Trivia: Difference between fastest/slowest trains from same start/end stations

[antharro]

What's the biggest distance in time taken between the fastest and slowest trains from the same start and end stations?

For starters, I raise Weymouth to Waterloo services:

The slowest is the 2110, which on leaving Weymouth, calls at Upwey, Dorchester South, Moreton, Wool, Wareham, Hamworthy, Poole, Parkstone, Branksome, Bournemouth, Pokesdown, Christchurch, Hinton Admiral, New Milton, Sway, Brockenhurst, Ashurst (New Forest), Totton, Southampton Central, Southampton Airport, Eastleigh, Winchester, Bastingstoke, Woking, Clapham Junction, finally arriving London Waterloo at 0104, 3 hours and 54 minutes later. (I'm pretty sure that once past Eastleigh, this particular service calls at more stations than listed here, and I'm also pretty sure that at Bournemouth it's advertised as a Farnborough train to try and warn people off of getting it due to its length - but these don't affect the times listed).

By comparison, the fast would be any xxx3 from Weymouth. For example, the 1603, which would call at Dorchester South, Wareham, Hamworthy, Poole, Parkstone, Branksome, Bournemouth, Brockenhurst, Southampton Central, Southampton Airport, Winchester, Woking, arriving London Waterloo at 1850, 2 hours and 47 minutes later.

The difference between those is 1 hour and 7 minutes - what's the largest difference you can find? I know some of the London - Edinburgh trains have big differences between the fastest fast and the slowest slow...

 

[Eloise]

London Euston - Glasgow Central via the Stours and via Trent Valley must have quite a difference.

Sunderland - London Kings Cross via Durham Coast or via Newcastle, that said that might not be that great a difference.

Bedford - Brighton used to have a marked difference between a Class 1 and a Class 2 depending on stopping pattern south of the River. Add in all stations north of the River too...

Cambridge - London Kings Cross?

Leeds - Sheffield via / not via Cas, Barnsley or Moorthorpe?

Portsmouth Harbour - London Waterloo via Pompey Direct or via Eastleigh

Liverpool Lime Street - London Euston via Trent Valley or via the Stours and Northampton.

Must be loads.

 

[Kite159]

Euston to Watford Junction, using the peak time shuttles (20-25 minutes) compared to the ~ 50 minutes on the stopper?

 

[JN114]

Paddington Penzance - 8h05 on the Sleeper, ~5h20 on a typical IET service, difference of 2h45.

 

[scotrail158713]

I can’t find the specific times but there will be a fair difference in Edinburgh to Inverness journeys depending if they go via Perth or Aberdeen

 

[aliceh]

0545 Poole to Waterloo is scheduled to take 2 hours 3 minutes but the 0720 is 3 hours 14, beating the initial example by a whole 4 minutes!

In the other direction, the xx39 from Waterloo is 3 hours 16 but the xx35s take 2 hours 2 minutes (but they continue onto Weymouth, so I don't know if that counts)

 

[JN114]

(but they continue onto Weymouth, so I don't know if that counts)

Given the opening sentence of the OP and the thread title explicitly mention “same start and end stations”, then no, it doesn’t.

 

[greatkingrat]

The 2235 from Waterloo terminates at Poole and takes exactly two hours.

Realtime Trains - 1B75 2235 London Waterloo to Poole

Realtime Trains provides live realtime running information for the Great British railway network using open data.

www.realtimetrains.co.uk

 

[Ianno87]

Liverpool-Euston.

2hrs 8mins on Avanti

4-odd hours on LNW via everywhere.

 

[SteelWeelApeal]

Birmingham New Street to Glasgow Central must take a while longer via Newcastle and Edinburgh than Preston and Carlisle.

Heart of Wales must take a lot longer than via Newport, although I‘m not sure if there’s a train by each route that starts and ends in the same place.

For trains that follow the same route all the way, the Paddington to Didcot stoppers take longer than the fasts.

 

[sd0733]

Crewe to Cardiff does but I cant think of any via Newport services which start at Crewe and terminate at Cardiff. The difference in times though Is around 4 hours

The best I can think.of which meets the rules is Crewe to Liverpool. The fastest Crewe to Liverpool LNR, 0540 departure takes 39 minutes compared to 2hrs 12 on the Northern via the Airport service

 

[London Trains]

Not the biggest difference but Sutton to St Albans via Mitcham is faster than Sutton to St Albans via Wimbledon

On the WCML Avanti services to Birmingham can be over an hour faster than the LNWR ones (although the LNWR ones dont terminate at Birmingham anymore so this may not count but will again count in May when one of them will terminate in Birmingham)

 

[xotGD]

Leeds to York direct or via Harrogate

Leeds to Hudds direct or via Bradford (when the latter ran)

 

[gg1]

In terms of percentage difference Wolverhampton to Walsall must be a contender for the greatest variance, around an hour for the regular stopper via New Street compared to 15 minutes or so for the direct Parliamentary service

 

[_toommm_]

How about Preston/Lancaster to Carlisle? Pretty fast with 125mph stock on the WCML, rather protracted with 75mph stock via the Cumbrian Coast Line.

 

[notlob.divad]

The 2318 West Midlands Train service leaving Liverpool Lime Street terminates at Crewe, 45 minutes after departure.
The normal hourly Liverpool Lime Street to Crewe takes 2hours and 15 minutes.

That is a 1hour 30 time difference, With the longest journey 3 times the length of the shortest.

 

[scotrail158713]

Birmingham New Street to Glasgow Central must take a while longer via Newcastle and Edinburgh than Preston and Carlisle.

Using the 06:28 XC service from Penzance you Glasgow as an example, it takes 6h8m from Birmingham. Whereas the 11:43 Avanti service from Euston takes 4h0m - giving a difference of 2h8m overall.

 

[Statto]

Crewe-Euston be another one, think around 90 minutes normally on the fastest Avanti West Coast trains, think it's around 3 plus hours if taking the LNW via Stoke On Trent, Birmingham & Northampton

 

[norbitonflyer]

Until the most recent timetable change, the hourly Lincoln - Sheffield service used to continue to Doncaster, taking over two hours end to end (although most services continued to Scunthorpe or Ardwick). Lincoln to Doncaster direct is about 45 minutes.

 

[scotrail158713]

Crewe-Euston be another one, think around 90 minutes normally on the fastest Avanti West Coast trains, think it's around 3 plus hours if taking the LNW via Stoke On Trent, Birmingham & Northampton

I’ve got too much time on my hands to be looking into all of this
LNW gives a time of 3h22m whereas Avanti West Coast give a time of 1h39m. This gives a difference of 1h43m between them.

 

[delt1c]

How about Euston to Watford Junction, The difference between a Pendo and The Overground service

 

[scotrail158713]

How about Euston to Watford Junction, The difference between a Pendo and The Overground service

Compared to some of the journeys mentioned here it’s quite small. However the difference, considering the journey length, of ~15mins v ~50mins is impressive in its own right.

 

[Hadders]

Ebbsfleet International to Gravesend is 3 minutes versus 2h47mins on the direct train via Dover Priory.

 

[JN114]

How about Preston/Lancaster to Carlisle? Pretty fast with 125mph stock on the WCML, rather protracted with 75mph stock via the Cumbrian Coast Line.

Are Preston/Carlisle ever the origin and destination stations via WCML though?

 

[Huntergreed]

Glasgow Central - Carlisle, on the pendo this takes just over 1 hour (1hr 7 mins) and on the Sprinter via Kilmarnock) this takes sometimes over 2 and a half hours.

 

[scrapy]

The way I read the original post is that the trains must have the same origin and destination points. There are going to be loads of examples where a Pendolino runs faster than a local train that does part of the route but for the purposes of this thread I think the original poster specifically asked for same start and end stations. Many of the examples posted such as Euston to Watford Jn don't count as there are no Avanti services that start at Euston and end at Watford.

 

[JN114]

The way I read the original post is that the trains must have the same origin and destination points. There are going to be loads of examples where a Pendolino runs faster than a local train that does part of the route but for the purposes of this thread I think the original poster specifically asked for same start and end stations. Many of the examples posted such as Euston to Watford Jn don't count as there are no Avanti services that start at Euston and end at Watford.

It’s even spelt out in the title and OP this time around.

 

[Kite159]

The way I read the original post is that the trains must have the same origin and destination points. There are going to be loads of examples where a Pendolino runs faster than a local train that does part of the route but for the purposes of this thread I think the original poster specifically asked for same start and end stations. Many of the examples posted such as Euston to Watford Jn don't count as there are no Avanti services that start at Euston and end at Watford.

Although there are a handful of London Northwestern services in the peaks which terminate at Watford Junction, although as they tend to serve Harrow/Bushley they are not as fast as a non-stop service.
But saying that there is probably one service which runs non-stop in passenger service.

 

[Eloise]

In a moment of downtime I’ve taken a look, 22 mins is the fastest Euston - Watford Junction terminator and they will call at least at Harrow & Wealdstone and Bushey. Some pull in Wembley too.

 

[Undiscovered]

Shrewsbury to New Street is 1hr8mins at its fastest.

There's a 1513 weekday departure off Shrewsbury that goes round the back via Bescot and Soho, which is longer, I forget by how much, perhaps around 15mins. Usually takes longer as there's always delays at the junctions.

There are also odd journeys in the Autumn timetable with longer journey times, and station dwells, to allow pathing of the Railhead Treatment Train.