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Trivia: Shortest distance between stops?

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HST Power

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There seems to be barely ANY distance at all between the stops on the Newcastle Metro. When you start at Newcastle Airport, the next station, Callerton Parkway, is on the next road! And its the same for the station after it, Bank Foot.
 

IanPooleTrains

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Glasgow Central to Argyle st for Scotland?

Not quite, that is 60+ chains but it is a good call.

Now, someone tell me if I read my copy of Rail Atlas wrong but apparently Finsbury Park to Drayton Park is 15 chains.

Finsbury Park - 2m 41 ch
Drayton Park - 2m 56 ch

That runs close
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
Have just been corrected on that! They really need to make the Rail Atlas a little less complicated when they join junctions up to other lines
 

MidnightFlyer

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--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
Have just been corrected on that! They really need to make the Rail Atlas a little less complicated when they join junctions up to other lines

I've said it before, and I will happily say it again, the Rail Atlas is p*** poor, it ugly, inconsistent, poorly put together, and littered with mistakes, for example:

Blackburn has an additional island platform;
Rufford has a layout similar to Yeovil Pen Mill;
Junctions and crossovers appear out of place to reality;
Just look at Derby...

It is a fairly good effort, but it is not a patch on TrackMaps (Quail Maps), especially when it doesn't show key data such as changes in mileages...

Still not stopped me getting one for Christmas :D
 

12CSVT

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Referring to 'Rapid Transit Miles & Chains' (by S. Clarke, published 2001) the shortest distance between stops on the T&W Metro I can find is St. James to Monument (22 chains) although this was published before the South Hylton branch opened.
According to the same publication, Fitzalan Square to Castle Square on the Sheffield Supertram is only 5 chains.

Some statistics to put some earlier posts on this thread into perspective :
Ty Glas to Birchgrove (17 chains) is about 335 yds from platform ends
The long platform at Gloucester is over 600 yds long.
Concourse at Waterloo is about 240 yds across.
 

bradders1983

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According to the same publication, Fitzalan Square to Castle Square on the Sheffield Supertram is only 5 chains.

Yes, all of the City Centre drops between City Hall and Fitzalan Square (4 stops inclusive) are no more than half a mile between the two.
 

westcoaster

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If the distance the train travels between the two stops is the criteria then Ty Glas to Birchgrove would be the most likely contendor. Blackfriars platforms will be about 100 yards further south from their origional position when the station reopens.

Not quiet, the new platforms are curved at the north end and look like they will be in about the same position ( distance wise) as the old ones to city.
 

142094

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There seems to be barely ANY distance at all between the stops on the Newcastle Metro. When you start at Newcastle Airport, the next station, Callerton Parkway, is on the next road! And its the same for the station after it, Bank Foot.

That's mainly due to the design of a light rail network - short distances betwen stops to maximise catchment area and fast acceleration to make journey times as quick as possible.

How about stations which are on two types of network, such as Ormskirk? Do they count as one whole station or two due to the fact that are run by different TOCs?
 

Lampshade

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How about stations which are on two types of network, such as Ormskirk? Do they count as one whole station or two due to the fact that are run by different TOCs?

Ormskirk is managed by Merseyrail and counts as one station with two platforms (although it's physically only one platform split into two with a buffer stop).
 
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Tomnick

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Probably off-topic for this thread, but what's the distance from Sheringham (Network Rail station) to Sheringham (North Norfolk station) ?
10ch, according to Quail (47m72ch - 47m62ch). That's almost certainly measured from the former buffer stops in the case of the NR station, not sure about the NNR side. If it qualifies for this thread despite the 'tramway' status of the connecting line and lack of a regular service, then it must be one of the shortest!
 

12CSVT

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Not quite, that is 60+ chains but it is a good call.

Now, someone tell me if I read my copy of Rail Atlas wrong but apparently Finsbury Park to Drayton Park is 15 chains.

Finsbury Park - 2m 41 ch
Drayton Park - 2m 56 ch

That runs close
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
Have just been corrected on that! They really need to make the Rail Atlas a little less complicated when they join junctions up to other lines

The reason for confusion is that Finsbury Park is 2 m 41 ch from Kings Cross and Drayton Park is 2 m 56 ch from Moorgate. The Finsbury Park - Drayton Park distance is 65 ch.
 

dalmahoyhill

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In Scotland how about Ashfield to Possil Park on the Glasgow QS Anneisland service. 560m dont know what that is in old school measurements.

It takes about 30 secs to travel between them.
 

12CSVT

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In Scotland how about Ashfield to Possil Park on the Glasgow QS Anneisland service. 560m dont know what that is in old school measurements.

It takes about 30 secs to travel between them.

30 chains according to 'Track Atlas of Mainland Britain'
It would probably be possible to walk from one to the other in about 7-8 minutes, yet this is almost twice the distance of some of the other station stops already mentioned in this thread.
 

Death

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I see mention of mass-transit systems above, so this one's got to be valid... :D

Embankment - Charing X (LUL Northern)
I can't find a distance chart to look it up, but half of Charing X is situated directly on top of Embankment. Furthermore, I can walk from one station to the other in about 20 seconds, so they've got to be no more than three chains apart! <D
 

steamybrian

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Try on Londons- Docklands Light Railway
West India Quay and Canary Wharf which are about a DLR train length apart.
Anyone know the distance?
 

Death

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Try on Londons- Docklands Light Railway. West India Quay and Canary Wharf which are about a DLR train length apart. Anyone know the distance?
That's an even better one than mine! :D

Going on visual memory, I'd guess the distance between platform ends can't be much more than 10m (30ft) apart. With Heron Quays being not much further away on the other side of Canary Wharf, I'd say that Canary Wharf itself is pretty much redundant now! :?:
(As it is, I believe Canary Wharf JLE is closr to Heron Quays than it is to Canary Whrf DLR! :shock:)
 
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steamybrian

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Between Canary Wharf and West India Quay there is pointwork so I estimate the platform ends are more than 10 yards apart but certainly less than 50 yards .
 

12CSVT

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The answers to the above posts can be found in 'Rapid Transit Miles & Chains' by S.Clarke

On the Docklands Light Railway, West India Quay to Canary Wharf is 10 chains, then another 10 chains to Heron Quays. These are the shortest distances between stations on the DLR.
London Underground Embankment to Charing Cross is 14 chains on the Northern Line and 18 chains on the Bakerloo Line. However the shortest distance between stops on the underground is Leicester Square to Covent Garden (13 chains) on the Piccadilly Line.
As mentioned in previous posts on this thread there are even shorter distances on the Sheffield Supertram (5 chains between Fitzalan Square and Castle Square).
 

Death

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The answers to the above posts can be found in 'Rapid Transit Miles & Chains' by S.Clarke
On the Docklands Light Railway, West India Quay to Canary Wharf is 10 chains, then another 10 chains to Heron Quays. These are the shortest distances between stations on the DLR.
London Underground Embankment to Charing Cross is 14 chains on the Northern Line and 18 chains on the Bakerloo Line. However the shortest distance between stops on the underground is Leicester Square to Covent Garden (13 chains) on the Piccadilly Line.
I know that the RTM&C guide will be a lot more accurate than my visual and mental reckonings, but surely there's no possible way that India and Canary can be as much as 220 yards apart? The "gap" between those stations is so amazingly short, I reckon that if a standard single-decker bus was craned onto the line, it'd be possible for the vehicle to be touching platforms at Canary and India at the same time! :shock:
Oh, and I just realised that I should've been typing Heron Quays into my last post and not South Quays, which is 'round the corner. Where's that [Edit] button gone?... :lol:

On a similar note, I have to query Leicester to Convent as well...Simply because I know that I can cover the distance between the concourses at Embankment and Charing X in well under a minute on foot, but the walk up Long Acre to get from Leicester Sq to Convent Gdn takes me four minutes at least...And that's at my full 6mph missions, using the carriageway so as not to get blocked by all the tourists! :shock:

I'm not saying that either ye or the guide are wrong (In fact, the info that I'm taking from memory is much more likely at fault) but from what I recall of my numerous journeys around LT versus what's in the RTM&C guide, it just doesn't seem to add up. I'm pretty positive that Charing X to Embankment takes half the time of Leicester Sq to Convent Gdn... :o:?:
 

At_traction

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I know that the RTM&C guide will be a lot more accurate than my visual and mental reckonings, but surely there's no possible way that India and Canary can be as much as 220 yards apart? The "gap" between those stations is so amazingly short, I reckon that if a standard single-decker bus was craned onto the line, it'd be possible for the vehicle to be touching platforms at Canary and India at the same time! :shock:

The distance has nothing to do with the physical distance between platform ends rather than AFAIK the distance between the stations' nominal "milepost" (whatever the correct term was) reading (as measured from the beginning of the line). If you measure the distance from the middle of the covered portion of one station to the next, you get a rather similar result. Don't know what the criteria are for setting the measurement point for each halt's/station's "milepost", though.

And I still stand behind my claim (even if in jest) that the shortest distances between everyday traffic stops are the longitudally split platforms, divided by a signal. You can't get shorter than that.
 

12CSVT

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As far as I am aware the distance between the middle of the platforms is generally considered to be the distance between stations.

I checked the distance from the north end of the platform at West India Quay to south end of Heron Quays using the 'ruler' on Google Earth and it wasn't far short of 600 yards.
 
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