Trivia: most complex flow in fare and Permitted Route terms?

On the DayFlex thread I talk about the complexity of Liverpool-Manchester in terms of Permitted Routes and TOCs involved and why it's a challenging one for TPE's trial.

But what is the most complex flow in the UK? I mean in terms of TOC validity and in terms of Permitted Routes (these may not be the same of course).

I propose Aughton Park/Town Green to Manchester Stations as possibly the most complex shortish distance fare (around 50 miles)?

This has validity on Merseyrail, Northern, TPE, EMR, WMT (between Lime St and South Parkway) and Avanti West Coast (Preston-Wigan).

I believe it has the following Permitted Routes. To avoid complexity I consider Manchester as one entity rather than separating Victoria and Castlefield.

• Via Preston, Chorley and Bolton
• Via Preston, Wigan and Bolton/Atherton
• Via the Burscoughs, Wigan and Bolton/Atherton (I believe this is the shortest route and one within 3 miles but could be wrong)
• Via Kirkdale, Headbolt Lane, Wigan and Bolton/Atherton
• Via Liverpool Lime St and Newton le Willows
• Via Liverpool Lime St and Warrington Central
• Via Liverpool Central, South Parkway/Hunts X and Warrington Central

It also used to be valid via Liverpool, Chester and Earlestown (but not Northwich) but I don't think it has been for some time. It also I think used to be valid via Liverpool, Wigan and Bolton/Atherton but no longer seems to be so.

Can anything else beat that? Have I missed any?

I wonder what Permitted Routes Penzance-Wick would have and if that would beat it in terms of TOC validity and number of routes?

I think I worked out that a ticket from Dalmuir to Portchester is valid on 18 TOCs. Dalmuir to Portsmouth permitted routes are
LONDON
FW+BE+XS
FW+EG+BE+XS
FW+EG+LM+LP
FW+EG+LM+PD
FW+EG+LM+SW
FW+EG+RE
FW+LM+LP
FW+LM+PD
FW+LM+SW
FW+RE
FW+YG+BY+XS
FW+YG+RY

I haven't checked to see if any of those routes permit any TOCs not covered going via Edinburgh, Birmingham and Reading. Ones I didn't include in the one-journey Dalmuir to Portchester were

• c2c (I can't think of any reasonable route which would allow that)
• Elizabeth Line (unsure)
• Great Northern, Thameslink (I'd guess, not having checked the maps, going down the ECML, changing at Stevenage, Finsbury Park and Horsham would be valid)
• Gatwick Express
• Greater Anglia (between Peterborough and Ely, at least?)
• Hull Trains (south of Doncaster)
• Heathrow Express (definitely not valid)
• London Overground (get off Thameslink at Norwood Junction and go towards Epsom via West Croydon),
• Lumo West Coast (fine at least south of Motherwell)
• London Underground
• Merseyrail (if diverting through Liverpool's allowed, Liverpool Central – South Parkway?)
• Southeastern (Charing Cross / Cannon Street – Waterloo East?)

Counting LNR / WMR, and Lumo East / West Coast separately, I make that 25 TOCs where I'm sure that a Dalmuir to Portchester ticket is valid. If the Island Line counts separately from SWR, its stations and Portchester both have Portsmouth as the routeing point, so I think the same principles would hold with Wight stations.

Bletchleyite said:

Have I missed any?

Click to expand...

Can't it also be used via Golborne? E.g. Ormskirk - Wigan then one of the few trains from Wigan to Manchester that go down the WCML then use the connecting chord to the Chat Moss line near NLW

Tangential, but when I worked at FastJP I wrote a program to visualise the mapped routes for a journey and there's still an example on their website (see below) - Cardiff to Inverness was a pretty complicated one: