It's a well-ish known fact that the longest journey on the Underground is from West Ruislip to Epping. It's 34 miles (or 55km) long. But that's not entirely within Greater London, it exits the capital just beyond Woodford.
So I wondered... what's the longest train journey in London?
definition: the longest train/tube service starting and finishing in London and remaining within London at all times
I've measured the official length of several train journeys and I reckon the longest 10 journeys are as follows...
† Only one train a day makes this 34¾ mile journey, the 0525 from Gidea Park (Sundays excepted). All other Gidea Park services terminate at Paddington.
‡ Only a handful of trains before 7am make this journey. At other times Hainault trains go to Ealing Broadway and Epping trains follow the West Ruislip branch.
Alternatively, what if you define longest journey by time rather than distance?
n.b. timings are approximate, give or take a minute or two, because timetables vary.
n.b. Gidea Park - Heathrow Terminal 4 does not make this list, it takes 1h 17m.
So Cockfosters - Uxbridge is London's longest regular train journey. But if you ever wanted to make a video entitled 'I made London's longest train journey' you'd need to be at Gidea Park at 5.25am to catch the only through train to Heathrow Airport.
n.b. I may have overlooked something here, or mismeasured something, or mistimed something, so I invite the readership army of rail pedants to point this out.
