Pointless journeys in London

[Trackman]

Another one might be Waterloo to Waterloo East (via lots of places with several changes).

Interesting, I'm guessing (sans tube) Waterloo>Clapham Jct., Clapham jct>Victoria, Victoria>Blackfriars, Blackfriars>London Bridge, London Bridge>Waterloo East. There is a direct train from Victoria to London Bridge, but it's the stopper.

 

[Rambler2978]

How about Waterloo (London) to Waterloo (Merseyside). However that would be very expensive and time consuming!

 

[xotGD]

King's Cross to St Pancras.
Liverpool St to Fenchurch St.

 

[birchesgreen]

Fenchurch St to Tower Gateway would be an interesting one taking in mainline, tube and DLR.

 

[MotCO]

Waterloo-Waterloo circulars via Kingston-upon-Thames

Are there still Waterloo - Waterloo circulars via Hounslow? I also thought there was a third loop but can't think what it would be.

 

[miklcct]

Are there still Waterloo - Waterloo circulars via Hounslow? I also thought there was a third loop but can't think what it would be.

The Strawberry Hill loop is all day.
The Hounslow loop is peak only, with the off peak service gone after the pandemic.

 

[MasterSpenny]

Catford to Catford Bridge - they are too close you can’t even buy a ticket, as per the video Geoff Marshall posted

Edit: I have now seen that in the opening post, but another one is Waterloo East to Waterloo without using the walkway between the two stations

 

[Lockwood]

Waterloo to Waterloo East?

Simple. Take the jubilee line from Waterloo to Southwark...

 

[317 forever]

Leyton (Central Line) to Leyton Midland Road (Overground)
Leytonstone (Central Line) to Leytonstone High Road (Overground)

Ruislip to West Ruislip or Ruislip Gardens

Wembley Central to Alperton
Sudbury Town to Sudbury & Harrow Road

Wimbledon to South Wimbledon
Battersea Park to Battersea Power Station

High Barnet to New Barnet

 

[Snow1964]

Queensway to Bayswater tube, 2 minutes to walk, a change via Notting Hill if you take the tube

North Ealing and West Acton is another one, about 2-3 minutes walk, or need to change tube twice to get from one to other

 

[birchesgreen]

Queensway to Bayswater tube, 2 minutes to walk, a change via Notting Hill if you take the tube

How could i forget that one, i actually did it earlier this year.

 

[Trackman]

Waterloo to Waterloo East?

Simple. Take the jubilee line from Waterloo to Southwark...

Well, I've posted this route earlier but not included the tube.
In this instance, you would have to take the tube to London Bridge to get to Waterloo East.

 

[BJames]

Do these still run? I thought they had come off.

Yes they do - and in peak time via Sidcup and Erith as well.

 

[dlj83]

Streatham to Streatham Hill

 

[AM9]

Wanstead Park to Forest Gate. 200m by foot, by train it would mean changing to/from the GOBlin either:

at South Tottenham - Seven Sisters*, (then Liverpool St), to Forest Gate​

or​

Barking, (then Upminster, Romford), to Forest Gate.​

​

* Not sure if public services use this so it might mean travelling to Gospel Oak and then back to Stratford on the NLL.

 

[A S Leib]

Enfield Town – Enfield Chase
Walthamstow Central – Walthamstow Queens Road
Leytonstone – Leytonstone High Road
Anerley – Birkbeck
Just outside London, but Watford – Baker Street – Queens Park – Watford Junction and St. Albans Abbey – Watford Junction – Queens Park – Baker Street – Farringdon – St. Albans Abbey (other routes available, especially if you don't mind using out-of-station interchanges) are rather pointless.

 

[Lockwood]

Well, I've posted this route earlier but not included the tube.
In this instance, you would have to take the tube to London Bridge to get to Waterloo East

I saw the station pair posted. Surely you can do it without going to London Bridge? Doesn't Southwark connect to Waterloo East?

So we are still using a walkway between stations, but now with the pointless added cost of a zone 1 to zone 1 fare?

 

[BJames]

Wanstead Park to Forest Gate. 200m by foot, by train it would mean changing to/from the GOBlin either:

at South Tottenham - Seven Sisters*, (then Liverpool St), to Forest Gate​

or​

Barking, (then Upminster, Romford), to Forest Gate.​

​

* Not sure if public services use this so it might mean travelling to Gospel Oak and then back to Stratford on the NLL.

Indeed public services are not timetabled to use this route. One train a week (0530 ex Liv St on Saturdays) uses the South Tottenham - Seven Sisters route, but does not call at South Tottenham. Some services used to run this way from Enfield/Cheshunt to Stratford but that ceased years ago and there was no call at STO then either.

 

[Lucan]

Morden South to Morden

 

[xotGD]

St Pancras (upstairs) to St Pancras (downstairs)

 

[Richardr]

Does Elephant and Castle National Railway Station to Elephant and Castle Underground count?

 

[Trackman]

I saw the station pair posted. Surely you can do it without going to London Bridge? Doesn't Southwark connect to Waterloo East?

It does, I was thinking of a journey that does not use the tube - like you start on a Waterloo platform and end up on a Waterloo East one.

 

[Mojo]

A few on the Met line.

West Ruislip to lckenham (or Ruislip)
Kenton to Northwick Pk

 

[etr221]

How about Waterloo (London) to Waterloo (Merseyside). However that would be very expensive and time consuming!

The extended version would be London Waterloo to London Charing Cross - via Charing Cross (Glasgow) and Waterloo (Merseyside)...

Another thought: Hayes-Hayes & Harlington-Harlington...

 

[urpert]

Nunhead - Brockley is another one that's about 15 minutes' walk but not straightforward by rail.

 

[dlj83]

Brent Cross to Brent Cross West

 

[Roger1973]

Yes they do - and in peak time via Sidcup and Erith as well.

Thanks - I'm a bit out of touch, had picked up on some grumbling about the lack of 'loop' trains via the Sidcup line, but not the detail - they used to operate outside the peaks and Saturdays as well (most of my travel in SE London is weekends now.)

 

[thomas379]

Thank you everyone for the continued suggestions. Yesterday, I completed the first few journeys.

Trip 1 - Embankment to Charing Cross via Bakerloo line
More time walking from platforms to the station than the actual journey time. Probably the most pointless of the day. By chance, I ended up walking this journey later in the day, and it took around half the time!

Trip 2 - Waterloo East - Waterloo
Train 1: 2V74 1435 London Charing Cross - (1438 Waterloo East) - London Bridge. 707023 + 707028.
Train 2: 1E29 1507 London Bridge - East Croydon. 171801.
Train 3: 1C39 1528 East Croydon - Clapham Junction. 377470 + 377413.
Train 4: 2L50 1558 Clapham Junction - London Waterloo. 450052. Thanks to @03_179 for the gen on this one.

Trip 3 - Queenstown Road Battersea - Battersea Park
Train 1: 2S49 1622 London Waterloo (1629 Queenstown Road Battersea) - Clapham Junction. 450046 + 450001.
Train 2: 2F41 1646 Clapham Junction - Battersea Park. 377458 + 377128.

I intend to keep posting updates on the pointless journeys if they're of interest to anyone. Let me know if there are other details of the journeys that would be of interest and I'll endeavour to provide them.

 

[SparkieLover]

Here's some more that haven't been mentioned:
Dalston Junction-Dalston Kingsland
Arnos Grove-New Southgate
Bounds Green-Bowes Park
Ally Pally-Wood Green
Hornsey-Turnpike Lane
(the above four requires a change at Finsbury Park between Pic & NR)
Cally tube and the Overground stations,

 

[Tetchytyke]

If we're doing mixed modes I'd go for Upper Holloway to Archway. On foot it is 450 yards, on the train it is quite considerably more. Crouch Hill to Finsbury Park is similar, although a bit more of a walk- roughly 0.7 miles.