies serving routes in England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, the LMS operated services in and around London, the Midlands, the North West of England, Mid/North Wales and Scotland. The company also operated a network of lines in Northern Ireland. The LMS operated a number of lines jointly with the main railway companies. Most of these were situated at or near the boundaries between two or more of the companies, but there were notable examples which extended beyond this hinterland zone. Together with the London and North Eastern Railway, the LMS ran the former Midland, exceeding 183 miles, this was the largest jointly-operated network in Great Britain in terms of route mileage, and extended from Peterborough to the East Anglian coast. The M&GN was wholly incorporated into the LNER in 1936, the LMS also operated a significant joint network with the Southern Railway, in the shape of the former Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway. This network connected Bath and Bournemouth, and wound its way through territory nominally allocated to a railway company. Through the former Midland Railway holdings, the LMS, together with the Great Northern Railway, the SR and the LMS were mainly overlapping on the West London Line. The London to Birmingham corridor was fiercely contested with the LMS running expresses over its West Coast Main Line via Rugby, the LMS was also the only one of the Big Four companies to operate rail services in Northern Ireland, serving most major settlements in the region. On 1 July 1903, the Midland Railway took over the Belfast and Northern Counties Railway, in 1912, the Midland Railway purchased the London, Tilbury and Southend Railway which operated between London Fenchurch Street and Shoeburyness, with a loop serving Tilbury. This part of the later came under the control of the LNER, although this particular route. This arrangement did however provide a choice for residents of Southend, the LMS was the minority partner in the Cheshire Lines Committee. In Ireland there were three railways, Dundalk, Newry and Greenore Railway 26.5 miles Northern Counties Committee 265, for all railways see List of constituents of the LMS. Generally, the Midland prevailed, with the adoption of many Midland practices such as the livery of Crimson Lake for passenger locomotives, notable was the continuation of the Midland Railways small-engine policy
10.
Warwickshire
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Warwickshire is a landlocked county in the West Midlands of England. The county town is Warwick, although the largest town is Nuneaton, the county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare. Commonly used abbreviations for the county are Warks or Warwicks, the county is divided into five districts of North Warwickshire, Nuneaton and Bedworth, Rugby, Warwick and Stratford-on-Avon. The current county boundaries were set in 1974 by the Local Government Act 1972, the historic county boundaries also included Coventry and Solihull, as well as much of Birmingham. The northern tip of the county is only 3 miles from the Derbyshire border, an average-sized English county covering an area of almost 2,000 km2, it runs some 60 miles north to south. Equivalently it extends as far north as Shrewsbury in Shropshire and as far south as Banbury in north Oxfordshire, the majority of Warwickshires population live in the north and centre of the county. The market towns of northern and eastern Warwickshire were industrialised in the 19th century, and include Atherstone, Bedworth, Nuneaton, of these, Atherstone has retained most of its original character. Major industries included coal mining, textiles, engineering and cement production, of the northern and eastern towns, only Nuneaton and Rugby are well-known outside of Warwickshire. The south of the county is rural and sparsely populated. The only town in the south of Warwickshire is Shipston-on-Stour, the highest point in the county, at 261 m, is Ebrington Hill, again on the border with Gloucestershire, grid reference SP187426 at the countys southwest extremity. There are no cities in Warwickshire since both Coventry and Birmingham were incorporated into the West Midlands county in 1974 and are now metropolitan authorities in themselves, the largest towns in Warwickshire in 2011 were, Nuneaton, Rugby, Leamington Spa, Bedworth, Warwick, Stratford and Kenilworth. Much of western Warwickshire, including that area now forming part of Coventry, Solihull, thus the names of a number of places in the central-western part of Warwickshire end with the phrase -in-Arden, such as Henley-in-Arden, Hampton-in-Arden and Tanworth-in-Arden. The remaining area, not part of the forest, was called the Felden – from fielden, areas historically part of Warwickshire include Coventry, Solihull, Sutton Coldfield, Erdington, and some of Birmingham including Aston and Edgbaston. These became part of the county of West Midlands following local government re-organisation in 1974. Some organisations, such as Warwickshire County Cricket Club, which is based in Edgbaston, in Birmingham, Coventry is effectively in the centre of the Warwickshire area, and still has strong ties with the county. Coventry and Warwickshire are sometimes treated as an area and share a single Chamber of Commerce. Coventry has been a part of Warwickshire for only some of its history, in 1451 Coventry was separated from Warwickshire and made a county corporate in its own right, called the County of the City of Coventry. In 1842 the county of Coventry was abolished and Coventry was remerged with Warwickshire, in recent times, there have been calls to formally re-introduce Coventry into Warwickshire, although nothing has yet come of this
11.
Victorian era
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The Victorian era was the period of Queen Victorias reign, from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. It was a period of peace, prosperity, refined sensibilities. Some scholars date the beginning of the period in terms of sensibilities, the era followed the Georgian period and preceded the Edwardian period. The later half of the Victorian age roughly coincided with the first part of the Belle Époque era of continental Europe, culturally there was a transition away from the rationalism of the Georgian period and toward romanticism and mysticism with regard to religion, social values, and arts. The end of the saw the Boer War. Domestically, the agenda was increasingly liberal with a number of shifts in the direction of political reform, industrial reform. Two especially important figures in period of British history are the prime ministers Benjamin Disraeli and William Gladstone. Disraeli, favoured by the queen, was a gregarious Conservative and his rival Gladstone, a Liberal distrusted by the Queen, served more terms and oversaw much of the overall legislative development of the era. The population of England and Wales almost doubled from 16.8 million in 1851 to 30.5 million in 1901, Scotlands population also rose rapidly, from 2.8 million in 1851 to 4.4 million in 1901. However, Irelands population decreased sharply, from 8.2 million in 1841 to less than 4.5 million in 1901, mostly due to the Great Famine. Between 1837 and 1901 about 15 million emigrants departed the UK permanently, in search of a life in the United States, Canada, South Africa, New Zealand, Australia. During the early part of the era, politics in the House of Commons involved battles between the two parties, the Whigs/Liberals and the Conservatives. These parties were led by such prominent statesmen as Lord Melbourne, Sir Robert Peel, Lord Derby, Lord Palmerston, Gladstone, Disraeli, Victoria became queen in 1837 at age 18. Her long reign until 1901 was mainly a time of peace, Britain reached the zenith of its economic, political, diplomatic and cultural power. The era saw the expansion of the second British Empire, Historians have characterised the mid-Victorian era as Britains Golden Years. There was prosperity, as the income per person grew by half. There was peace abroad, and social peace at home, opposition to the new order melted away, says Porter. The Chartist movement peaked as a movement among the working class in 1848, its leaders moved to other pursuits, such as trade unions
12.
Rugby Central railway station
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Rugby Central was a railway station serving Rugby in Warwickshire on the former Great Central Main Line which opened in 1899 and closed in 1969. The station was opened on 15 March 1899 and it had services between London Marylebone and Manchester Piccadilly via Leicester Central, Nottingham Victoria and Sheffield Victoria. As well as cross country services to places such as Southampton. The station was run by the Great Central Railway from 1899 until it was grouped into the London and it then came under the management of British Railways in 1948. Rugby Central was roughly midway along the Great Central Main Line and was a point for express services as well as a changeover point for local services. The line was run down and the express services were removed, leaving only the local services. Most of the GCML was closed on 5 September 1966 under Reshaping of British Railways, on this date, the line south of Rugby Central and north of Nottingham Victoria was closed. The section between Rugby Central and Nottingham remained open as self-contained branch carrying a DMU operated local passenger service until 3 May 1969, Rugby Central was situated on Hillmorton Road roughly half a mile east of the town centre. It was much smaller and less important than Midland Station, Rugby Central was built to the standard Great Central design with a single island platform which was 600 feet long. The booking office was at level, built onto the side of the road bridge over the railway with the platform below. The platform was accessed by a staircase from the booking office. On the platform there were three waiting rooms and a block, which was the only building not covered by the canopy. On the preserved Great Central Railway in Leicestershire, the preserved Loughborough Central station is a design to the former Rugby Central. The station buildings were demolished after closure, although the platform still exists, Rugby Borough Council bought the whole of the former Great Central Railway trackbed through Rugby in 1970, and it is now a nature walk called the Great Central Way. The former goods yard was west of the station, and was used as a yard until the mid-1990s when houses were built on it. In August 2000, Chiltern Railways suggested reopening the former Great Central Main Line between London Marylebone and Rugby Central to a station in Leicestershire near the M1/M6. This proposal is an aspiration of Chilterns franchise agreement. However, Chiltern stated in 2013 that the plan is no longer active, in recent years proposals to reopen the railway line as an alternative route to HS2 has been proposed and In 2015 opponents of HS2 called for the GCR to be reopened as an alternative to HS2
13.
Great Central Main Line
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The Great Central Main Line, also known as the London Extension of the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway, is a former railway line in the United Kingdom. It was opened in 1899 by the Great Central Railway and ran from Sheffield in the North of England, southwards through Nottingham, the GCML was the last main line railway built in Britain during the Victorian period. It was built by the railway entrepreneur Edward Watkin who aimed to run a high-speed, aside from this ambitious scheme, the GCML operated as a fast trunk route from the North and the East Midlands to London. It was not initially a success, only recovering under the leadership of Sam Fay. Although initially planned for passenger services, in practice the lines most important function became to carry goods traffic. Most of the route was closed between 1966 and 1969 under the Beeching axe, part of the former main line has been preserved as the Great Central Railway between Leicester and Loughborough. In 2013, the route was suggested by the Labour Party as an alternative to High Speed 2. The GCML was very much a strategic line in concept and it was not intended to duplicate the Midland line by serving a great many centres of population. Four railway companies served Leicester, GCR, Midland, GNR, avoiding Wigston, the GCR served Lutterworth before reaching the town of Rugby, where it crossed at right-angles over, and did not connect with, the LNWRs West Coast Main Line. From Woodford Halse the route continued approximately south-east via Brackley to Calvert and Quainton Road, apart from a small freight branch to Gotham between Nottingham and Loughborough, and the Alternative Route link added later, these were the only branch lines from the London extension. The line crossed several other railways but had few junctions with them, North of Sheffield, express trains on the London extension made use of the pre-existing MS&LR trans-Pennine main line, the Woodhead Line to give access to Manchester London Road. In 1864 Sir Edward Watkin took over directorship of the Manchester and he had grand ambitions for the company, he had plans to transform it from a provincial middle-of-the-road railway company into a major national player. Construction of the GCML was commissioned to enable Watkins railway company to operate its own direct express route to London independently of — and in competition with — rival railway companies. At the time people questioned the wisdom of building the line. However, Watkin defended it by arguing that growth in traffic would justify the new line, in the 1890s the MS&LR set about building its own line, having received Parliamentary approval on 28 March 1893, for the London Extension. The Bill nearly failed due to opposition from cricketers at the Marylebone Cricket Club in London through which the line would pass, however it was agreed to put the line through a tunnel passing under the grounds. The first sod of the new railway was cut at Alpha Road, St John’s Wood, London, on 13 November 1894 by Countess Wharncliffe, wife of 1st Earl of Wharncliffe, the Chairman of the Board. The new line,92 miles long started at Annesley in Nottinghamshire, from here, the route followed the existing Metropolitan Railway Extension as far as Harrow and thence along the final section to Marylebone
14.
West Coast Main Line
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The West Coast Main Line is one of the most important railway corridors in the United Kingdom, connecting the major cities of London, Birmingham, Glasgow, Liverpool and Manchester. It is one of the busiest mixed-traffic railway routes in Europe, carrying a mixture of intercity rail, regional rail, the core route of the WCML runs from London to Glasgow, with branches diverging to Birmingham, Manchester and Liverpool, totalling a route mileage of 700 miles. Services from London to North Wales and Edinburgh also run via the WCML and it is one of the busiest freight routes in Europe, carrying 40% of all UK rail freight traffic. The line is the rail freight corridor linking the European mainland through London and South East England to the West Midlands. The line has been declared a strategic European route and designated a priority Trans-European Networks route, other traffic is limited to 110 mph. The route between Rugby and Birmingham, Wolverhampton and Stafford was the main line until the Trent Valley Line was built in 1847. A further branch at Carstairs links Edinburgh to the WCML, providing a connection between the WCML and the East Coast Main Line. This legacy means the WCML has limitations as a main line, with lower maximum speeds than the East Coast Main Line route. The WCML was not originally conceived as a trunk route. After the completion of the successful Liverpool and Manchester Railway in 1830, and so this is how the early stages of the WCML evolved. The first stretch of what is now the WCML was the Grand Junction Railway connecting Liverpool and Manchester to Birmingham, via Crewe, Stafford, the following year the London and Birmingham Railway was completed, connecting to the capital via Coventry, Rugby and the Watford Gap. Three other sections, the North Union Railway, the Lancaster and Preston Junction Railway, another important section, the North Staffordshire Railway, which opened its route in 1848 from Macclesfield to Stafford and Colwich via Stoke-on-Trent also remained independent. Poor relations between the LNWR and the NSR meant that trains did not run until 1867. The route to Scotland was marketed by the LNWR as The Premier Line, because the cross-border trains ran over the LNWR and Caledonian Railway, through trains consisted of jointly owned West Coast Joint Stock to simplify operations. The first direct London to Glasgow trains in the 1850s took 12.5 hours to complete the 400-mile journey, the final sections of what is now the WCML were put in place over the following decades by the LNWR. To expand capacity, the line between London and Rugby was widened to four tracks in the 1870s, as part of this work, a new line, the Northampton Loop was built, opening in 1881, connecting Northampton before rejoining the main line at Rugby. The route came under the control of the London, Midland and Scottish Railway on 1 January 1923 when railway companies were grouped, the LMS competed fiercely with the rival LNERs East Coast Main Line for London to Scotland traffic. As part of the 1955 modernisation plan, the line was modernised and electrified in stages between 1959 and 1974, the first stretch to be electrified was Crewe to Manchester, completed on 12 September 1960
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Birmingham
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Birmingham is a major city and metropolitan borough of West Midlands, England lying on the River Rea, a small river that runs through Birmingham. It is the largest and most populous British city outside London, the city is in the West Midlands Built-up Area, the third most populous urban area in the United Kingdom, with a population of 2,440,986 at the 2011 census. Birminghams metropolitan area is the second most populous in the UK with a population of 3.8 million and this also makes Birmingham the 8th most populous metropolitan area in Europe. By 1791 it was being hailed as the first manufacturing town in the world, perhaps the most important invention in British history, the industrial steam engine, was invented in Birmingham. From the summer of 1940 to the spring of 1943, Birmingham was bombed heavily by the German Luftwaffe in what is known as the Birmingham Blitz. The damage done to the infrastructure, in addition to a deliberate policy of demolition and new building by planners, led to extensive demolition. Today Birminghams economy is dominated by the service sector and its metropolitan economy is the second largest in the United Kingdom with a GDP of $121. 1bn, and its six universities make it the largest centre of higher education in the country outside London. Birmingham is the fourth-most visited city in the UK by foreign visitors, Birminghams sporting heritage can be felt worldwide, with the concept of the Football League and lawn tennis both originating from the city. Its most successful football club Aston Villa has won seven league titles, people from Birmingham are called Brummies, a term derived from the citys nickname of Brum. This originates from the citys name, Brummagem, which may in turn have been derived from one of the citys earlier names. There is a distinctive Brummie accent and dialect, Birminghams early history is that of a remote and marginal area. The main centres of population, power and wealth in the pre-industrial English Midlands lay in the fertile and accessible river valleys of the Trent, the Severn and the Avon. The area of modern Birmingham lay in between, on the upland Birmingham Plateau and within the wooded and sparsely populated Forest of Arden. Birmingham as a settlement dates from the Anglo-Saxon era, within a century of the charter Birmingham had grown into a prosperous urban centre of merchants and craftsmen. By 1327 it was the third-largest town in Warwickshire, a position it would retain for the next 200 years, by 1700 Birminghams population had increased fifteenfold and the town was the fifth-largest in England and Wales. The importance of the manufacture of goods to Birminghams economy was recognised as early as 1538. Equally significant was the emerging role as a centre for the iron merchants who organised finance, supplied raw materials. The 18th century saw this tradition of free-thinking and collaboration blossom into the phenomenon now known as the Midlands Enlightenment
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North West England
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North West England, one of nine official regions of England, consists of the five counties of Cheshire, Cumbria, Greater Manchester, Lancashire and Merseyside. The North West had a population of 7,052,000 in 2011 and it is the third most populated region in the United Kingdom after the South East and Greater London. North West England is bounded to the east by the Peak District, the region extends from the Scottish Borders in the north to the West Midlands region in the south. To its southwest is North Wales, amongst the better known of the North Wests physiographical features are the Lake District and the Cheshire Plain. The highest point in North West England is Scafell Pike, Cumbria, Windermere is the largest natural lake in England. Broad Crag Tarn on Broad Crag is Englands highest lake, wast Water is Englands deepest lake, being 74m deep. A mix of rural and urban landscape, two large conurbations, centred on Liverpool and Manchester, occupy much of the south of the region. The north of the region, comprising Cumbria and northern Lancashire, is rural, as is the far south which encompasses parts of the Cheshire Plain. The region includes parts of three National parks and three areas of Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty, source, Office for National Statistics Mid Year Population Estimates North West Englands population accounts for just over 13% of Englands overall population. 37. 86% of the North Wests population resides in Greater Manchester,21. 39% in Lancashire,20. 30% in Merseyside,14. 76% in Cheshire and 7. 41% live in the largest county by area, Cumbria. According to 2009 Office for National Statistics estimates,91. 6% of people in the region describe themselves as White,88. 4% White British,1. 0% White Irish and 2. 2% White Other. The Mixed Race population makes up 1. 3% of the regions population, there are 323,800 South Asians, making up 4. 7% of the population, and 1. 1% Black Britons. 0. 6% of the population are Chinese and 0. 5% of people belong to ethnic group. North West England is a diverse region, with Manchester. 19. 4% of Blackburn with Darwens population are Muslim, the third highest among all local authorities in the United Kingdom, Areas such as Moss Side in Greater Manchester are home to a 30%+ Black British population. In contrast, the town of St. Helens in Merseyside, one in five of the population in the North West is Catholic, a result of large-scale Irish emigration in the nineteenth century as well as the high number of English recusants in Lancashire. For top-tier authorities, Manchester has the highest teenage pregnancy rate in the region, for council districts, Burnley has the highest rate, closely followed by Hyndburn, both in Lancashire. For top-tier authorities, Cheshire has the lowest teenage pregnancy rate, for council districts, Eden has the lowest rate closely followed by South Lakeland, both in Cumbria
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Scotland
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Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and covers the northern third of the island of Great Britain. It shares a border with England to the south, and is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, with the North Sea to the east. In addition to the mainland, the country is made up of more than 790 islands, including the Northern Isles, the Kingdom of Scotland emerged as an independent sovereign state in the Early Middle Ages and continued to exist until 1707. By inheritance in 1603, James VI, King of Scots, became King of England and King of Ireland, Scotland subsequently entered into a political union with the Kingdom of England on 1 May 1707 to create the new Kingdom of Great Britain. The union also created a new Parliament of Great Britain, which succeeded both the Parliament of Scotland and the Parliament of England. Within Scotland, the monarchy of the United Kingdom has continued to use a variety of styles, titles, the legal system within Scotland has also remained separate from those of England and Wales and Northern Ireland, Scotland constitutes a distinct jurisdiction in both public and private law. Glasgow, Scotlands largest city, was one of the worlds leading industrial cities. Other major urban areas are Aberdeen and Dundee, Scottish waters consist of a large sector of the North Atlantic and the North Sea, containing the largest oil reserves in the European Union. This has given Aberdeen, the third-largest city in Scotland, the title of Europes oil capital, following a referendum in 1997, a Scottish Parliament was re-established, in the form of a devolved unicameral legislature comprising 129 members, having authority over many areas of domestic policy. Scotland is represented in the UK Parliament by 59 MPs and in the European Parliament by 6 MEPs, Scotland is also a member nation of the British–Irish Council, and the British–Irish Parliamentary Assembly. Scotland comes from Scoti, the Latin name for the Gaels, the Late Latin word Scotia was initially used to refer to Ireland. By the 11th century at the latest, Scotia was being used to refer to Scotland north of the River Forth, alongside Albania or Albany, the use of the words Scots and Scotland to encompass all of what is now Scotland became common in the Late Middle Ages. Repeated glaciations, which covered the land mass of modern Scotland. It is believed the first post-glacial groups of hunter-gatherers arrived in Scotland around 12,800 years ago, the groups of settlers began building the first known permanent houses on Scottish soil around 9,500 years ago, and the first villages around 6,000 years ago. The well-preserved village of Skara Brae on the mainland of Orkney dates from this period and it contains the remains of an early Bronze Age ruler laid out on white quartz pebbles and birch bark. It was also discovered for the first time that early Bronze Age people placed flowers in their graves, in the winter of 1850, a severe storm hit Scotland, causing widespread damage and over 200 deaths. In the Bay of Skaill, the storm stripped the earth from a large irregular knoll, when the storm cleared, local villagers found the outline of a village, consisting of a number of small houses without roofs. William Watt of Skaill, the laird, began an amateur excavation of the site, but after uncovering four houses
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Trent Valley line
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The Trent Valley line is a railway line between Rugby and Stafford in England, forming part of the West Coast Main Line. It is named after the River Trent which it follows, the line was built to provide a direct route from London to North West England and Scotland, and avoid the slower route between Rugby and Stafford via Birmingham. The cities, towns and villages served by the line are listed below, Stafford Rugeley Lichfield Tamworth Polesworth Atherstone Nuneaton Rugby A range of intercity and long-distance services use the route. London Midland and Virgin Trains operate all services on the route, London Midland uses the route as part of its hourly long-distance semi-fast service between London Euston and Crewe. These call at all stations on the route, except Polesworth, Virgin Trains uses the route for its long-distance and intercity services between London Euston to Manchester Piccadilly, Liverpool Lime Street, Chester, North Wales and Glasgow Central. These rarely call at more than one station on the route, the contractor for the 50 miles of double-track line was the London Railway Contractors Partnership of Thomas Brassey, John Stephenson and William MacKenzie. The engineers were Robert Stephenson, George Parker Bidder and Thomas Longridge Gooch, construction was initially started by an independent company, the Trent Valley Railway, which was established in Manchester in April 1844. Its Act of Incorporation received Royal Assent on 21 July 1845, construction of the line commenced in November 1845, the first sod being cut ceremonially at Tamworth by Sir Robert Peel on 13 November. It is now part of what is called the West Coast Main Line, the line was electrified on the 25 kV AC system during the 1960s, in the wake of the 1955 British Rail modernisation plan. Prior to this work being carried out, the West Coast Main Line had four tracks between London and Rugby, comprising a fast line and a line in each direction. Similarly, there were four tracks north of Stafford, although parts of the Trent Valley line previously had four tracks, there was an 11 miles long section of track between Tamworth and Armitage that had only ever been double track. The two outer tracks are slow, while the fast lines are the two innermost tracks, work started in 2004, and access roads were built on the eastern side of the line. Substantial earthworks were carried out and 37 bridges were replaced, a level crossing at Hademore was replaced by two road bridges in early 2007. The four-track railway between Lichfield North and Armitage was brought into use on 29 May 2008, concurrently, Lichfield Trent Valley signal box was closed and within a month had been demolished. On 8 September the same year, the railway between Tamworth and Lichfield came into use and Tamworth signal box closed. Additionally, the line between Rugby and Brinklow, formerly three tracks, was quadrupled on 27 May 2008, the line from Brinklow to Nuneaton remains three tracks. A2 miles section north-west of Colwich Junction, which passes through the 776 yards Shugborough Tunnel, as well as the civil engineering works, the whole of the Trent Valley line has been resignalled. The work was completed in September 2008, at a cost of around £350 million, along with the modernisation improvements, new rolling stock operates along the Trent Valley line
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Northampton loop
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The Northampton loop is a railway line serving the town of Northampton. It is a branch of the West Coast Main Line, deviating from the direct main line which runs to the west. The WCML is a four track line up to end of the Loop. The southern interconnect between the Northampton loop and the direct London–Birmingham main line is at Hanslope Junction, just north of Milton Keynes, the lines continue to run alongside until the two routes diverge north of Roade at the northern end of Roade cutting. The loop line runs north east for several miles until it reaches Northampton station. After Northampton, the heads to the north-west for around twenty miles, until it re-joins the main line at Hillmorton Junction at Rugby. The line is a total of 23 3⁄4 miles long, the majority of passenger services on the line are provided by London Midland using Class 350 electric multiple units. Class 319 units are used for express services between Northampton and London Euston. The service consists of three semi fast trains per hour between London Euston and Birmingham New Street, there is also an hourly local service between Northampton and Birmingham. Prior to December 2012 there was also a service to and from Crewe, Virgin Trains provide a small number of Pendolino services to London at the extremes of the day. But nearly all Virgin trains use the main line. Line speeds on the line are currently limited to 75 mph compared to 125 mph on the fast line. As of 2011, line speeds were expected to increase to 90 mph once signalling improvements are in north of Northampton up to Rugby. Long Buckby, the one station on the line, is served by the London–Birmingham/Northampton–Birmingham services. The London–Crewe service does not stop at Long Buckby except on Sundays, the line sees heavy freight traffic, as it is used by all freight trains on the southern part of the WCML. Many of these are trains, with some serving the Daventry International Railfreight Terminal. When the London and Birmingham Railway was constructed in the 1830s, Northampton was by-passed, traditionally this was said to have been because Northampton landowners objected to having a railway run to the town. However, more recently, railway historians have argued that Northampton was by-passed because the gradients would have been too steep for locomotives to easily cope with
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Leicester railway station
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Leicester railway station, is a railway station serving the city of Leicester in Leicestershire, England. It was originally opened in 1840 by the Midland Counties Railway, today it is operated by East Midlands Trains, and it is on the main line from London St Pancras to Sheffield and Nottingham. The first station on the site opened on 5 May 1840 and it was originally known simply as Leicester, becoming Leicester Campbell Street on 1 June 1867, and Leicester London Road from 12 June 1892. This was replaced in 1894 by a new station, also called Leicester London Road, following the closure of Central on 5 May 1969, this station was renamed Leicester. Besides London Road and Central, the city of Leicester was served by Belgrave Road, Humberstone Road and West Bridge railway stations. Leicester was one of the first cities to be served by a railway, the Leicester and Swannington Railway was later absorbed by the Midland Railway. In total Leicester had seven railway stations, in addition to the current Leicester station three other main railway stations existed. The original station at West Bridge closed to passengers in 1928, Leicester Belgrave Road closed to passengers in 1962 and Leicester Central closed in May 1969. Up until this time the current Leicester station was known as Leicester London Road, at this halt passengers were allowed to leave the trains but not to board them. The station was designed by William Parsons in the Grecian Revival style and this was flanked by short single-storey wings. It was the headquarters of the Midland Counties Railway until that railway was amalgamated into the Midland Railway in 1844, upstairs were the company offices and boardroom, while downstairs was the booking hall, waiting and refreshment rooms. Further expansion was contemplated for some time, but it was not until 1890 that the go ahead was given for Campbell Street station to be replaced by the present Leicester railway station. All that remains of the first station is a pair of gateposts in an Egyptian style at the end of Station Street, the offices for Royal Mail now occupy some of the site of the old station buildings on Campbell Street. The Midland Railway completely rebuilt the station between 1892 and 1894 to a design by the architect Charles Trubshaw, the new booking office was opened by the mayor in June 1892 when it was renamed Leicester London Road. The station was completed in 1894, the frontage on London Road featured four entrance archways. Above each of the pair the word Departure was inscribed. These signs were to assist cab drivers when dropping passengers who intended to catch departing trains, the station clock is the only hand-wound station clock in the UK. A commemorative statue of Thomas Cook was placed on the pavement outside the present station in 1991 to mark the first excursions arranged by the travel agency magnate and it was sculpted by James Butler
21.
Peterborough East railway station
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Peterborough East was a railway station in Peterborough, England. It was opened on 2 June 1845 and closed to traffic on 6 June 1966. Located on Station Road just off Town Bridge, only the engine sheds, the station had services running west to Northampton and Rugby, as well as to the east to March, Wisbech, and Norwich. Opened on 2 June 1845, Peterborough East was the first station in Peterborough built by the Eastern Counties Railway, in 1862 the Eastern Counties Railway became part of the Great Eastern Railway and the station appeared on timetables as Peterborough. From 1 July 1923 until its closure it was known as Peterborough East, the buildings were constructed to the design of the architect John William Livock. Only two months after the opening, traffic was reported to be more than half the amount originally estimated. In December 1846 the enlargements were undertaken, refreshment rooms were added, ancres of roofing announced its royal agency, as was a goods warehouse. These additions were necessary as, from January 1847, with the opening of the Ely to Peterborough Line. Furthermore, the year the Midland Railway opened its Syston. This wagon line and two others at either end of the platform continued south into a large four-road covered way which was a feature of the station. The covered way did not have platforms and was used for the transfer of goods. In 1850 the Great Northern Railway opened its line from Peterborough to Bawtry which generated yet more traffic for Peterborough. Although the ECR declined the offer, it was willing to afford the GNR accommodation at the station and this was not taken up by the GNRs directors who, by December 1849, had decided to construct their own station in the city. In August 1850 the GNR opened its Peterborough North station, the railway company had nevertheless obtained parliamentary powers to build two short curves to connect its line at Fletton with the ECR line. However, these lines were never constructed. With the opening of the GNR station in August 1850, GNR trains ceased to use the ECR station. The decision to place the island platform between the Up and Down lines – so that the Up line was served by two platform sides – resulted in congestion due to platform occupation, over the years various improvements were carried out in an attempt to remedy this. In 1880, to cope with growing demand, the third class ladies waiting room
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Leamington Spa (Avenue) railway station
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Leamington Spa Avenue railway station was a station serving the Warwickshire town of Leamington Spa. It was opened on 9 December 1844 by the London and Birmingham Railway, the station was built alongside the GWRs station to provide a more convenient station in Leamington than the LNWRs station at Milverton. Leamington Spa Avenue provided passenger services towards Coventry, Rugby and Weedon via Daventry, the Coventry line was diverting into the former Great Western station and the branches towards Rugby lost their services. Little remains of the station today, the site of which is a car park
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Euston railway station
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Euston railway station is a central London railway terminus located on Euston Road in the London Borough of Camden. It is the terminus of the West Coast Main Line to Liverpool, Manchester, Edinburgh. The line is the busiest intercity passenger route in Britain and the gateway from London to the West Midlands, North West England, North Wales. The main line station is connected to Euston tube station and is near to Euston Square tube station on the London Underground and it is one of 19 stations in the country that are managed by Network Rail. Euston is the sixth-busiest station in Britain, virgin Trains provides high-speed intercity services, London Midland also operates local commuter and regional services as well as long-distance services. Euston is also the terminus of the suburban Watford DC Line operated by London Overground. It was the first intercity railway station to be built in London, as the terminus of the London, the original 1837 station was demolished and rebuilt in the 1960s. Euston is proposed to be the London terminus of the future High Speed 2 route and it is a short walk from Kings Cross, the southern terminus of the East Coast Main Line, and St Pancras for Midland Main Line and Eurostar services. These stations and Euston are all in Travelcard Zone 1, Euston was the first intercity railway station in London, opened on 20 July 1837 as the terminus of the London and Birmingham Railway. The building was demolished in the 1960s and replaced with the present building in the modern style. The site was chosen in the early 1830s by George and Robert Stephenson, the area was mostly farmland at the edge of the expanding city. The station was named after Euston Hall in Suffolk, the home of the Dukes of Grafton. Objections by local farmers meant that, when the Act authorising construction of the line was passed in 1833 and these objections were overcome, and in 1835 an Act authorised construction of the station, which then went ahead. It was designed by the classically trained architect Philip Hardwick with a 200 ft -long trainshed by structural engineer Charles Fox and it had two platforms, one for departures and one for arrivals. Also by Hardwick was a 72 ft -high Doric propylaeum, the largest ever built, erected at the entrance as a portico, the station grew rapidly as traffic increased. It was greatly expanded with the opening in 1849 of the Great Hall and it was 126 ft long,61 ft wide and 64 ft high, with a coffered ceiling and a sweeping double flight of stairs leading to offices at its northern end. Architectural sculptor John Thomas contributed eight allegorical statues representing the cities served by the line. The station stood on Drummond Street, further back from Euston Road than the front of the complex, Drummond Street now terminates at the side of the station
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