Classic route
Chiltern Main Line
London Marylebone → Birmingham Snow Hill · England
The other main line from London to Birmingham: finished in 1910, when the Bicester cut-off shortened it by thirty kilometres and let the Great Western match its rival on two hours.
- Distance
- 179 km
- Fastest time
- 2 h 5 min
- Average speed
- 86 km/h
- Top speed
- 160 km/h

Stations
- 0 kmLondon Marylebone +1
- 45 kmHigh Wycombe
- 88 kmBicester North
- 111 kmBanbury
- 142 kmLeamington Spa +1
- 146 kmWarwick +1
- 148 kmWarwick Parkway
- 163 kmDorridge
- 168 kmSolihull
- 179 kmBirmingham Moor Street
- 180 kmBirmingham Snow Hill
The stations OpenStreetMap lists for this service, in order, with the distance along the line as drawn here. A train may skip some of them. A +N after a station: N other routes on this map stop or end there, and the map draws it as a station where lines meet.
How this line was checked
- Line drawn from OpenStreetMap relation 167209: the same nodes OpenStreetMap holds for this railway, thinned to within under 25 m of them
- Checked against OpenStreetMap: the whole line lies on real track, a median 6 m from it
- Checked against the running timetable via ÖBB Scotty: our line sits under 100 m from the shape of Chiltern Railways
- Wikipedia has an article for this line
Questions and answers
How long is the Chiltern Main Line?
The Chiltern Main Line runs 179 km from London Marylebone to Birmingham Snow Hill.
How long does the Chiltern Main Line take?
The fastest scheduled journey is 2 h 5 min for the 179 km. That is an average of 86 km/h end to end. The line's top service speed is 160 km/h.
Who runs the Chiltern Main Line?
Chiltern Railways, with Class 168 Clubman.
How old is the Chiltern Main Line?
The line has been in service since 1910. That is the year the atlas dates it from: for a modern brand running over an older railway, it is the railway's date, not the brand's.
More classic routes
- LNER Azuma
The Flying Scotsman’s route since 1862, and where Mallard set the never-beaten steam record of 203 km/h in 1938.
Wikipedia ↗ - Alfa Pendular
A tilting Pendolino leaning through the curves of the 19th-century Linha do Norte between Portugal’s two great cities.
Wikipedia ↗ - EIP Pendolino
Rides Poland’s 1970s Central Main Line (CMK), engineered decades ahead of its time and now being upgraded to 250 km/h.
Wikipedia ↗ - Railjet
Follows the old Orient Express alignment down the Danube plain: centre to centre faster than any flight.
Wikipedia ↗
More train routes in United Kingdom · England.
Planning this trip? Journey time & direct trains: Birmingham → London · London → Birmingham.