Trivia Short Journey by car, Long journey by train

Y Ddraig Coch · 26 Mar 2015

I live in North Wales. If I wanted to go from say Bangor to Pwllheli by car it's about 28 miles and would take me around 40 minutes.

If I made this journey by train it would be a 6 1/4 hour, 200 odd mile trek into England and via Shrewsbury and lots of other places.

Are there any longer train journeys for such a short car ride?

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FQ · 26 Mar 2015

Whitby to Scarborough. 34 minutes by car, 4h 11 minutes by train.

Treherbert to Llandovery. 1h 5 minutes by car and anything between 3h 47 minutes to 8h 32 minutes by train.

iantherev · 26 Mar 2015

Y Ddraig Coch said:
I live in North Wales. If I wanted to go from say Bangor to Pwllheli by car it's about 28 miles and would take me around 40 minutes.

If I made this journey by train it would be a 6 1/4 hour, 200 odd mile trek into England and via Shrewsbury and lots of other places.

Are there any longer train journeys for such a short car ride?

It's not longer, but Axminster - Weymouth must be worth an honourable mention. 34 miles and just over an hour in the car, four hours by train via Salisbury and Southampton.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
Fort William to Inverness must also be in with a shout.

Buttsy · 26 Mar 2015

Mallaig - Kyle of Lochalsh: 27 miles (via ferry & Skye), 113 miles on mainland (approx 2 hours), train 413 miles (approx), 14 hours, 28 mins.

GrimsbyPacer · 26 Mar 2015

Hartfofd to Northwich is a classic of awkward train journeys for short distance.
Also:
Barton to Hessle
Denton to Stockport
Lowestoft to Yarmouth
Blackpool to Southport
Grimsby to Skegness
Sunderland to Durham
Carmarthen to Aberystwyth
Thurso to Inverness (train is so slow)
And Matlock to Buxton all spring to mind on trips where train takes longer than car or bus.

Chrisgr31 · 26 Mar 2015

All relatively short journeys but % difference going to be significant

Edenbridge to EdenbridgeTown

Eridge to Tunbridge Wells

Uckfield to Lewes

Bletchleyite · 26 Mar 2015

The opposite exists in places like the Barrow line - which means a replacement bus is likely to go straight into a 2+ hour Delay Repay refund (this happened to me) - the estuaries are bridged only by rail bridges. As a result there is a fair bit of late night trespass after the last train, I believe (don't know why a footbridge is not added, to be honest).

northwichcat · 26 Mar 2015

GrimsbyPacer said:
Hartfofd to Northwich is a classic of awkward train journeys for short distance.

You could also say Hartford to Greenbank station (Greenbank station being on the edge of Northwich) which is under 5 minutes by car but by train it can take up to 2 hour 25.

Llama · 26 Mar 2015

Clitheroe to Skipton

cuccir · 26 Mar 2015

When this has come up before, Mallaig to Kyle of Lochalsh is the highest for extra amount of time/distance required. The largest percentage difference involves journeys between neighboring stations of differing lines eg Newark North Gate to Newark Castle which is 1-1.5 hours by train and 5 minutes by car.

BlueFox · 26 Mar 2015

Teesside Airport to Brigg. Less than two hours by road. Six days by train...

Chrisgr31 · 26 Mar 2015

cuccir said:
When this has come up before, Mallaig to Kyle of Lochalsh is the highest for extra amount of time/distance required. The largest percentage difference involves journeys between neighboring stations of differing lines eg Newark North Gate to Newark Castle which is 1-1.5 hours by train and 5 minutes by car.

With the closure of Platforms 5 and 6 of London Bridge, Waterloo to Waterloo East must be an even more difficult journey by rail than it was before.

FQ · 26 Mar 2015

Chrisgr31 said:
With the closure of Platforms 5 and 6 of London Bridge, Waterloo to Waterloo East must be an even more difficult journey by rail than it was before.

depends if tube is allowed.

gordonthemoron · 26 Mar 2015

Hull to Barnetby
Skegness to Cleethorpes
Sleaford to Kings Lynn
Bishop to Appleby

Taunton · 26 Mar 2015

Stone Crossing to Purfleet.

Sheerness and Shoeburyness station buildings are possibly within sight of one another on a clear day (so another sub-category), but would take most of a day to travel between by rail.

Y Ddraig Coch · 26 Mar 2015

Blaenau Ffestiniog to Porthmadog is another 11 miles, 15 minutes by car.
8hours 17 minutes by train. ( 200 miles)

swcovas · 26 Mar 2015

Rhymney to either Merthyr or Ebbw Vale. I gues both journeys take about 10 minutes by car and well ovr 2 hours by train.

(Hasn't this thread or something similar been done recently? )

causton · 26 Mar 2015

Taunton said:
Stone Crossing to Purfleet.

Sheerness and Shoeburyness station buildings are possibly within sight of one another on a clear day (so another sub-category), but would take most of a day to travel between by rail.

Can confirm the reverse is true, didn't notice they were so close till I took the dog for a day at Shoeburyness and saw the Isle of Sheppey in the distance!

D6975 · 26 Mar 2015

iantherev said:
It's not longer, but Axminster - Weymouth must be worth an honourable mention. 34 miles and just over an hour in the car, four hours by train via Salisbury and Southampton.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

Not for much longer if SWT get their way..
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
In days of yore, Banff to MacDuff was a bit of a classic.

jopsuk · 26 Mar 2015

Stevenage to Luton (respective railway stations). Shortest road route is, I reckon, 11 miles, but the quickest is about 14. Regardless, the rail route is via London. Worse, potentially, is the coach service to Luton Airport from Stevenage- the NX 777 is approximately every 90 minutes, taking 45 minutes. Standing on the platform at Stevenage you see the planes close up on final approach, wheels down- it's about 6.8 miles from platform 3/4 to the point on the runway where most planes are wheels down (black smear on google maps!)

Philip C · 26 Mar 2015

How about Reddish South (at 0928 tomorrow morning) to Reddish North?

I assume that the weekly departure from South will not run on Good Friday and therefore this one mile road journey will take three hundred and thirty-six hours and fifty-four minutes by train giving an effective average speed of just over twenty-one yards per hour.

berneyarms · 26 Mar 2015

Philip C said:
How about Reddish South (at 0928 tomorrow morning) to Reddish North?

I assume that the weekly departure from South will not run on Good Friday and therefore this one mile road journey will take three hundred and thirty-six hours and fifty-four minutes by train giving an effective average speed of just over twenty-one yards per hour.

It does run on Good Friday.

Kite159 · 26 Mar 2015

BlueFox said:
Teesside Airport to Brigg. Less than two hours by road. Six days by train...

6 days is quick compared to Denton to Reddish South, will take you close to 7 days to travel that short distance by train

Boothby97 · 27 Mar 2015

BlueFox said:
Teesside Airport to Brigg. Less than two hours by road. Six days by train...

But Brigg to Teeside Airport is 14 hours (that involves an overnight stop at Darlington) :lol:

http://ojp.nationalrail.co.uk/servi...ed=false&outwardResponseId=4&&fareDisplayId=1
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
Another one is Ulceby to Barnetby (which takes 41 minutes by train, 12 minutes by car)

AM9 · 27 Mar 2015

St Albans City to St Albans Abbey. Not the largest difference but difficult to get NRE to give a rail time let alone fare. The site by default says walk (33mins), a 724 bus would take about 15 minutes and a drive could take anything between 5-7 minutes and 45 minutes!
If you push NRE by removing discounted tickets, and suggest going via West Hampstead Thameslink, it gives times of 1hr 44mins or 1hr 45mins, but no fare. Maybe this was removed after the recent case of 'optimised' season ticket use.

Welshman · 27 Mar 2015

Y Ddraig Coch said:
Blaenau Ffestiniog to Porthmadog is another 11 miles, 15 minutes by car.
8hours 17 minutes by train. ( 200 miles)

Or you could use the Ffestiniog Railway,[when open], bringing the rail time down to 60-70 minutes.

Y Ddraig Coch · 27 Mar 2015

Welshman said:
Or you could use the Ffestiniog Railway,[when open], bringing the rail time down to 60-70 minutes.

No....Not having that!

My thread my rules

Lets say only routes available for booking on National rail enquiries or the like. Or we open a whole new can of worms!!

GrimsbyPacer · 27 Mar 2015

Y Ddraig Coch said:
No....Not having that!
My thread my rules
Lets say only routes available for booking on National rail enquiries or the like. Or we open a whole new can of worms!!

In that case, Wirksworth to Cromford in Derbyshire.
1h 4mins according to National Rail Enquires.
Looks like it's under 3miles or something similar so maybe it takes 6mins at 30mph in a car?

30907 · 27 Mar 2015

But NRE can't find a fare so it's not bookable.

BTW are there any other preserved lines with their data on NRE?

shaun · 27 Mar 2015

Penzance - Newquay is alot longer by train than by road. Even the occasional National Express coach services which run the route stopping along the way do it quicker than any train could. Even a direct service would take around 2hrs. Par - Newquay alone is probably quicker by road too.

Exeter St Davids - Penzance also quicker than an HST via the much upgraded A38, traffic permitting.

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Trivia Short Journey by car, Long journey by train