Shortest and longest possible journey without changing by TOC?

[A S Leib]

Why are the measurements in kilometres? That's not generally how railway distances are measured in the UK.

Because the only free method I know of of measuring station distances is signal.eu.org/osm, which gives distances in kilometres.

 

[12LDA28C]

Because the only free method I know of of measuring station distances is signal.eu.org/osm, which gives distances in kilometres.

Try this: https://my.railmiles.me/mileage-engine/

Ten free searches per day or only £10 for an annual subscription. Nobody uses kilometres, even the Sectional Appendix uses miles.

 

[A S Leib]

Nobody uses kilometres

It is my own preference for personal use; if I were somewhat seriously* planning a railway construction proposal I'd definitely use miles.

*somewhat seriously being that even if I could think of a halfway plausible scheme I have nowhere near the knowledge needed to properly plan one.

 

[zwk500]

It is my own preference for personal use; if I were somewhat seriously* planning a railway construction proposal I'd definitely use miles.

*somewhat seriously being that even if I could think of a halfway plausible scheme I have nowhere near the knowledge needed to properly plan one.

Ironically, if you were seriously planning a railway construction in the UK, you'd do it in KM and then convert the operational distances to miles afterwards.

Miles and chains is the easier distance to quote as the authoritative sources use that format, such as the Sectional Appendix, and given rail stations can cover some 300m or more at times and some of your distances are not much more than twice that, being able to use a single point of authoritative location as a comparison may be helpful.

 

[TC7]

Would TfW's longest not be the Saturday only Manchester Piccadilly to Pembroke Dock?

 

[alistairlees]

Holyhead to Swansea is 245.25 miles (I think!) which is 394.7 kilometres; it's currently going slightly further to Llanelli though, because of engineering. I think the distance for Manchester to Carmarthen quoted at 397 km may be too high - but Manchester to Pembroke Dock is, I think, longer than Holyhead to Llanelli / Swansea.

 

[Deepgreen]

SWR - Kingston to Hampton Wick is significantly less than Twickenham to St. Margarets.

 

[Gaelan]

Lille-Europe – Bruxelles-Midi / Brussel-Zuid (107)

I don't believe this has been possible on (blue) Eurostars for many years.

 

[zwk500]

I don't believe this has been possible on (blue) Eurostars for many years.

Lille-Brussels certainly is, unless there's a simultaneous Lille-Brussels and London-Brussels arrival into Brussels Midi next tuesday...

The reverse (Brussels-Lille) may well not have been possible because of the faff of separating intra-schengen from Schengen-UK passengers.

 

[Deepgreen]

Comes down to definition, the entrances are long way away apart, because they are at furthest ends, but platform ends much closer. Similarly Kingston and Hampton Wick

Yes - I had assumed we were talking about platform middle to middle, which is how I have always assumed inter-station distances are measured in the UK (I could have been wrong all these years of course).

 

[zwk500]

Yes - I had assumed we were talking about platform middle to middle, which is how I have always assumed inter-station distances are measured in the UK (I could have been wrong all these years of course).

The sectional appendix distances are generally buffer stops for terminals and Centre of platforms for through stations - however plenty of stations have been hacked around over the years but the position stays in the same place so it no longer lines up.

 

[SuperLuke2334]

Holyhead to Swansea is 245.25 miles (I think!) which is 394.7 kilometres; it's currently going slightly further to Llanelli though, because of engineering. I think the distance for Manchester to Carmarthen quoted at 397 km may be too high - but Manchester to Pembroke Dock is, I think, longer than Holyhead to Llanelli / Swansea.

That daily Holyhead to Llanelli is a booked working, via the Swansea District line. It's not an unusual service.

 

[Revilo]

Why are the measurements in kilometres? That's not generally how railway distances are measured in the UK.

I agree, and most people use and understand miles to measure distances, rather than kilometres.

 

[A S Leib]

Ironically, if you were seriously planning a railway construction in the UK, you'd do it in KM and then convert the operational distances to miles afterwards.

Miles and chains is the easier distance to quote as the authoritative sources use that format, such as the Sectional Appendix, and given rail stations can cover some 300m or more at times and some of your distances are not much more than twice that, being able to use a single point of authoritative location as a comparison may be helpful.

I agree, and most people use and understand miles to measure distances, rather than kilometres.

I'll add distances in miles to the table tomorrow; please can any further discussion of the respective merits of miles, kilometres and any other units of measurement be done in a separate thread?

Yes - I had assumed we were talking about platform middle to middle, which is how I have always assumed inter-station distances are measured in the UK (I could have been wrong all these years of course).

I've been measuring middle to middle using signal.eu.org/osm except for cases where it was tight enough that the exact location of the middle of the platform could have changed the result (to a different pair, not just changing the distance), and used end to end for those.

I think the distance for Manchester to Carmarthen quoted at 397 km may be too high

It looks right to me. That's ~250 miles and drawing straight lines between Carmarthen, Swansea, Cardiff, Hereford, Shrewsbury, Crewe and Manchester comes to ~200 miles.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 9 Dec 2023 ==

Holyhead to Swansea is 245.25 miles (I think!) which is 394.7 kilometres; it's currently going slightly further to Llanelli though, because of engineering. I think the distance for Manchester to Carmarthen quoted at 397 km may be too high - but Manchester to Pembroke Dock is, I think, longer than Holyhead to Llanelli / Swansea.

Manchester – Pembroke Dock's 517 km / ~321 miles.

 

[ThameslinkUser]

Shortest Thameslink is City Thameslink - Blackfriars, not Farringdon - City Thameslink.

 

[sk688]

GWR - Drayton Green to West Ealing or Castlebar Park to Drayton Green could be in there

For Chiltern would Sudbury Hill - Sudbury & Harrow Rd or Northolt-Sudbury be in there in terms of shortest journey

 

[Western Gaffer]

At the risk of splitting hairs, the 'any circular journey' for the longest on Glasgow Subway technically ought to be 'any clockwise circular journey', or, to take things further (literally), the thread rules don't explicitly rule out staying on the train for multiple laps....

 

[A S Leib]

Shortest Thameslink is City Thameslink - Blackfriars, not Farringdon - City Thameslink.

Railmiles agrees with you.

GWR - Drayton Green to West Ealing or Castlebar Park to Drayton Green could be in there

For Chiltern would Sudbury Hill - Sudbury & Harrow Rd or Northolt-Sudbury be in there in terms of shortest journey

Devonport – Dockyard is 37 chains; Drayton Green – West Ealing is 41, to Castle Bar Park is also 37 so the latter could be in there.

75 chains in Sudbury or 1 mile to Northolt against 50 chains between Snow Hill and Moor Street.

At the risk of splitting hairs, the 'any circular journey' for the longest on Glasgow Subway technically ought to be 'any clockwise circular journey', or, to take things further (literally), the thread rules don't explicitly rule out staying on the train for multiple laps....

Where are distances on the Glasgow Subway measured from? It doesn't change the length at all, but it seems a good place to start counting from.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Where are distances on the Glasgow Subway measured from? It doesn't change the length at all, but it seems a good place to start counting from.

From Buchanan Street station, I believe. And, yes, the 'Outer Circle' does seem to be marginally longer than the 'Inner Circle', by perhaps some 18 metres.

 

[Deepgreen]

Someone thought a Southern Metro gap might be shorter than the Newhaven one - I don't think so, as Anerley to Penge West seems to be the shortest, but still longer than Newhaven.