on the railways what is meant by 'up' and 'down' lines?

Answer 1

Everybody has missed the important point here. Yes, most companies denoted Up as towards London. But not all. In fact the direction was towards the railway's headquarters - which was not necessarily London. Marylebone, for example, used to be approached in the *Down* direction as the line was started in the north and much later reached London (this has since been reversed).

Also missed is the point that not all the railways head towards London.

So in essence, the Up direction is towards the headquarters or some other major designtation, such as a city of importance. It is NOT London "just because", but is generally because London falls into one of the above categories.

Answer 2

when most of the railways in Britain were being built during the Victorian era provincial companies like the Lancashire and Yorkshire railway had running powers to gain access to other companies lines.So the L&YR ran trains to London and the "up" direction was to London and the "down" direction was from London.
Most local companies had this arrangement and it was generally agreed that even though they did'nt own their own line all the way to the capital,the direction to London on the last railway comp they used would indicate their "up" line.

This lead to some oddities..
Manchester victoria station had "up" lines leading in more than one direction as the LNWR comp trains left to the west and the LYR trains left to the east on the way to the capital.

Answer 3

in the UK all our trains on main line services run on up and down lines IE we always have dual track whereas in the U.S. i know you have a lot of single track lines on long distance routes over here only very small mostly privately run old fashioned railways run for either very small communites or just for the history of it well some only have a single track or in other words one line not an up and down line i have looked at some of the other questions people have answered but i am thinking this is maybe what you mean also in the UK you are going up it traveling from the south and down if traveling from the north has nothing to do with London in particular the UK is a small country that it long and narrow and mainly runs from N to S IE Scotland at the top and Kent and London at the bottom

Answer 4

The up line is in the case of Brighton to London, the line that leaves Brighton and heads up to London, while the down line is from London to Brighton.
Mind if you catch a train from Brighton to Hastings you would be on the Down line & vice versa, if traveling from Hasting to Brighton you would be on the up line.
Its that same if you are traveling on a train from Aberystwyth to Shrewsbury & Telford, then you would be traveling on the 'Up' line'
Its to do with when the railway were set up & the saying that you are going up to town.

Answer 5

the "up-line" is the line that runs into London, the "down-line" runs away. The confusing part comes when the "down-line" becomes the "up-line" at somewhere like Stourbridge Junction because you have technically turned a corner and are now heading back into London.

Answer 6

I agree with 'up' to London and 'down' away - whether it is north south east or west. Sair is quite wrong in suggesting all lines in the UK are double track. Clearly that person has never been to Scotland or the West Country. There are single tracks in the south-east as well - Watford to St Albans is one. In these cases it is the train, rather than the line, which is 'up' and 'down'

Answer 7

'Up' principally means towards London (or other principal city) and 'Down' away from. This is less confusing than 'southbound', 'northbound' etc. because trains travelling in a general direction may take all sorts of detours.

On a branch line 'Up' means towards the junction with the main line and 'Down' means towards the other end.

Answer 8

I was always taught that going in London direction was "up" and heading away from London was the "down" line.

Answer 9

Up to London, down is the opposite direction.

Answer 10

Down for headed away from main station, Up For return to main station