Railways that loop away from town then back in

[bradford758]

I think that should read "was" - AFAIK there is no passenger service between the two stations, and only Regional trains on either route from Vienna.

There appears to be an OOU line from Petržalka towards Bratislava but don't know if this links directly to the main station or not.

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[Gordon]

One that may come close is the line from Clermont Ferrand to Volvic, (formerly through to Ussel). Leaving CF, the line curves sharply around the south & west parts of the city, climbing all of the time.

As the crow flies, Volvic isn't that far from CF & you end up almost facing in the opposite direction of travel to that you started your journey.

Absolutely, used to stay in the area frequently when it was home to the X2800s (and pre-SNCF mechanical signalling) so know it well. The problem with Volvic station is it is nowhere near the town so it is almost as quick to drive.

Same problem for Le Mont Dore on the same line which is why passenger services have ceased - the rail route from Clermont is so circuitous it is quicker to drive there from Clermont despite the hilly territory.

Like Rendsburg and a few others, this line was on my mind when I posted but I discounted it as the looping isn't really that extensive IMHO, although Durtol could be construed as being closer to some suburbs of Clermont than the main station.


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[bradford758]

The Kraków to Oświęcim stopping service leaves in a westerly direction, but 7-10 years ago, one or two journeys headed east, then reversed, calling at a station within walking distance of where I was, before continuing on its journey via Skawina.
It doesn't currently operate, but did appear slightly faster than the normal route via Trzebinia.
Note, there appears to be an InterCity service along this route, reversing at Plaszow, but doesn't stop at the local (nearer in distance) stations.

 

[duesselmartin]

When I travelled the line in 2000 it was a EC to Vienna formed of two ÖBB Coaches .

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

There appears to be an OOU line from Petržalka towards Bratislava but don't know if this links directly to the main station or not.

The Schweers (Austria) atlas shows a full main-line connection from Petržalka to the main Slovak system north of the Danube.
It serves a route from Hegyshalom (HU) as well as Parndorf (AT).
Once across the river there are connections both east and west (into Hlavna).
However it's at SK/HU 25kV whereas the route to Parndorf and Vienna is at AT's 15kV.
The route to Vienna via Marchegg is now being electrified, and seems to be the preferred route these days.
Maybe through working across Bratislava will return once this is complete.

 

[Taunton]

Certain services from the Cork main line into Dublin have long branched off just before Heuston terminus (and within sight of it) on a lengthy run through Phoenix Park and then the inner north suburbs, turning right round to enter Connolly station. Time was when they continued to Dun Laoghaire ferry port. The manage to travel east, north, south and west while doing this.

I suppose the traditional Gotthard line which passes through the village of Wassen three times at various elevations, looping round outside, is an extreme example.

 

[Panceltic]

Not forgetting Ljubljana-Trieste, once the main line of the Austrian Südbahn.
That reaches within about 5km of Trieste city and Centrale station, but on top of the karst plateau high above the sea.
The line has to run 15km west to descend from the plateau, then come 15km back along the coast into Trieste.
Currently, Slovenian trains terminate at the Italian border station of Villa Opicina, where you can walk across the village to get Trieste tram #2 down the steep cliff (with rack section) to the city.
Entertaining, but not very passenger-friendly.

Indeed an amazing feat of Austrian railway engineering and a great shame that it is currently not possible to travel the whole length of this line.

Two more examples from Slovenia:

In Borovnica (http://www.openstreetmap.org/search?query=borovnica#map=13/45.9227/14.3739&layers=T), (also on the Ljubljana to Trieste "Südbahn") the line has to loop around the town because the magnificent viaduct (http://shrani.si/f/11/137/23HkvYCz/borovniski-most-ko-je-se.jpg) was destroyed during WW2. Only one pillar remains to this day (http://www.borovnica.si/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/JOC_03961.jpg). The original station was on the other side of the town.

Near Hrastovlje, on the Divača to Koper line, there is a perfect 360-degree-turn (http://www.openstreetmap.org/#map=13/45.5205/13.9152&layers=T) although the line is climbing very steeply at this point and the eastern part of the loop is actually high above the village. Higher still, immediately to the east on the Karst plateau, is another line (Prešnica to Pula, Croatia) so there are 3 alignments running parallel to each other within 500 metres as the crow flies.

 

[Groningen]

Muenchen is also such a station for trains going to Rosenheim. There seems to be plans to put such trains in the second tunnel under the citycenter from Muenchen Ost.

 

[endecotp]

Ronda, in Spain, has a great loop as you approach from the West; it doesn't actually enter and then leave the town but you do get a very good view of it before the route detours to the North to gain height.

http://www.openstreetmap.org/#map=14/36.7684/-5.1688

 

[EAD]

Slightly different to the original example in that there is not a loop out of town, but Feldkirch in Austria is interesting. https://goo.gl/maps/H7v41sTTStz

If you descend the Arlberg ramp and come into the main station, you are on the Eastern side of the town. If you take the route towards Buchs in Switzerland, the train heads NE, then branches off the main line to Rankweil/Bregenz and starts a tight 180 left hand curve round the northern part of town and a wood, with 2stations along the way.

It then is heading SSW and crosses the river and is directly "oposite" where the mainline came into the main station in Feldkirch after coming from the Arlberg/Bludenz. After Tisis it then crosses the border into Liechtenstein (but is Asutrian run).

 

[maniacmartin]

In Lincoln (UK), the line to Newark goes on a large arc around an industrial estate. I believe it is related to how things were connected together following the closure of St Marks station there.

 

[Taunton]

Lincolnshire is actually full of these big loops. The Newark line into Lincoln, the Lincoln line into Sleaford, the Sleaford line into Grantham, the line through Boston, and the big loop that the Skegness line makes, up to Firsby then back down south and finally north again. All these are due to various closures of other sections of through routes.

 

[dutchflyer]

Where (big) cities have end-stations/termini, this usually means that from some directions this would apply. Thats why in DE they have built so many of the cross-town tunnel S-Bahn links.
Cities which have that; Leipzig, Stuttgart, München, FRAnkfurt/M.
Also think of Milano, Firenze.
A bit more complicated in BUDapest: they now use Keleti as the main station for all IC-trains, which means that quite long detours around town are needed for some directions-trains from there could have (and did in the past and still do for locals all-stops) used an other station closer by (Nyugati, Deli).
Here in NL just a little-the approach into Rotterdam CS from the east (Gouda/Utrecht)-around the zoo and coming into CS from western-now side by side with the new ICD-HiSpeedlink. The old railway ended at Rotterdam Beurs-the old trackbed is later turned into a dedicated busway.

 

[duesselmartin]

The line from Ennis to Limerick seem to have a 180 degree turn before entering the terminus.

 

[topydre]

Many loops in a roughly spiral formation on the Snowdon Mountain Railway...
I'll get my coat...

 

[VillaverdeAlto]

The Barcelona to Valencia route probably falls into this category. Due to the two central stations in Valencia only being accessible from the south, the trains on this line travel a fair distance south of the city before heading back north into the terminals.

The time taken by this is probably not an issue if you are on a long-distance service but is a pain in the backside for those on the local services travelling in from the likes of Castellon.

 

[colchesterken]

Le Shuttle, comes out of the tunnel you think "great we are abroad" then it spends 10 mins going round in a circle, then faces the other way so the driving engine is always the same

 

[cactustwirly]

What about Munich? Towards the Ostbahnhof and Rosenheim.

The line initially heads west before looping back round and avoiding the city centr, to reach the east end of the city.

 

[kevconnor]

Would Killarney station in Ireland meet this description. From the Tralee direction it enters the town from the north before heading in a South East direction on a curve before the train joins the line on an east to west alignment facing westwards towards Mallow. The train then needs to reverse westwards back towards the town and into the station. On leaving Killarney it will then continue westwards towards Mallow. An overview map from Google maps is attached.

 

[fowler9]

Getting the Melbourne Metro in from Packenham the train heads in to Melbourne from the South East, goes around the city loop and enters Southern Cross station from the north.

 

[61653 HTAFC]

Many loops in a roughly spiral formation on the Snowdon Mountain Railway...
I'll get my coat...

Before the Hammersmith diversion, a clockwise Circle line train would depart Aldgate and travel westbound out of The City of London, looping back around to re-enter from the east/north.

I'll get my coat also!