Most pointless journey for which a fare is available

[JonathanH]

Isn't Kirkham and Wesham in a different ticketing group than Blackpool North?

Is that relevant to the existence of a fare between Blackpool North and Blackpool South? There is no 'Blackpool Stations' destination of course.

For what it is worth, for fare setting, the cluster QA17 includes all stations west of Preston. Q328 just the stations on the two branches, in which instance Q336 is the cluster for stations around Preston including Kirkham & Wesham. There may be others.

Runcorn to Runcorn East is £19.20 for an anytime day single, however it just quotes the Cheshire Day Ranger during off-peak times for £25.20

That is probably because there isn't an obvious route between the two that doesn't involve a double back. No fares exist between those two - £19.20 must be the sum of two single tickets.

 

[4COR]

Crofton Park -> Honor Oak Park

£4.70 for a paper single ticket (Route Via London not Underground) - the £3.40 "Not via London" ticket doesn't appear in the National Rail Planner - is there any valid route for this ticket...?

Walking it's a bit under 3/4 mile (so about 15 min).

By rail, the quickest journey on the above is 46min via Blackfriars and London Bridge (sometimes up to 1h15m from the looks).

Chuck in Travelcard routes as offered on the NR journey planner (or Oyster I suppose), and you get some interesting suggestions out of the planner, like this:

Crofton Park -> Catford
Catford -> Catford Bridge (walk)
Catford Bridge -> New Cross
New Cross -> New Cross Gate (walk 0.4mile)
New Cross Gate -> Honor Oak Park
All in 48min with 3 trains, no timetabled journey longer than 9 min, and 2 walks...

 

[ServerHoster]

That is probably because there isn't an obvious route between the two that doesn't involve a double back. No fares exist between those two - £19.20 must be the sum of two single tickets.

Runcorn - Frodsham - Runcorn East?

 

[JonathanH]

Runcorn - Frodsham - Runcorn East?

Ah, I had it in mind that Frodsham wasn't served by the trains to Liverpool. Absolutely no way anyone would / should pay £19.20 to go Runcorn - Frodsham - Runcorn East.

I note that there isn't a fare for Runcorn - Frodsham - Warrington Bank Quay as the only fares are routed Liverpool South Parkway or Liverpool

 

[deltic]

The one that gets wheeled out every time anyone wants to moan about the cost of rail travel - the Anytime First Class Return from Penzance to Wick that costs over a grand. No-one has, or ever will, buy it.

Its only £663.10

I wonder how many people buy the annual First Class season ticket between Berwick Upon Tweed and London Kings Cross, which was roughly around the £42,000 mark last time I checked.

I have to apologise - I didnt believe that could possibly be true - but it is - just £42,700

 

[ServerHoster]

Ah, I had it in mind that Frodsham wasn't served by the trains to Liverpool. Absolutely no way anyone would / should pay £19.20 to go Runcorn - Frodsham - Runcorn East.

To be fair, the journey that quotes £19.20 says to go to Liverpool, jump on Merseyrail to Chester, wait for 5 hours, then get the first train to Runcorn East.

 

[philjo]

In London, try Warren Street to Great Portland Street.

 

[greyman42]

Well, walking from Oxford road to Picc is not as easy as it looks.
I’ve done once, must have took 15 mins.

I was thinking the same, especially if you don't know the route.

Wembley Stadium to Central is a 15 minute walk. Quickest rail journey is a little over an hour via Marylebone and Queen’s Park with an Underground journey in between.

Not the most pleasant walk at night.

 

[ChrisC]

Buxton to Matlock. £52 return via the very elongated train journey (compared to a direct bus)

This is probably a completely different type of ticket that would be considered by most people to be pointless. There are many journeys between 2 towns which require very elongated train journeys but a much quicker bus journey is available. There must have been threads about this in the past.

A few that come to mind are:
Scarborough to Whitby
Bangor to Porthmadog
Aberystwyth to Fishguard
Fort William to Inverness

Local to me I can’t see many tickets being sold for
Mansfield to Alfreton
Mansfield to Newark
Mansfield to Chesterfield
Chesterfield to Matlock

 

[Grecian 1998]

Dorchester West to Dorchester South via Upwey. Train will generally take about 25 minutes and the service on the Heart of Wessex is infrequent. The most impressive option I can find offered is to leave Dorchester South tomorrow at 1400, arrive at Upwey at 1407, wait 53 minutes and then catch the 1500 to Dorchester West, taking just 67 minutes for the 550m journey, an average speed point to point of 492 metres per hour.

Even more impressively it seems return tickets aren't offered but singles are, so you can do a return journey for the bargain price of £15.60, (£7.80 X 2).

Or you could leave Dorchester South on foot at 1400 and arrive at Dorchester West at some time between 1405 and 1415 depending on how fast you walk at a cost of £0.

 

[matt_world2004]

Heathrow terminal 4 Lu to Heathrow Terminal 4 rail. Using Heathrow express must be pretty pointless.

 

[trainmania100]

Newhaven town to Newhaven harbour is a bit pointless, only a 5 minute walk between the two. Unless you live in one of the houses directly opposite harbour station, you've otherwise got a choice of which station to use..

 

[Alex365Dash]

Its only £663.10

The Anytime First Class Return routed via London is £852. Not quite a grand, but still...

 

[ServerHoster]

Porthmadog to Blaenau Ffestiniog. £50.50 anytime day single or £50.90 off peak return.
You can just take the Ffestiniog Railway from Porthmadog Harbour(?) - although I don't have a price or time for it, it's definitely cheaper and quicker than having to venture into England!

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Without taking the roundabout route via Chester, Shrewsbury and the Cambrian Coast, how do you get across from Blaenau to Porthmadog on days when the Ffestiniog isn't operating a through service?

Bus?

 

[142blue]

Kyle of Lochalsh to Mallaig

£136 single, 11 HR+ journey with brilliant connections

Under 2hr drive if using the ferry, if not closer to 3

I can drive from Manchester to Mallaig quicker than the train from Kyle

 

[ServerHoster]

Without taking the roundabout route via Chester, Shrewsbury and the Cambrian Coast, how do you get across from Blaenau to Porthmadog on days when the Ffestiniog isn't operating a through service?

Bus?

After a quick search it looks like a bus number 3B taking 28 minutes dropping you off at Harbour station.
Annoyingly it doesn't run at an even frequency.

 

[Cherry_Picker]

Stourbridge Junction to Stourbridge Town for £1.10 single

That’s actually an incredibly useful ticket. I’m sure plenty of people have used it over the years.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Kyle of Lochalsh to Mallaig

£136 single, 11 HR+ journey with brilliant connections

Didn't the "Scottish Grand Tour" ticket (currently unavailable) work out cheaper / more flexible?

 

[aliceh]

Queenstown Road Battersea to Battersea Park has fares available. Not only is it much quicker to walk, but changing at Clapham Junction (platform 3 to 14) means you'll probably be walking a similar distance between trains

 

[Llandudno]

There aren't any fares, that's some kind of Rover, though a Merseyrail day ticket would be cheaper.

There are on the NRE app.

Randomly entered Sat 19 Dec at 1900 and £25.20 pops up, change at Kirkdale!

 

[StephenHunter]

London King's Cross to St. Pancras International via Finsbury Park - £6.50 single/£4.30 Railcard single
View attachment 86039

Not that pointless if you want to ride the train.

 

[Dspatula]

Deansgate to Oxford Road is probably more useless (as it's far shorter and basically straight down one road), and indeed I've never done that by train.

And yet an amazing number of people turn up with claiming to have made this very journey.

 

[Bletchleyite]

There are on the NRE app.

Randomly entered Sat 19 Dec at 1900 and £25.20 pops up, change at Kirkdale!

That's a Lancashire Day Ranger, not a point to point fare. If you accept Rovers as "a fare", there's a fare for every single journey - the ALR.

And yet an amazing number of people turn up with claiming to have made this very journey.

Funny, that

 

[142blue]

Didn't the "Scottish Grand Tour" ticket (currently unavailable) work out cheaper / more flexible?

It has to

 

[Llandudno]

Hartford to Greenbank £16.10 single

 

[Statto]

Porthmadog to Blaenau Ffestiniog. £50.50 anytime day single or £50.90 off peak return.
You can just take the Ffestiniog Railway from Porthmadog Harbour(?) - although I don't have a price or time for it, it's definitely cheaper and quicker than having to venture into England!
View attachment 86071

You can buy a North Wales all zones Day Rover for that journey at £38 [£25 railcard] & has no weekday time restrictions too.

 

[Whistler40145]

I can imagine there's some really useless fares like Reddish South to Denton or Gainsborough Central to Kirton in Lindsay

 

[Pinza-C55]

I wonder how many people buy the annual First Class season ticket between Berwick Upon Tweed and London Kings Cross, which was roughly around the £42,000 mark last time I checked.

I'm sure the MP has one, courtesy of the taxpayer ?

 

[Efini92]

Here's a good one.

Burscough Bridge-Burscough Junction, Anytime Day Single £11.20:

Look up fares for any train journey in Britain

Full details of all British rail Single, Return & Season tickets and Travelcards. Built-in Season Ticket Calculator.

www.brfares.com

About 15-20 minutes' walk if that. By train, you'd have to go via Wigan and Preston which would take well over an hour, though you can't actually buy it (I just tried) as it doesn't look like there are any Permitted Routes.

Unless it allows you to travel back to the 1950’s