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TRIVIA: Pairs of stations that nobody has ever made a journey between

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Dr_Paul

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During the last war when he was a soldier, my dad travelled from Castlewellan in the Six Counties to Margate: the ticket collector at Margate looked somewhat curiously at the ticket issued by the Belfast and County Down Railway.
 
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Cambus731

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No-one can buy a ticket between Ash Vale and North Camp as no fare exists. Anyone know of any other pairs of stations in the same situation?
 
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SteelWeelApeal

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I've made countless journeys between Midgham/Aldermaston/Theale/Pangbourne and Falmer/Moulsecoomb and vica versa, and often wondered when the last time someone made that journey was, although I get free rail travel so never bought tickets for it. I've also done Aldermaston to Eggesford, Pangbourne to Inverness, Moulsecoomb to Oulton Broad North, which I expect have been done rarely, if ever. I've also been on some strange circuitous journeys (Theale-Reading-Hayes and Harlington-Paddington-Euston-Bletchley-Bedford-Harlington-London Bridge-Hayes-London Bridge-Brighton-Moulsecoomb (I wanted to visit Hayes and Harlington, Hayes, and Harlington, and also go on marston vale line)), a journey I doubt anyone has ever done before.
 
Gathursty

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Christs Hospital to Healing
Two of Wye/Lye/Rye(Sussex)/Rye House
Two of Grimsby Docks/Pembroke Dock/Falmouth Docks
Heysham Port to Dudley Port
 
Springs Branch

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ian1944 said:
Mallaig/Kyle of Lochalsh is an unlikely point-to-point rail journey, requiring travel via Glasgow.
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The OP's question is slightly ambiguous. The thread title says "stations nobody has ever made a journey between", whilst in Post #1 OP asks "any stations that have received zero ticket sales to certain other stations". These aren't quite the same thing.

I'd bet somebody, sometime has travelled by train between Mallaig and Kyle of Lochalsh via Glasgow. If I were wandering around Scotland on a Rover ticket, it's the sort of trip I might make myself.

Agreed it's unlikely a "normal" A to B traveller would ever do it, although there is a published fare: £132.40 Anytime Day Single.

With some of the better known pointless journeys (e.g. between the two St. Budeaux), at some time, some enthusiast with a bit of spare time on their hands has very likely done it.
Plus there will be many more random & unpredictable unlikely pairs which have seen a traveller or two due to unique circumstances with family, friends, work etc. Some examples are posted above - my own is Hindley to Datchet.

Of course there are still very many combinations of small, run-of-the mill stations separated by medium or long distances which genuinely have never had anyone, rail nutter or otherwise, travel between them. And a good few combinations of origin & destination never travelled due to railway geography - like Fenchurch St to Penzance, or London Marylebone to Margate, or London Waterloo to Manchester Victoria (although Vauxhall to Salford Central would be quite plausible).

Someone with a better grasp of combination & permutation calculations might correct me, but if there are 2,566 National Rail stations, this means there are 6,581,790 possible journeys (counting A to B and B to A as two separate journeys, half that number if you consider AB = BA)
If 99.5% of these journeys have actually been done at least once at some time (this is probably too high - dream up your own estimate if you like), that means around 33,000 pairs of stations which nobody has ever travelled between.
 
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Cambus731 said:
No-one can buy a ticket between Ash Vale and North Camp as no fare exists. Anyone know of any other pairs of stations in the same situation?
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When I did the journey, West Ealing to High Wycombe.

The journey I've done that I suspect is least likely to have been done by others is Yatton to St. Margarets avoiding London. Swansea to Sandwell and Dudley can't be that frequently purchased either, but I wouldn't rule it out as being done by others. I did Southampton Airport Parkway to Burley Park in one day once, but as two separate journeys (Southampton → York, York → Burley Park) so it was separate tickets.

I'd be very surprised if any tickets were sold from North Woolwich to Woolwich Arsenal when it was open, similarly Gravesend to Tilbury.

Not quite the same thing, but I wouldn't be surprised if I was the only person to have collected rail tickets for a Glasgow to Manchester journey at Woolwich Arsenal, and definitely surprised if my partner wasn't the only one to collect Stratford to Chelmsford tickets at Llandudno.
 
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Great Yarmouth to Lowestoft will have been done a few times, but would be very rare. Similarly, any pair out of Saltburn, Whitby, and Scarborough.

There'll also be a few from new stations - whilst it's probably a journey that someone will do eventually, something like Tweedbank to Kenilworth or Maghull North to Cranbrook.

But as an extension, I'd wonder if there are any pairs of stations with a direct service that no-one has ever travelled between. Both the ticket office and the guard on one recent journey claimed to have never seen my journey before (Basingstoke to Pinhoe), though one suspects it isn't that rare.
 
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sd0733

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Peartree to Willington must be a very rarely made if ever journey. Around 6 mins passing to passing but normally requires doubling back via Derby and lengthy waits due to the sparse service both receive altho in the morning it's not too bad, evening requires a 2 hour wait at Derby
 
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NorthOxonian said:
G
But as an extension, I'd wonder if there are any pairs of stations with a direct service that no-one has ever travelled between. Both the ticket office and the guard on one recent journey claimed to have never seen my journey before (Basingstoke to Pinhoe), though one suspects it isn't that rare.
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I'd imagine some of the stops on the Leeds-Doncaster/Sheffield lines would fall into this, Sandall & Agbrigg to Thurnscoe maybe? Fitzwilliam to Bentley? Essentially not getting on and off at any of the main stops - ie: Leeds/Sheffield/Doncaster/Wakefield/Meadowhall/Rotherham

Alternatively, any of the stations on the Doncaster-Leeds line to Pontefract Baghill? (limited service, requires a change at Moorthorpe, and Fitzwilliam if you get on between Doncaster and South Elmsall)
 
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daodao

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Dr_Paul said:
During the last war when he was a soldier, my dad travelled from Castlewellan in the Six Counties to Margate: the ticket collector at Margate looked somewhat curiously at the ticket issued by the Belfast and County Down Railway.
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Not quite the same. but before low cost airlines really took off, I had a through ticket (using rail-sail) from Whitchurch (Glam) to Dublin (Connolly) via Crewe.

richard1976 said:
Heath High Level (HHL) to Heath Low Level (HLL)
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Don't be daft. The proximity of these 2 stations helped me when I accidentally caught a late-running Rhymney Valley train when travelling from Queen St to Whitchurch over 30 years ago. I was able to walk down from Heath HL to LL to join the train I had intended to catch to complete my journey.
 
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St Albans Abbey to St Albans City. The planners give a 33minute journey time, - by foot, there being no tickets for the journey. Many have made the journey, (some here doing the Herts network) but I doubt that the journey has been made by train by a conventional traveller.
 
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Chris M

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Depending how you count return journeys there will be a few more - e.g. there will be many more returns sold from Cononley to London than from London to Cononley (although this is a journey I've done a few times).
 
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adrock1976 said:
One that is unlikely to be sold is Teesside Airport to any of the limited service stations between Knottingley and Goole.

This is due to there being a Sundays Only service at Teesside Airport, and No Sunday Service between Knottingley and Goole.
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Is there a day single rate for this journey? I find this concept very interesting.
EDIT: there is, and it's valid Monday to Friday Only, for extra confusion
 
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Journeyman said:
Tickets from Reddish South to Denton have always been available, but until May 2018, the journey was impossible to actually carry out.
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You could have always done Reddish South to Denton, it's the other way round you wouldn't have been able to do.
 
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NorthOxonian said:
Great Yarmouth to Lowestoft will have been done a few times, but would be very rare. Similarly, any pair out of Saltburn, Whitby, and Scarborough.

There'll also be a few from new stations - whilst it's probably a journey that someone will do eventually, something like Tweedbank to Kenilworth or Maghull North to Cranbrook.

But as an extension, I'd wonder if there are any pairs of stations with a direct service that no-one has ever travelled between. Both the ticket office and the guard on one recent journey claimed to have never seen my journey before (Basingstoke to Pinhoe), though one suspects it isn't that rare.
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Well, re Saltburn/ Whitby/Scarborough, apart from when the direct routes existed, the train is actually popular with cyclists wanting to do the "open jaw" by bike. For me it is Thornaby to Scarborough by early morning TPE (oon a cheapish First Advance) then cycle the splendid disused railway route via Ravenscar and Robin Hood's Bay to Whitby, then get the Northern back to Middlesbrough with or without Fish and Chips. I start from TBY but there is no reason why you could not start and finish east of Middlesbrough or at other points en route. Oddly, I always go anticlockwise because of the cheap fare availabilty
and the logistical difficulties going the other way caused by Northern's sporadic timetable.
 
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gg1 said:
Yep, I'm sure there are hundreds of pairs of stations which qualify, however most pairs will consist of at least 1 small town/village station.

What's more interesting is any parings where both station are reasonable sized towns or cities, some possible candidates are:
High Wycombe to Maidenhead.
Bedford to Hitchin
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Before the lines between Bedford and Hitchin and between Bourne End and High Wycombe closed I'd imagine that there were quite a few people travelling between those stations by train. (I can't comment on the Northampton ones as I'm not familiar with the area)

A better example might be Aylesbury or Bicester Village to Milton Keynes Central...
 
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On a slight tangent when I and a friend were on days out track bashing we would start at a lesser known local station, Fitzwilliam was a favourite, and pick another obscure one as our destination. The thinking was that guards on other Tocs trains wouldn't have a clue where these places were and we could stretch the permitted route to its absolute limit and beyond at times. It generally worked.
 
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imagination said:
Before the lines between Bedford and Hitchin and between Bourne End and High Wycombe closed I'd imagine that there were quite a few people travelling between those stations by train. (I can't comment on the Northampton ones as I'm not familiar with the area)

A better example might be Aylesbury or Bicester Village to Milton Keynes Central...
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True, I was basing my answer on current railway geography. If we consider historic routes too, the Northamptonshire examples would be accounted for by the former LNWR Northampton to Peterborough (via Wellingborough) line.
 
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