On Fri, 12 Jan 2007 01:12:55 GMT, wrote:

The new Peter O'Toole film, 'Venus',
has a scene that suggests he takes
a red, presumably London, tube to
a coastal beach.

Is this possible today? On which
'red electric train' to use John
Betjeman's term, to which beach?

There used to be some District services which ran through to Southend
(between 1910 and 1939). I have no idea what colour the trains were,
though, and they would have been steam-hauled surface stock rather
than electric "tube" trains.