Portal:Trains/Selected article/Week 16, 2019

Cannon Street station, also known as London Cannon Street, is a central London railway terminus and connected London Underground station in the City of London managed by Network Rail. It is one of two London termini of the South Eastern main line, the other being Charing Cross, while the Underground station is on the Circle and District lines. The station runs services by Southeastern, mostly catering for commuters in southeast London and Kent, with occasional services further into the latter. The station was built on a site of the medieval steelyard, the trading base in England of the Hanseatic League. It was built by the South Eastern Railway in order to have a railway terminal in the City and compete with their rivals, the London, Chatham and Dover Railway. The station was initially a stop for continental services from Charing Cross, and that route was convenient for travel between the City and the West End, until the construction of the District Railway. It remained popular with commuters, though its off-peak services were discontinued in the early 20th century, leading to it being closed on Sundays for almost 100 years. As part of the Thameslink Programme development in the 2010s, it was re-opened on Sundays and began to offer more long-distance services in place of Charing Cross.