306024
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I had a ticket from Bowling to Bat and Ball once, but it was a staff ticket some 40 years ago, when some of the less mature of us used to dream up silly combinations. Yours for £128.30.
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Question: Is there a route between two UK mainland stations that has never before been undertaken?
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How about Altnabreac to Berney Arms? Picking up on another thread, there does not appear to be easy access to Altnabreac - a five mile long cart track by the sound of it.
Edit - this thread https://www.railforums.co.uk/thread...foreseeable-future.257526/page-2#post-6494134
Edit - this thread https://www.railforums.co.uk/thread...foreseeable-future.257526/page-2#post-6494134
Purely off the top of my head, and with no other logic behind it, but would a journey between two penultimate stations be in the running? For example, instead of Penzance to Wick, you'd have St Erth to Georgemas Junction - St Erth being the first station out of (or before) Penzance, and the same for Georgemas Junction with Wick. I can see people buying the full Penzance-Wick ticket for a laugh, but not something that took two stations off the whole thing!
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gingerheid
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Would something like Angel Road to Meridian Water have counted?
Other than that, I guess IBM or British Steel Redcar to somewhere that opened since they didn't close?
Other than that, I guess IBM or British Steel Redcar to somewhere that opened since they didn't close?
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Class800
Established Member
There are certainly flows for which tickets can't be sold - or at least one ticket can't be sold (requiring split tickets)
Class800
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the thing is these sort of weird flows do attract enthusiasts - so probably has been done
Purple Train
Established Member
Bowes Park to Hawkhead?
StephenHunter
Established Member
I think that is one station, but you can get the Tube from Southwark to Waterloo, the former connecting directly.
If you, or someone familiar with Northampton, can advise some of the gaps, maybe forum members can contribute their tickets
Fairly sure one of my CTEB Waterloo colleagues had a pass made out for that.
richard17smith
Member
Travelmonkey
Member
All this gets me thinking of the Youtuber Nick Badley and his "pointless journeys"
I do recon tere is some odd anomalys out there though Stanlow and Thronton to Redcar British Steel would have been an interesting one if they both remained open, 2 stations you technically cannot leave,
*link above to a playlist of Nick's Pointless Journeys*
I do recon tere is some odd anomalys out there though Stanlow and Thronton to Redcar British Steel would have been an interesting one if they both remained open, 2 stations you technically cannot leave,
*link above to a playlist of Nick's Pointless Journeys*
spyinthesky
Member
Grateley to Pewsey are but 16 miles apart and a journey over 2 hours. At £27.50 or £98 1st anytime with 2 changes.
I am guessing but there must be thousands of examples like this.
I am guessing but there must be thousands of examples like this.
Class800
Established Member
change at Salisbury and Westbury? Can do a single change at Reading on Sundays. Doesn't seem a bus between them - so if people need to do that journey and don't have a car, maybe that flow would be used.
spyinthesky
Member
I agree that it is possible but highly unlikely. Living half way between the two I sometimes travel from one and return to the other.
I would be extremely surprised if there is anyone without a car in either of these two villages especially Grateley.
Or journeys between a "replacement station" and the one it replaced in circumstances where there is a lag between the new one opening and the old one closing. Godley and Godley East spring to mind. Didn't Smethwick West hang on with a token train service for a while after Galton bridge opened.
Also, who (other that people who want to prove a point) would buy a ticket from Catford to Catford Bridge, for example, or St Budeaux FR to St Budeaux VR (is it even possible?). (See I've been beaten to it on that one!)
How about Ryde Esplanade to Lymington Pier?
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How on earth did that get issued?
70014IronDuke
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I should imagine there are people on this board who have done Kettering - Northampton and vv.
I may be wrong, but I remember being told (as a kid) that after Northampton - Mkt Harboro closed to passenger traffic, BR introduced one or two Northampton - Leicester trains per day.
(I have an idea we discussed this a long time ago in here - but I may have been miss-told in the first place.)
Whatever, it really was no big trouble to do this journey pre-1964, if not directly, with a change at Wellingboro.
devon_belle
Member
I think OP means by train.
Willie Bee
Member
How about Auchtermuchty to Ecclefechan ?
I'm just adding these quirky names, as a laugh .. when I was a kid and we played A-Z of place names, my mother and I would give 'normal names' like Aberdeen, Exeter, Edinburgh etc. but my dad always had to have Auchtermuchty and Ecclefechan, places we had never heard of, let alone visited.
I don't even know if they have stations .. let me check .. oh dear, Auchtermuchty doesn't
I'm just adding these quirky names, as a laugh .. when I was a kid and we played A-Z of place names, my mother and I would give 'normal names' like Aberdeen, Exeter, Edinburgh etc. but my dad always had to have Auchtermuchty and Ecclefechan, places we had never heard of, let alone visited.
I don't even know if they have stations .. let me check .. oh dear, Auchtermuchty doesn't
Ashley Hill
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I think its claim to fame is that the musical twins The Proclaimers came from there.
Mcr Warrior
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It once did, until around 1950. Ecclefechan until 1960. So, who's to say that a journey between the two locations wasn't made before the earlier of these closure dates?
If there are 2570 stations in the UK (from the Rail factsheet 2022) then there are 3,301,165 possible journey combinations (double that if you include direction as a factor, I.e. A to B, is counted different from B to A). So I think it's highly unlikely that every combination has been made, but given the many millions of journeys taken each year, it could be possible.
However, I would imagine that once when you factor out all the repetitive regular/commuting trips then I'd be surprised if every possible combination has been used.
However, I would imagine that once when you factor out all the repetitive regular/commuting trips then I'd be surprised if every possible combination has been used.
Class800
Established Member
If a combination is identified as particularly unusual, it will appear to enthusiasts so it's unlikely there any flows that are ticketable that haven't been used ever
If I remember rightly, the fares manual that I was issued with while acting as a BR Liaison Officer* in a Cambridge University college in the early 1990s made it possible to obtain a fare between more or less any pair of stations**. There may of course have been exceptions that I never came across because no-one ever asked for them, but I don't remember this being mentioned in the training session, and I imagine they'd have warned us if something like Cambridge to Bedford or Northampton wasn't possible. For more than purely local journeys involving minor stations it usually said 'use fares to/from [nearby major station]', but I presume railway staff in the booking office could issue tickets to/from the exact stations by typing the names into their APTIS machines (or whatever the technology was at the time).
*This was a scheme whereby one person in each college provided rail travel information in return for a free train ticket each term.
**Actually I just had the Eastern volume, but in principle anyone with the full set could look up any fare.
UK stations with less than 100 entries and exits in 2021/22
1. Elton and Orston, Nottinghamshire (40 entries and exits)
2. Teesside Airport, Darlington (42)
3. Stanlow and Thornton, Cheshire (44)
4. Denton, Greater Manchester (50)
5. Kirton Lindsey, North Lincolnshire (68)
6. Sugar Loaf, Powys (76)
Clearly the enthusiasts do not seem to be travelling to these in such numbers as to make every station combination likely.
If we take Denton as an example, at 50 trips a year it would take over 50 years at the current rate to make every combination possible if there were no repeats, which seem unlikely and extremely complex to coordinate.
Class800
Established Member
P
Problem with these data is that enthusiasts often use rangers and break their journey/stop short etc a lot so won't be counted. Yet it is possible some flows will never have been done
Can't quite manage that but did find a Lymington Pier to Cowes via Southampton ticket in the isle of Wight Steam Railway's collection. Issued at Yarmouth IOW!
Although isn't Denton only served by a 1 a week parliamentary? So breaking the journey would force either an impromptu camping week or an exit.
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