Trivia: shortest train journey crossing a national border (both within the UK and abroad)?

[styles]

Inspired by curiosity over whether 15 year-olds will take the train from Chester to Shotton to stock up on energy drinks when they're banned in England for <16s from April next year, I wonder if there are any shorter crossing journeys?

 

[Magdalia]

At the Mediterranean end of the Pyrenees, Cerbere (France) and Port Bou (Spain) are about 1 mile/2km apart.

 

[EYFanatic]

Inspired by curiosity over whether 15 year-olds will take the train from Chester to Shotton to stock up on energy drinks when they're banned in England for <16s from April next year, I wonder if there are any shorter crossing journeys?

Ah, time to activate my super powers of railway geekery

Yes, there is a shorter crossing - Vatican City Station, Vatican City State to Roma San Pietro station, Italy is only 1 mile in distance

Edit: That fulfils the international side unless one counts Dandong, China to Sinuiju Cheongnyeon, North Korea which is just 0.93 miles from platform end to platform end though no service trains currently pass

 

[pokemonsuper9]

Neston-Hawarden Bridge is 5 miles compared to Chester-Shotton at 6.6 (both counted in a straight line but the track distance won't be too much different).
Maybe the Heart of Wales might offer a short cross-border hop?

 

[Djgr]

Nestin-Hawarden Bridge is 5 miles compared to Chester-Shotton at 6.6 (both counted in a straight line but the track distance won't be too much different).
Maybe the Heart of Wales might offer a short cross-border hop?

Knucklas to Knighton looks about 3 miles.

 

[styles]

Neston-Hawarden Bridge is 5 miles compared to Chester-Shotton at 6.6 (both counted in a straight line but the track distance won't be too much different).
Maybe the Heart of Wales might offer a short cross-border hop?

Chirk to Gobowen is 3mi4ch. That seems to be a contender.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 29 Jul 2026 ==

Knucklas to Knighton looks about 3 miles.

2mi46ch, nice.

 

[Djgr]

Inspired by curiosity over whether 15 year-olds will take the train from Chester to Shotton to stock up on energy drinks when they're banned in England for <16s from April next year, I wonder if there are any shorter crossing journeys?

Of course, some de facto suburbs of Chester are in Wales, including, famously, half of Chester FC's stadium.

Relevant for energy drink runs, although I hope Wales follows shortly.

 

[Durradan]

Knucklas to Knighton looks about 3 miles.

That one is doubly fun as both of them are in Wales but Knighton station is just on the English side of the border.

 

[The exile]

The station at Bayrisch Eisenstein / Zelezna Ruda Alzbetin has the D/CZ border running through the middle of it. - though I doubt it has ever been possible to catch a train from one end to the other .
Ahlbeck Grenze (D) - Swinoujscie Centrum (PL) is approximately 1 mile. It is impossible to make a domestic train journey from the latter.

 

[SuspectUsual]

Niagara Falls ON to Niagara Falls NY is about 570 metres / 0.35 miles between platform ends (and most of the intervening bit is a viaduct over the Niagara River)

 

[D6130]

Tourcoing (F) to Mouscron (B): 5 km/3.1 miles. My wife and I walked it once.... although it's a shorter distance by the almost straight road, as the railway makes a big curve around the edge of the two joined-together towns.

 

[Paul AC]

What is claimed to be the shortest international railway in the world is the 105 metre (some sources quote 100 metre) "Pošumavská Jižní Dráha" ("Böhmerwald Südbahn"), located at the border between Czech Republic (Nové Údolí) and Germany (Haidmühle). I visited it in October 2003 but there are reports of it still operating. Motive power is human. Part of the line is on the alignment of the closed railway route between Nové Údolí and Haidmühle.

My photo attached.

 

[The exile]

A journey between Basel Badischer Bahnhof and Saint Louis station requires the crow to fly 2.85 miles. Take a train between them and it’s about 7 (so a bit much for this). However it involves 2 international frontiers and 3 stations in 3 different countries. Although Basel Bad Bf is “in” Switzerland it is a German territorial exclave, so I don’t think that’s cheating.

 

[mmh]

Inspired by curiosity over whether 15 year-olds will take the train from Chester to Shotton to stock up on energy drinks when they're banned in England for <16s from April next year, I wonder if there are any shorter crossing journeys?

You wouldn't bother going all the way to Shotton, you'd just go to Saltney, the bit of Chester that's in Wales.

 

[styles]

What is claimed to be the shortest international railway in the world is the 105 metre (some sources quote 100 metre) "Pošumavská Jižní Dráha" ("Böhmerwald Südbahn"), located at the border between Czech Republic (Nové Údolí) and Germany (Haidmühle). I visited it in October 2003 but there are reports of it still operating. Motive power is human. Part of the line is on the alignment of the closed railway route between Nové Údolí and Haidmühle.

My photo attached.

Well, their website is certainly... interesting.

This project is not funded by any EU fund. We do not need any unions from the modern prison of nations to cooperate with our neighbors. We're friends with them even without the madmen of Brussels.

In the premises of the Pošumava Southern Railway, legally held weapons are welcome as an expression of the democratic right of a free citizen. Just don't have a bullet in the chamber...
Thank you to all those who signed the petition for the constitutional right of the citizens of the Czech Republic to keep a gun.

In the summer season and occasionally at other times, you can take a ride on our line with a replica of a washing locomotive called, with exaggeration, "Gigant", which was made by Zdeněk Liberda from Kubova Huta. Children will receive a commemorative ticket and ladies will receive a stamp on their buttocks.

The museum is dismantled. Work on the new exhibition has been halted, as we had to spend the money we had prepared on sudden expenses caused by something like force majeure

Bad boys
Pub available for guests

Manual slavery in preparation for and during the season
Suitable for human type: Young, strong, skilled, all-rounder

The sad reality of recent years forces us to behave discriminatoryly and prefer couples in the composition of lady + lady, lady + lady, lady + gentleman, lady + bachelor. As you have surely noticed, the pair male + male is missing from the list. This is because in this composition there are constantly recurring problems with maintaining the cleanliness of the premises and themselves. Or. their own dignity and rules of decent behavior. Simply put. The guys were brothels, often drank heavily and as a bonus, some were arrogant. The female element in the couple eliminates these dangers quite significantly. If such a perfect male couple is found that will not have the aforementioned problems - OK, we will try it, but I do not believe in miracles.

We don't want any sycophancy, pandering to foreigners, or, conversely, arrogance.
Nothing against Gender Studies students, but here you will encounter reality. So think about it so we don't bother each other.

 

[The exile]

Well, their website is certainly... interesting.

And the nearby restaurant offers, amongst other things, a choice between pork schnitzel and child schnitzel…. (That’s in the German translation!)

 

[styles]

And the nearby restaurant offers, amongst other things, a choice between pork schnitzel and child schnitzel…. (That’s in the German translation!)

Sounds like it would pair perfectly with their drinks offering:

Disclaimer: The text above does not explicitly state that the water from the well is drinkable. Take that as you will – in our legal jungle, only a lunatic would allow such information. I repeat, the well is in a rock, 32 m deep, in the Šumava National Park. If you are worried, we will be happy to sell you bottled water, nicely stored in a PET bottle somewhere in the sun on a ramp, but with a certificate on the label.

In recent years, however, the well has regularly dried up in the summer. Therefore, we put a tap on the pipe by the stone so that it does not drain unnecessarily. If the water disappeared, then there was a problem and we brought water to the pub in PET bottles and it was available for a voluntary price. In 2020 and onwards, however, there was enough water and it flowed almost all summer. So far, it is also leaking in the winter. The water flows by gravity from two wells where sheep graze and whose lids have fallen off. Every year, I used a compressor to blow some debris (frog remains, etc.) from the supply hose. So it is not exactly the cleanest, but after boiling it is probably drinkable. As far as we know, no one has died from it yet.

 

[AlterEgo]

Irun (Ficoba) in Spain to Hendaye in France on Euskotren appears to be about 360 metres.

 

[The exile]

You wouldn't bother going all the way to Shotton, you'd just go to Saltney, the bit of Chester that's in Wales.

If Streetview is to be believed, there’s an empty shop on Saltney High Street about 100 yds across the border just crying out to become an Energy Drink emporium!

 

[styles]

You wouldn't bother going all the way to Shotton, you'd just go to Saltney, the bit of Chester that's in Wales.

Yeah but you'd have to ride one of those bus things since Saltney railway station closed. Ew

 

[Djgr]

You wouldn't bother going all the way to Shotton, you'd just go to Saltney, the bit of Chester that's in Wales.

But not by train in 2026!

 

[Mcr Warrior]

On the West Coast, Carlisle (England) to Gretna Green (Scotland) is about nine and three-quarter miles (= 9 miles 58 chains).

On the East Coast, Berwick upon Tweed (England) to Reston (Scotland) is a tad under eleven miles (= 10 miles 77 chains).

So, neither Anglo-Scottish "cross-border" journey all that short!

 

[SuspectUsual]

On the West Coast, Carlisle (England) to Gretna Green (Scotland) is about nine and three-quarter miles (= 9 miles 58 chains).

On the East Coast, Berwick upon Tweed (England) to Reston (Scotland) is a tad under eleven miles (= 10 miles 77 chains).

So, neither Anglo-Scottish "cross-border" journey all that short!

On the Waverley, Newcastleton to Kershopefoot was about 3 miles, so would have been the shortest Scotland / England example

 

[eastdyke]

A short 3 minute trip across the border from České Velenice (Czechia) to Gmünd (Austria) can be made with ease.

But not so during the cold war although the crossing was open.
This Mark Baker blog is [to me at least] fascinating.

A Town Still Divided by the Cold War | Mark Baker | Travel Writer in Prague

markbakerprague.com

Extract:

Berlin was the most famous but by no means the only city in Europe to be divided by the Cold War. The cartographers of the Iron Curtain were unforgiving in the aftermath of World War II when it came to separating residents from each other in towns all along the perimeter where the communist “East” touched the capitalist “West.”

One of those places was České Velenice, and its sister city of Gmünd, in Lower Austria, which I knew from my train journeys up to Prague from Vienna in the 1980s as a reporter for Business International. Back then, the main Vienna-Prague rail line ran northwest out of Vienna and passed through southern Bohemia on its way up to Prague. (These days, the route starts to the northeast of Vienna and runs through Brno, east of Prague). This new route is longer, but quicker.

In the 1980s, when taking the train from Vienna to Prague, Gmünd would be the last stop in the "West" and České Velenice the first stop in "East." The irony, of course, was that historically they were the same place. The two train stations were separated by machine guns and barbed wire but were just 3kms (2 miles) apart. .....

Like many cross border places, even now, some things are easier to get on one side of the border than on the other!

 

[Beebman]

What is claimed to be the shortest international railway in the world is the 105 metre (some sources quote 100 metre) "Pošumavská Jižní Dráha" ("Böhmerwald Südbahn"), located at the border between Czech Republic (Nové Údolí) and Germany (Haidmühle). I visited it in October 2003 but there are reports of it still operating. Motive power is human. Part of the line is on the alignment of the closed railway route between Nové Údolí and Haidmühle.

My photo attached.

The railway was featured last year on the 'What On Earth Is This?' YouTube channel:

What's the shortest train journey you've ever been on? Yes, that Stourbridge branch line is very short, as is the Friedrichshafen one. But they're still like... dozens of metres long, and the journeys last multiple minutes. What if I told you there's a strange little train line down in extreme southwest of the Czech Republic that is not only extraordinarily short at just 100m, but officially holds the record for the shortest international railway, crossing over the border into Germany by literally about 5 metres. And it even has stops! But who built it? Why is it here? And what on earth is it? See what I did there? I know, it's very clever. You're right, I am a genius. Thank you very much. OK you're overdoing it now, that's enough.

 

[sh24]

A short 3 minute trip across the border from České Velenice (Czechia) to Gmünd (Austria) can be made with ease.

But not so during the cold war although the crossing was open.
This Mark Baker blog is [to me at least] fascinating.

A Town Still Divided by the Cold War | Mark Baker | Travel Writer in Prague

markbakerprague.com

Thanks for sharing that! The Gmund article is interesting but some of his other stuff e.g. his attempted recruitment as a spy are truly fascinating to this Cold War kid.

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

Neston-Hawarden Bridge is 5 miles compared to Chester-Shotton at 6.6 (both counted in a straight line but the track distance won't be too much different).
Maybe the Heart of Wales might offer a short cross-border hop?

Chirk-Gobowen is 3m04c.
But that is not across across a national border (passports, ID cards, ticketing, currency change etc).

Berlin Hbf-Friedrichstrasse is today only 1.4km on a German domestic railway, but used to be a fearsome cross-border trip in DDR days (1961-89) under military control.
Gmünd-Česke Velenice is 1.9km across the Austrian/Czech border - Česke Velenice used to be Gmünd Hbf pre-WW1.
There are many similar cross-frontier situations in eastern Europe where new states have been formed out the old empires.
Nova Gorica in Slovenia actually sits on the international border with Italy (Gorizia), though now under Schengen rules it is easy to navigate.

 

[The exile]

Berlin Hbf-Friedrichstrasse is today only 1.4km on a German domestic railway, but used to be a fearsome cross-border trip in DDR days (1961-89) under military control.

The journey wasn’t particularly fearsome - just the border to get out of / into the station. In fact the thing I found most concerning was doing the West - West interchange at Friedrichstrasse.
There may have been the odd even shorter U-Bahn trip available while Berlin still had an international frontier - depending on exactly which stations reopened prior to 3/10/1990 (and of course pre 1961 there certainly would have been)

 

[Djgr]

Chirk-Gobowen is 3m04c.
But that is not across across a national border (passports, ID cards, ticketing, currency

Quite plainly the OP was also looking for England-Wales examples but there has already been a shorter one.

 

[mike57]

Across a national border, but within Schengen Venlo (Holland) to Kaldenkirchen (Germany), ~4.8km/3mile