Highest covered in a day

spyinthesky · 30 Nov 2022

I am trying to find what the highest mileage that can be covered in a calendar day. 00:00 to 23:59
This has to be different lines although any reversals or return over part of a route doesn’t count.
Restrictions on tickets/rovers etc can be ignored although quite achievable if heading north on the sleeper from Watford Junction at 00:12.
I did get an inaccurate figure of 1,207 albeit with a dodgy connection, otherwise I have managed 1,127 if everything would run to time.
Whilst I will not yet divulge my itinerary yet, has anyone achieved such a feat? Or what is the highest you have achieved?

RailUK Forums

bangor-toad · 30 Nov 2022

I'm not going to claim this is the most possible but here's a suggestion for 1,330 miles. This doesn't cover the same track twice and I think doesn't have any dodgy connections. All the data was taken from the National Rail timetable rather than whatever reduced timetables are currently in operation.

Paignton	Paddington	00:01	05:04		202
Euston	Glasgow Central	05:31	10:37		401.25
Glasgow Queen St.	Edinburgh	11:15	12:07		47.25
Edinburgh	Kings Cross	12:30	16:48		393
St Pancras	Ashford	17:07	17:44		56
Ashford	London Victoria	17:55	19:36		59.25
London Victoria	Clapham Junction	19:45	19:51		2.75
Clapham Junction	Basingstoke	20:12	20:47		43.75
Basingstoke	Reading	21:01	21:28		15.5
Reading	Cardiff	22:13	23:47		109.25

			Totals Miles:	1330

I really should get back to work...
Cheers,
Mr Toad

Kite159 · 30 Nov 2022

27 minutes from Paddington to Euston will be very tight, especially that time of the morning.

spyinthesky · 1 Dec 2022

bangor-toad said:
I'm not going to claim this is the most possible but here's a suggestion for 1,330 miles. This doesn't cover the same track twice and I think doesn't have any dodgy connections. All the data was taken from the National Rail timetable rather than whatever reduced timetables are currently in operation.

Paignton Paddington
00:01
05:04
202
Euston Glasgow Central
05:31
10:37
401.25
Glasgow Queen St. Edinburgh
11:15
12:07
47.25
Edinburgh Kings Cross
12:30
16:48
393
St Pancras Ashford
17:07
17:44
56
Ashford London Victoria
17:55
19:36
59.25
London Victoria Clapham Junction
19:45
19:51
2.75
Clapham Junction Basingstoke
20:12
20:47
43.75
Basingstoke Reading
21:01
21:28
15.5
Reading Cardiff
22:13
23:47
109.25
Totals Miles:
1330

I really should get back to work...
Cheers,
Mr Toad

Some good mileage but one of them tight ones especially arriving at P1 at Paddington and getting on Hammersmith & City line to Euston Square with the doors closing 2 minutes before departure.
Edit:
Maybe a better chance of catching the 05:45 from the Cross doing the Scottish leg the other way round gets you back into Euston at 16:12 doing then the same route but earlier as far as Clapham Jn then into Waterloo and last onto Exeter. There still would be an hour to play with around Clapham

wilbers · 1 Dec 2022

Can you squish in a trip from Glasgow Queen Street to High Street and back (1057->1059, and 1103->1105 back again)? Similarly at Reading is there a short out and back that can be done on a line not already covered?

spyinthesky · 1 Dec 2022

Might lose some mileage on the Reading to Cardiff as the sleeper invariably covers Swindon- Reading

Kite159 · 1 Dec 2022

spyinthesky said:
Might lose some mileage on the Reading to Cardiff as the sleeper invariably covers Swindon- Reading

Depends if it goes via Swindon or via Newbury.

spyinthesky · 1 Dec 2022

Kite159 said:
Depends if it goes via Swindon or via Newbury.

I did say might, and not having checked yet there has to be more mileage with the Waterloo-Exeter plus an extra 90 minutes around London or catching earlier Exeter and extending towards Plymouth.

spyinthesky · 3 Dec 2022