London train stations: which terminus goes where

London train stations are easiest to think of as a ring of termini, each pointing a different way out of the city. Paddington serves the west and South Wales, Euston the West Midlands, the North West and Glasgow, King's Cross the East Coast up to Edinburgh, St Pancras the East Midlands, Kent and Eurostar, Liverpool Street East Anglia, and Waterloo and Victoria the south. Get the direction right and you'll get the station right.

London's main line stations at a glance

The three-letter codes are the ones you can type into journey planners. There's more on those in our guide to UK station codes.

Which station for the north and Scotland?

This is the one that catches people out, because there are three options sitting almost side by side on the Euston Road.

King's Cross is the start of the East Coast Main Line. LNER runs from here to Leeds, York, Newcastle and Edinburgh, and other operators run to places such as Hull, Sunderland and Edinburgh as well. Great Northern trains go to Cambridge and Peterborough.

Euston is the West Coast Main Line. Avanti West Coast runs to Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool and Glasgow, and London Northwestern Railway covers Milton Keynes, Northampton and the West Midlands. The Caledonian Sleeper to Scotland leaves from here too, late in the evening.

St Pancras International handles East Midlands Railway to Leicester, Nottingham and Sheffield, plus Eurostar and the high-speed services into Kent. Thameslink runs from platforms underneath.

Which station for the west, Wales and the South West?

Paddington, mostly. Great Western Railway runs to Reading, Oxford, Bath, Bristol, Cardiff, Swansea, Exeter, Plymouth and Penzance. The Night Riviera sleeper to Cornwall goes from here, and so do Heathrow Express and the Elizabeth line towards Heathrow and Reading. If an overnight trip sounds fun, our guide to sleeper trains in Britain has the details.

Waterloo is the other way west. South Western Railway runs to Portsmouth, Southampton, Bournemouth and Weymouth, and a slower route to Exeter via Salisbury.

Which station for the south coast, Kent and the airports?

Victoria has the Gatwick Express and Southern trains to Gatwick and Brighton, plus Southeastern into Kent. London Bridge, Charing Cross and Cannon Street are mostly Kent and Sussex commuter stations, and London Bridge is also on Thameslink, which runs through the middle of London from Bedford and Luton to Gatwick and Brighton.

Liverpool Street serves East Anglia: Greater Anglia to Cambridge, Colchester, Ipswich and Norwich, plus the Stansted Express. Fenchurch Street, tucked away near Tower Hill, has c2c trains to Southend.

Marylebone is the quiet one. Chiltern Railways runs from there to Aylesbury, Oxford and Birmingham, and it's often a calmer start to a Birmingham trip than Euston.

How do you get between London stations?

The Tube will get you to all of them, but there are some handy shortcuts:

• King's Cross and St Pancras are across the road from each other, and Euston is a short walk west along the Euston Road.
• Thameslink links St Pancras, Farringdon, City Thameslink, Blackfriars and London Bridge without leaving the train.
• The Elizabeth line links Paddington and Liverpool Street directly, through Bond Street, Tottenham Court Road and Farringdon.

Give yourself more time than the map suggests. Big London stations take a while to walk through, and the platform for your train might only appear on the board shortly before it leaves. Euston is well known for that. Our guide on how to read a train departure board explains what to watch for.

Checking London departures from home

If you commute into London, the board at your end matters more than the one at the terminus. TrainTicker is an amber LED board that shows the next trains from any National Rail station, with live times from Darwin every 10 seconds. Set it to your home station and add the London terminus you travel to, and it only lists trains that call there. Handy if your station has trains to Waterloo and Victoria and you only ever want one of them.

You can try it with your own station in the free demo, or order the board for £199.99 with no subscription.