Commuter Route Names & Stations

[tim simpson-lee]

Evening All 

I am trying to build an authoritative dataset of railway line names together with stations served by each line. It is important that the route names are recognisable to the general public. 

I have collated what appear to be appropriate line names. Please tell me if there is a better or more recognised set of data.....

PDRL : Portsmouth Direct Line
RBLI : Reading-Basingstoke Line
RTLI : Reading-Taunton Line 

But I am struggling to find a machine readable source that provides the stations on each line. Noting that some stations will have multiple lines. 

Before I spend months building this manually (scraping Wikipedia) does anyone know whether the data already exists. 

I have access to NRDP/RDM but not NESA. 

Any pointers to specific feeds, open rail data resources, CIF-derived projects, Wikidata projects, or existing open-source datasets would be greatly appreciated. 

Thank you 

[Mike F (Hastings Line)]

Hi Tim

Is there an official source for Commuter Line Names?    I would be interested in mapping ELRs (engineer's line references) against those line names

In ELR terms, RDG / Reading to BSK / Baslngstoke is BKE / Basingstoke Branch

BSK / BasingStoke is also on the BML1 / Waterloo to Northampton Short Mile (Southampton) ELR

RDG / Reading also looks to lie on or near three other ELRs:

                           MLN1 / Paddington to North Road Junction (Plymouth)

                           RDG2 / Wokingham Junction to Reading

                           RLL / Reading Low Level goods line

I crunched the data by calculating the distance from all 2,635 stations to 285,000 map coordinates for 1,591 ELRs, so for any station I can look up (probably with 99% + accuracy) the adjacent lines (ELRs)

If you have an iPhone,,iPad or Mac, you can see this mapped out in an app: https://apps.apple.com/app/elrs/id6499340972

I'm happy to share that data if it's of any use to you

Cheers

Mike

[Ben Woodward]

I don't see how it can be "authoritative" if it also needs to be route names that are recognisable to the public.

You'll also find stations that are on multiple ELRs. 

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[tim simpson-lee]

Hi Mike 

Unfortunately, I have not found an 'official' naming protocol or list other than those listed on Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_railway_lines_in_Great_Britain

For my purposes the Wikipedia names would work, as they are recognisable by the general public, but other than scraping Wikipedia I have not found a data source that captures which lines service which stations or a way of collating the information.  

Thanks for your help 

http://www.railwaycodes.org.uk/elrs/elr0.shtm

[Ethan C]

Perhaps OpenStreetMap would be helpful, but I'm not sure.

[Peter Hicks]

Hi Tim

On Monday, 8 June 2026 at 21:17, tim simpson-lee <timsim...@hotmail.com> wrote:

I am trying to build an authoritative dataset of railway line names together with stations served by each line. It is important that the route names are recognisable to the general public.

I think this is going to be really easy in some cases, and difficult/contentious in others.  Services do not always run on neatly self-contained lines as they do on the Underground.  I think the industry prefers to talk in terms of 'services via', rather than specific line names.

What line would you place Harrow & Wealdstone on?  It has six tracks across two ELRs.  Two platforms (5 and 6) regularly see services stopping there, two (3 and 4) have fast services running through and two (1 and 2) have Bakerloo Line and Lioness Line services.

What about Watford Junction?  One platform on the St Albans Abbey line (self-contained, with one passenger service a week running Euston - St Albans Abbey), one bay platform, two fast lines with Avanti and LNR services, two slow lines with mostly LNR services, and four Overground (Lioness Line) platforms.

What about Rugby?  Southbound trains to Euston direct, Euston via Northampton, and northbound services to Birmingham and Wolverhampton, Glasgow Central, Manchester, Liverpool, Holyhead etc.

Peter

[Jeskynar]

I don't know how often the general public think in terms of "line names" - maybe tourists who want to travel the West Highlands line or the Central Wales line - but a moderately-interested commuter might want to know line names in order to find out which timetable to consult.

At this point it can be confusing, for example Scotrail has a classification/group called "East Coast and Fife" which isn't an obvious group in which to find Glasgow to Perth!

Inside the group it lists the lines "Edinburgh - Fife Perth Dundee" and "Glasgow Edinburgh - Dundee Aberdeen", but it's still not clear which to consult if you want Haymarket to Ladybank or even Edinburgh to Dundee.

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[Mike F (Hastings Line)]

That's a good point about "services" vs "lines".   From Charing Cross we would colloquially talk about taking the Hastings Line (more correctly the Hastings Service) when that's actually two segments, the Charing Cross to Dover line to Tonbridge, followed by the Tonbridge to Hastings Line(which is technically the Hastings Line)

See also "South Eastern Railway" by Adrian Gray ISBN 0 906520 85 1 for the history of these lines

I display a map of the Charing Cross to Hastings service in my Hastings Line app, by plotting the line to Hastings using ELR XTD between Charing Cross and Tonbridge station then ELR TTH down to Hastings

[Peter Hicks]

On Thursday, 11 June 2026 at 10:45, Jeskynar <jesk...@gmail.com> wrote:

I don't know how often the general public think in terms of "line names" - maybe tourists who want to travel the West Highlands line or the Central Wales line - but a moderately-interested commuter might want to know line names in order to find out which timetable to consult.

At this point it can be confusing, for example Scotrail has a classification/group called "East Coast and Fife" which isn't an obvious group in which to find Glasgow to Perth!

Inside the group it lists the lines "Edinburgh - Fife Perth Dundee" and "Glasgow Edinburgh - Dundee Aberdeen", but it's still not clear which to consult if you want Haymarket to Ladybank or even Edinburgh to Dundee.

Equally important - if you're not entirely sure where Haymarket or Ladybank stations are, knowing "Fife Circle Line" isn't going to be very useful.  And to add to that, "Glasgow to Edinburgh line" is pretty meaningless when there are three different routes between the two cities.

Peter

[Ian Sargent]

OpenStreetMap is not to be trusted. I had to make a couple of edits to it recently as it suggested that the line through Northampton was the Northampton-Bedford Railway, and that the "disused" line at the south end of the station was the Northampton-Market Harborough Railway.

[Evelyn Snow]

Another issue with ELRs that comes to mind - a passenger might well understand "Leeds to Bradford
Interchange", but the ELRs are prefixed LBE, "Leeds to Bradford Exchange", a reference to a
station which no longer exists.

Of course, virtually all services which use this line start and end beyond Bradford, and sometimes
beyond Leeds. When a passenger asks me where the train goes, a typical answer would be "Manc Vic
via Halifax".

Evelyn

[Ian Sargent]

Does this resource help?...

http://www.railwaycodes.org.uk/line/line_names.shtm

[Mike F (Hastings Line)]

It seems selective, for instance it doesn't include my own line through Tunbridge Wells, or the Dover main line that it joins into London

Mike

[Ian Sargent]

Well, it's an unofficial list that has been compiled from various other sources. Not every line has an official name.

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From: openrail...@googlegroups.com <openrail...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Mike F (Hastings Line) <mike....@gmail.com>
Sent: Monday, 15 June 2026 16:18:52
To: A gathering place for the Open Rail Data community <openrail...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: [openraildata-talk] Commuter Route Names & Stations

 

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[scfy12]

Morning,

Are we talking names given to routes that TOCs have named, (more marketing names) or something else?

Kind regards

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[tim simpson-lee]

Ian 

Thanks for sending the URL. 

The route names are useful, but what I now need is the stations on that route and or visa versa. 

I don't recognise the line name, but I could ignore those. 

Unfortunately, I also need all route names. 

I will provide additional information in a separate message. 

[tim simpson-lee]

Thank you to everyone who has provided a reply or additional information. 

Collating all the replies, suggests I am probably looking for something that doesn't exist in electronic form. 

To answer some questions or provide a better overview I am looking for route or line names, authoritative or not, that are recognisable by the general public. 

Taking my usual line for example. I know Farncombe, Godalming, Haslemere, Petersfield etc are all on the Portsmouth Direct line. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portsmouth_Direct_line

I also know that Guildford is on the Portsmouth Direct and North Downs Line. That's fine. 

If a station sits on multiple lines that is fine, in fact that is the exact issue I need to solve. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Downs_Line

Haslemere for example is only on one line. Haslemere can only be Haslemere on the Portsmouth line. 

However, if a passenger said I travel from Guildford. My question is - which line? 

What I am looking for is a data set telling me which stations are on which line. 

Hope that makes more sense. 

[Andrew Larcombe]

Hi,

It's possibly not the lack of data which is problematic, but that it requires context. A simple example is Staines which has just 2 platforms but is on three lines

London - Windsor & Eton Riverside

London - Reading via Richmond

London - various via the Hounslow loop

So it's a many-many relationship between station and "line" (for want of a more official term) but it's an external entity (the train service) which determines which "line" the station is on at any time.

Will watch with interest,

Andrew

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[Ian Sargent]

"It's possibly not the lack of data which is problematic, but that it requires context. A simple example is Staines which has just 2 platforms but is on three lines

London - Windsor & Eton Riverside

London - Reading via Richmond

London - various via the Hounslow loop"

All of which are known colloquially as "the Windsor lines", just to complicate things. 

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Sent: Tuesday, 16 June 2026 08:29:01
To: openrail...@googlegroups.com <openrail...@googlegroups.com>

Subject: Re: [openraildata-talk] Commuter Route Names & Stations

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[tim simpson-lee]

Andrew 

Thank you for your reply. 

Ironically you have answered the exact question I am looking to solve, regardless of platform numbers or what is determined by TOC's. 

You have told me that Staines is served by three lines, known as: 

• London - Windsor & Eton Riverside
  
• London - Reading via Richmond
  
• London - various via the Hounslow loop
  

It matters not so much that they are also known collectively (or colloquially) as 'the Windsor lines', but that each line is identifiable by its own name.

Now I need the same information, in electronic form, for every station in the UK.  

[Andrew Larcombe]

In that case I'd start by using the published schedules. Take each distinct set of stopping points and call this "scheduled services". For each station work out which "scheduled services" stop at that station and assign them each a name (local knowledge will be required there). The distinct set of those are your "lines" I think?

Regards,

Andrew

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