please empty your brain below

Paddington, however, only has one NLC. Bank and Monument, Edgware Roads, etc. have two.

To further complicate this, though, the Waterloo and City line stations had their own NLCs (probably no longer used but still in some datasets) and obviously the Crossrail stations will receive their own, too.
Before Trafalgar Square and Strand were 'merged' into Charing Cross, the current Embankment station was called Charing Cross, just to add to the confusion.
Whether used or not, there are two NLCs for Kings Cross and Southwark. Also separate NLCs for Waterloo JLD and Victoria District.

NLCs (0)826 and (0)827 may be a bit distressing for the Geezer and so are not recommended.
I can understand the W&C having its own NLC given its history, but not most of the others.

I wonder why they did it?
Look closely, the tube map *does* show Hammersmith as two separate stations. But sneakily only gives the pair one label.

Checking old tube maps, it seems that the H&C station has always gotten a blob to itself (rather than sharing the Piccadilly's one) even at times when the stations were joined by a connector.

Of course, line diagrams in trains and on platforms correctly depict it as an out of station interchange.
Brilliant post today, as always. I got all but one (Paddington) so I'm feeling pleased with myself.
You say that "Having twin stations on the tube map called Edgware Road isn't ideal". But they do that in places like Chicago, where stations with the same name on different lines can be quite far away from each other - the names are governed by the street grid. As far as I'm aware, the people there happily cope with this. I think it's fairer to say that "having twin stations on the tube map with the same name isn't traditional in London"...
I got your quiz on stations 100% right. That's because I am an anorak and an absolute expert on all things London transport and also I am superb!
NLC codes date back to separate ticket offices for accounting/banking purposes.
Wow, I can't believe I got all six correct. This has never happened to me before. Admittedly the last couple were more of a guess than actually knowing the answer but I'm still really chuffed with my score.
HS2 plans to link Euston Road station with the current Euston underground, with a new entrance on the south side of the Euston Road. Will this reduce the total by one or be treated like Bank/Monument?
Meanwhile there are two Canary Wharf stations -- Jubilee line and DLR -- and there will soon be a third, when the Elizabeth line (Crossrail) opens.
@Baldassaro "I think it's fairer to say that "having twin stations on the tube map with the same name isn't traditional in London"..."

I think I would say that is *is* traditional in London given that Edgware Road has been duplicated since 1907 and Hammersmith since 1874.
Will both sections of Paddington be connected via crossrail? I see no evidence of construction at the H&C side.

Thanks for the interesting post DG!
5 out of 6! Guessed the last two and got Hammersmith wrong!
@Kirk
There have also been two Shepherds Bushes until a few years back, and going back into history there were two Tottenham Court Roads (one now renamed Goodge Street), two South Kensingtons (now combined), and two Gloucester Roads (also now combined).
Personally, if it's a different station - it should have a different name.
*grumbles about the 3 very different Canary Wharf stations*
@Baldassaro The bloodiest confusing thing in Chicago's case is that the same name far away station thing can happen on the *same line* - if I see it correctly it's the Blue line, which gets in and then out of downtown Chicago like an interstellar comet.
I think DG should lead a fact-finding mission, with a select group of his readers, to Chicago and other selected metro areas to check best practice and make recommendations.
Really interesting post, thank you. Am familiar with the bank / Monument situation and the Kings X / St P, was n't so sure about the others. I also recall at Paddington, the exit from one of the tube lines brings you to the front of the station concourse and another line brings you up to an elevated walkway going across the main line platforms. Perhaps you or some other kind soul on here can remind which ones they are. Another "trick" one is go to Moorgate and you see substantial building work for Crossrail, but as I am sure you know and probably have blogged about somewhere, the actual station is Liverpool Street with an exit to Moorgate. Cheers anyway
Many moons ago I was part of the team that created all the data for LU's ticketing system so National Location Codes (NLCs) were a key bit of info. Needless to say I got your quiz right even all these years later.

IIRC some places have / had both LU and BR NLCs - Paddington being one, Farringdon and Barbican are others. Moorgate has three - one for LU, one for Great Northern and one for the former Thameslink route. This is despite them all being notionally LU stations with all services accessible from the LU gateline. Looks like the former Thameslink (Midland) NLCs have been cancelled for Barbican and Moorgate reflecting the withdrawal of the train service.

I expect that Crossrail will generate its own NLCs, in the National Rail sequence, for its stations. This will mean Paddington may end up with 3 or 4 NLCs and Bond St, TCR, Custom House and Woolwich will get new NLCs. Interesting to see what happens at Whitechapel in terms of NLCs.
Being a bit of a geek, I'm a fan of the Jetpunk quiz site. One of the quizzes I regularly attempt asks you to, "Name all 267 underground stations served by the London Underground" in 20 minutes.

I must have had a bit of brain fade just now as I only managed 192 in the time allowed, 21 short of my best.
"...Perhaps you or some other kind soul on here can remind which ones they are."

H&C and Circle trains to and from Hammersmith use the original "Bishops Road" platforms alongside the main line station, from which the rest of the station can be reached by the walkway you mention. District and Circle trains to and from High St Kensington use the "Praed Street" platforms which are connected to the main concourse (known as the "Lawn", because the GWR always had to be different). The Bakerloo platforms are more-or-less underneath the Bishops Road platforms but have barrier-free interchange with the Praed Street station.
Nailed it !! Got all six correct. Not too bad for a 'furriner'.
Thanks @timbo again!
The New York subway has a ridiculous number of stations with the same name. And a ridiculous number of multi-station complexes

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_City_Subway_stations?wprov=sfla1
On most of the metro systems in the former USSR, in many cases, stations served by more than one line have a different name for each pair of platforms. Which would seem to add needlessly to the confusion.
All the things that DG talked about (raising the question of how many "stations" they contained) were sets of nearby blobs and ticks on the tube map, linked either with lines and/or by sharing a name label. What you might call map-apparent stations.

The discussion has widened to touch on cases where the same NAME has been used for undeniably different stations, either at the same time, or in different epochs. (Such as Strand, Tottenham Court Road, or the Chicago and New York examples. Typically named after the same piece of geography, but consider also Belmont if you must (though neither of those is on the tube) or Gillingham.

Regardless of all that, a fascinating post and some interesting comments.
I recently argued (and I think won) for some marketing guff to refer to "over 700" locations accepting pay as you go rather than a precise number that would have given the pedants a field day. Even saying "about nnn" wouldn't have worked as then there would have been accusations that TfL didn't have the system properly under control if it couldn't give an exact number (which of course it couldn't in any meaningful sense as discussed).

(and Paul - Custom House nearly got back its original NLC but some other location nicked it when we weren't looking. The central core of Crossrail shouldn't need NR NLCs if the stations only have LU ticket machines, as at Bond St, TCR and Whitechapel)
@Dominic H - New York is usually the same, depending on the station name and layout. This is due to stations being typically named by cross street and lines usually following the streets, eg you can't easily have 3 "14 St" in a row on the L so it is 8 Av, 6 Av and Union Sq with those three stops being 14 St, 14 St and 14 St-Union Sq on the intersecting lines.
New York also takes a contrary approach to London with naming stations: in New York every station must be named after a street, with only termini and a handful of other important stations additionally getting the name of the area; in London the policy in recent times has been to try and avoid naming stations after streets as much as possible because street names are too local in character.
A station named after a street is very specific if the railway runs at right angles to the street, and completely non-specific if the railway runs along the line of that street. Early tube lines were independent entities rather than a network, so could use the New York model, but when adjacent stations became combined as interchanges it ceased to be a good idea. (Tottenham Court Road and Holborn are two modern examples: each works for one line but not the other).
There is no evidence on the official Crossrail website of the new station linking up to the H&C Paddington station, only to the street, mainline, and a new corridor to take you to the Bakerloo line area.
So the tube challenge practically only has 268 stations then.
Got all six correct.
Anonymous

No, as Guinness state clearly (I believe) that Paddington H&C must be visited as well as the main bit,so you can't run between Royal Oak and Warwick Avenue to miss Paddington H&C out if you want the challenge to count!
@ R Ayres - Whitechapel I can understand as it's one entrance to the combined station but LU ticket machines are going into the Crossrail built new ticket halls at Bond St and TCR? Interesting.

@ Timbo 1407 - correct about Paddington Crossrail. I believe a planned interchange link to the C&D platforms (Praed St) was descoped from Crossrail a number of years ago.
I heard that on the Metro system of the former USSR, all of the stations are called Vauxhall.
Al:
Let me rephrase that: so the tube challenge has only 268 distinct station names to visit.

Uncle Audrey:
"Voksal". I remember reading that some Russian engineers visited the area to see the L&SWR and mistook the name of the station for the generic word for "station"!
Several mentions of New York, but what about Barcelona ? They have some ridiculous connections which are supposedly interchanges.
Uncle Audrey/Anon: as I understand it, the first Russian station was built on the site of pleasure gardens modelled on and named after those at Vauxhall, and that became the Russian word for a railway station.

But I think the word for a metro station is stantsiya (remembering Russian lessons from 50 years ago...)










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