Talk:Clapham Junction railway station

Busiest

'It is possible that measured in numbers of trains, it may be the busiest railway station in the world.' - it would be good to have some more clarification on this. It's possible that pigs may fly, but it would be nice to have some concrete evidence :) Can anyone provide some? Andrewferrier 17:56, 2004 Dec 21 (UTC)

There are plenty of websites claiming that Clapham Junction is Europe's business railway station. For example [1] but I can't find any data to back that up. --Etimbo 00:36, 2 Jan 2005 (UTC)

The figure of 2,000 trains passing through each day looks correct. Since nearly all pass through between 6 am and midnight it works out as a train every 30 seconds. Obviously, the question is, what station can beat that? None in the UK obviously. The obvious candidate is Shinjuku Station in Japan which is undoubtedly the winner in terms of passengers dealt with per day (2 million) - but not necessarily in number of trains passing through.

Exile 18:59, 7 October 2005 (UTC)

I think that Shinjuku Station has far more than 2000 train movements per day. A quick count of the number of trains on the Chuo and Yamanote lines gives a total of 1400 train movements, and that is only for 2 of the 4 train lines from 1 of the 6 companies that operate trains from that station. I think JR alone could beat the 2000. The Odakyu, Keio and Sobu train lines are each easily as busy as Chuo, which would make it at least 3200 train movements. An example of the Yamanote timetable in one direction: http://www.jreast-timetable.jp/0605/timetable/tt0866/0866100.html Mattopia 00:09, 31 May 2006 (UTC)

As I understand it, Clapham Junction is only the name of the station, not of any particular junction in that locality. The names of the junctions I can find are:

• Falcon Jn (at the south end of the station where the WLL joins the Brighton Slow Lines)
• Ludgate GW Jn (at the eastern end of the Windsor Line platforms with the WLL and the LCD)
• Latchmere Jns (where the three curves join the WLL)
• West London Jn (the junction that Eurostar empty stock leave the Windsor Lines at to get onto the WLL)
• Pouparts Jn (where the low level and high level approaches to Victoria split)

82.36.26.229 01:27, 26 Mar 2005 (UTC)

I thought Clapham Junction claimed to be the busiest Junction station in Europe, not the busiest station. There is a slight difference Simply south 10:24, 28 May 2006 (UTC)

As long as I can remember thae claim has been that it is the busiest station. However it can probably lay claim to being the busiest junction in the world as most other contenders for busiest station are terminuses. Jooler 12:15, 28 May 2006 (UTC)

Still in discussion. This may still be able to claim the busiest junction in the UK as according to the Office of Rail Regulation station Usage 2004-05, Clapham Junction was the busiest station in terms of number of people interchanging. This figure came to 8,682,661 interchanges. Simply south 02:12, 31 December 2006 (UTC)

The 2005-6 figure was 9,453,333 interchanges. Assuming these were mainly between 6am and midnight, this is 1,800 transfers per hour or one every 2 seconds.

Exile 14:44, 1 July 2007 (UTC)

Reopening the debate - according to bahn.hafas.de 140 trains stop here every hour during most of the day, and 120 per hour in the evening. So - 140 per hour 6am to 6pm (1,700), 120 per hour 6pm to midnight (700) plus about 100 midnight to 6am - 2,500 train movements per day, not including those which pass without stopping.

I certainly would claim this is a record for Europe, for a "surface rail" station, and indeed for anywhere outside Japan. India has some very busy stations but has very long trains packed to capacity (and more). Caveat - Zurich Hbf appears to have up to 100 departures per hour. Do we count 2 for each ie is an arrival and a departure a separate train movement?

However subway/metro stations with several lines meeting might beat this - for instance Kings Cross/St Pancras has a train every 2-3 minutes in each direction on these lines

1. Circle/Hammersmith and City/Metropolitan 2. Northern 3. Piccadilly 4. Victoria.

which would be 280 trains per hour. If Kings Cross/St Pancras is regarded as a single interchange including the main termini plus the Thameslink station this would rise to around 350 per hour... Chatelet/Les Halles in Paris has 3 RER lines and 6 metro lines - which would suggest about 400 trains per hour.

Exile 14:44, 1 July 2007 (UTC)

Zürich Hauptbahnhof has according to many internet references more than 2900 trains per day. That seems significantly more than any estimate for Clapham 86.26.2.200 (talk) 22:40, 24 May 2010 (UTC)

Gatwick Express at Clapham Junction

Does the Gatwick Express now stop at Clapham Junction? If so, is there now a part of Clapham Junction for passport checks?

No & no. --Tagishsimon (talk)

You don't have to go through passport checks to use the Gatwick Express anyways... It's only a train. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 77.100.85.130 (talk) 23:50, 8 March 2014 (UTC)

Access improvements to CLJ

Network Rail has recently announced a major package of improvements to access at Clapham Junction, including re-opening the Brighton Yard entrance on St Johns Hill and installing lifts to the platforms by 2009. See [2] at page 20. Dmccormac 21:13, 11 April 2007 (UTC)

That's good news. I saw some simple but well done handrail improvements at Weybridge station this morning. Nice when a railway station is better than it was when last you used it. --Tagishsimon (talk)

via Gatwick Airport ?

The list of train services (which is probably unnecessary for an encyclopedia) says that trains from Clapham to Southampton (among other places) go via Gatwick Airport. I'm sure I'd have noticed if my train home went to Gatwick. In reality I think the Southampton train is the right one if you wanted to go to Gatwick Airport, but to actually get there you need to change, maybe at Basingstoke? So the train certainly doesn't go _via_ Gatwick Airport. 82.68.41.201 22:03, 27 May 2007 (UTC)

It's not just South West Trains that go from London to Southampton. Some Southern trains go from Victoria to Southampton via Gatwick Airport - the 08:17 Mondays-Fridays, for example. [3]. As for the list of train services, yes, it is perhaps excessive. If you're willing to come up with a way of demonstrating the wide variety of services without the long list, it would be useful. Cheers, A bit iffy 07:04, 28 May 2007 (UTC)

There's 1tph all day every day from Victoria to Southampton via Gatwick Airport. Has been since they were diverted from Sutton in the late 80's. You just haven't noticed them.

Blue, fetching? I prefer green.

The end of the history section states the follwonig abuot the Arding & Hobbs store "The cupola is now illuminated at night in a rather fetching shade of blue." Surely stating a colour as being fetching or attractive is a personal preference and has no place in the article? Deckchair 11:48, 28 June 2007 (UTC)

It's clearly POV and should be removed. --Tagishsimon (talk)

naming issue

It is myth that the station was named Clapham Junction as Clapham was more desirable, it is the sort of thing townies say in Clapham.

Clapham Junction was the name of the railway junction, ie, the railways have names for the junctions and it is this point that the route to Clapham is junctioned off. It's like, the Wandsworth Road is not in Wandsworth, it is the road to Wandsworth.

They didn't have to name it Clapham Junction, even though that makes sense, but they couldn't call it Battersea Junction as there already was one. When it came to building a station, well, there where already 3 stations called Battersea, so, that would be a little confusing, and back then there was only Clapham High St, or not even, not sure. So. 84.13.161.96 (talk) 02:13, 10 December 2009 (UTC)

One problem with your assertion is that none of the railway junctions around Clapham Junction are called Clapham Junction - see Clapham_Junction_railway_station#The_junction and the 1914 map of junctions provided. If I recall correctly, the naming story is asserted in a History of Battersea book in my possession, but not to hand right now. Other problems with your account: CJ station was opened a few years before Battersea Park station and before Queenstown Road (Battersea). CJ and Battersea Railway Station were opened in the same year. And whereas now, CJ is pretty much the centre of Battersea, 150 years ago it was not, and the High Street and village were. Municipal buildings congragated around CJ because of the station. So it is reasonablee that the Battersea name was given to the High Street railway station.

And, of course, the junction between the east-west lines going through CJ, and the north-south line going through Clapham is about a mile east of CJ. Way back, Ludgate Junction was the point at which eastbound trains could be pointed in the direction of Clapham. So there's again no good fit with your theory.

In fact, on pretty much all points you seem to be wrong, talking out of your hat, and generally in error.

Given all of that, I am interested to know why it is you think it is a myth, and/or what sources you have to back up your assertions. --Tagishsimon (talk) 02:45, 10 December 2009 (UTC)

Just to reopen a closed issue with some unverified information... I heard that it was called Clapham Junction after a stop on the coach route mentioned in the article e.g. that the fact it is called Junction is not because of the trainline. I will try to find something to back this up. 82.23.150.147 (talk) 10:09, 3 August 2011 (UTC)

Images

I have uploaded and added four more images, and have also taken the liberty of changing the 'main' image in the infobox to one of the south western entrance, on the grounds that (1) it's more illustrative of the Victorian architecture that still makes up the majority of the station than the modern northern exit, and (2) the southern exits are far more heavily used and therefore probably the 'main' part of the station (the previous northern exit photo's now in the Gallery). Not sure where the Gallery best sits in the flow of the article - I have added it after the explanation that there are multiple exits, but it may sit better at the very end. The article could possibly do with an aerial photo of the station, given that the sheer concentration of lines is one of the station's most distinguishing features, if anyone is aware of one that can be suitably sourced.Curran2 (talk) 14:17, 27 May 2011 (UTC)

See WP:Galleries. Galleries are normally placed towards the end, but before the appendix sections such as References. However, since these images are all in commons:Category:Clapham Junction railway station, a {{commons category}} template is usually preferred to a gallery; and the article already has one. --Redrose64 (talk) 19:01, 27 May 2011 (UTC)