The nearest station is 5,000 miles away

[OLJR]

I’m in California right now and need to buy some tickets for May. The LNER app’s nearest station page made me chuckle… See attached and enjoy.

i‘m quite impressed to be honest. That distance is accurate and follows the great circle path, according to gcmap.com. I wonder how the app measures the distance. There must be a third-party tool of some kind.

Of course, it is also entirely useless. The nearest station in practice is probably Paddington. But still, that it works over such a distance is a good effort by LNER I think.

Nearby stations
Thurso 4911.9 miles
Duirinish 4912.4 miles
Plockton 4912.5 miles

 

[Steddenm]

I have the same issue using the Irish Rail app whenever I'm in the UK. If I'm in Northern England or Scotland it automatically leaves for Dundalk (Dún Dealgan) and if I'm in Southern England it's always Rosslare Europort (Calafort Rós Lár). If I'm in the Midlands though it's always Dublin's Grand Canal Dock (Stáisiún Duga na Canálach Móire i mBaile Átha Cliath)

 

[ivorytoast28]

Same with the Wetherspoon app, penzance is the closest in a lot of places

 

[Snow1964]

I do wonder about quality of LNERs algorithm

Offers three nearest stations, then a suggested route from none of them, but instead starting somewhere miles away from the nearest station, why ?

 

[akm]

i‘m quite impressed to be honest. That distance is accurate and follows the great circle path, according to gcmap.com. I wonder how the app measures the distance. There must be a third-party tool of some kind.

The relevant calculation works the same however far apart the two points are; it's readily available in many software libraries

 

[185143]

Same with the Wetherspoon app, penzance is the closest in a lot of places

It was Peterhead when I was in Sumburgh. Having arrived on the ferry in a drunken haze from Kirkwall the night before I hadn't yet really had the opportunity to appreciate just how far from the mainland I was.

The Kent 'Spoons are commonly the closest on the continent too, though it was Lowestoft when I was last in the Netherlands.

 

[AlterEgo]

It just uses GPS, it’s not very sophisticated! The nearest station is indeed Thurso.

 

[skyhigh]

I do wonder about quality of LNERs algorithm

Offers three nearest stations, then a suggested route from none of them, but instead starting somewhere miles away from the nearest station, why ?

Because they're some of the core stations LNER serve?

 

[HSTEd]

I’m in California right now and need to buy some tickets for May. The LNER app’s nearest station page made me chuckle… See attached and enjoy.

i‘m quite impressed to be honest. That distance is accurate and follows the great circle path, according to gcmap.com. I wonder how the app measures the distance. There must be a third-party tool of some kind.

There are relatively simple methods of calculation that can produce rather accurate results over hundreds to thousands of miles.

There are obscure algorithms, but this is most likely just a Haversine calculation.

Its a relatively complex method but it won't be doing many of the calculations so the overhead would be negligible.

 

[kaysha]

I sometimes walk the dog to California. The nearest station is Polmont

 

[dch82]

I’m in California right now and need to buy some tickets for May. The LNER app’s nearest station page made me chuckle… See attached and enjoy.

i‘m quite impressed to be honest. That distance is accurate and follows the great circle path, according to gcmap.com. I wonder how the app measures the distance. There must be a third-party tool of some kind.

Of course, it is also entirely useless. The nearest station in practice is probably Paddington. But still, that it works over such a distance is a good effort by LNER I think.

View attachment 176449

No, your nearest station is Belmont Station (The town was named California but was changed due to mail delivery conflicts)

 

[Pegpilot]

A colleague once described how his Lerwick-based pal filled in a travel survey form he picked up in WH Smith in Lerwick. He dutifully entered "Stavanger" in the box which asked for "nearest railway station".....

 

[robbeech]

I wonder what it would be if the earth was flat.

Definitely interesting that Thurso and Plockton are only 1 mile difference.

That reminds me, can we have a Plockton Forum meal sometime?

 

[TUC]

When we lived in Northern Ireland it was a regular occurrence to search for the nearest xxx store and find the results gave a branch in Ayrshire.

 

[Gloster]

On a smaller scale I frequently get ones telling me that my nearest XYZ is in Gosport or Portsmouth. Some of them give a driving time of 15 minutes, which would be rather impressive, even if I had a DUKW or an Amphicar.

 

[High Dyke]

I wonder what it would be if the earth was flat.

Definitely interesting that Thurso and Plockton are only 1 mile difference.

That reminds me, can we have a Plockton Forum meal sometime?

I'd prefer Thurso, if you don't mind.

 

[endecotp]

A colleague once described how his Lerwick-based pal filled in a travel survey form he picked up in WH Smith in Lerwick. He dutifully entered "Stavanger" in the box which asked for "nearest railway station".....

That story is normally attributed to Jo Grimond, MP for Orkney and Shetland from 1950 to 1983. A parliamentary form asked him to justify flying from his constituency home to London, and required that he specify his nearest mainline railway station - to which he answered Bergen. There are however numerous variations, including this one:

One … story, no doubt apocryphal, but told to illustrate how distant the Shetlands are from London, was of a Whitehall bureaucrat during the war who sent a call up directive to the men of Unst to report to their nearest railway station. When after two telegrams no-one appeared at Wick in the far north of Scotland, the civil servant duly went, complete with bowler hat, to Unst and demanded why the directive had been ignored. It was perfectly simple, they said - the nearest railway station was in enemy hands. This being Bergen in Norway.​

 

[DynamicSpirit]

I wonder what it would be if the earth was flat.

Unanswerable without more information - the answer would depend on what projection you use to flatten the earth!

 

[Indigo Soup]

That story is normally attributed to Jo Grimond, MP for Orkney and Shetland from 1950 to 1983. A parliamentary form asked him to justify flying from his constituency home to London, and required that he specify his nearest mainline railway station - to which he answered Bergen. There are however numerous variations, including this one:

One … story, no doubt apocryphal, but told to illustrate how distant the Shetlands are from London, was of a Whitehall bureaucrat during the war who sent a call up directive to the men of Unst to report to their nearest railway station. When after two telegrams no-one appeared at Wick in the far north of Scotland, the civil servant duly went, complete with bowler hat, to Unst and demanded why the directive had been ignored. It was perfectly simple, they said - the nearest railway station was in enemy hands. This being Bergen in Norway.​

Regardless of its veracity, the accuracy of the story does depend on how one defines 'Shetland' and 'mainline railway station'. If your standard is 'Lerwick' and 'regular service to London', then Aberdeen and Inverness are about 20km closer than Bergen. From Unst, Bergen is indeed closer... but Wick (or Thurso) is closer still to anywhere in Shetland.

 

[robbeech]

I'd prefer Thurso, if you don't mind.

I wonder how many Thurso to Plockton tickets get sold?

 

[EbbwJunction1]

Same with the Wetherspoon app, penzance is the closest in a lot of places

I don't know whether it's still the case, but it used to completely ignore the Bristol Channel! If you were in a certain part of South Wales, the nearest pub was in North Devon. Geographically, this was quite correct, but unless you had a boat or a plane, it was a long way by train or car!

 

[b0b]

amusing but it would be nice if it realized if you're more than say 500 miles away from the nearest station you probably want stations near airports. I suspect there isn't enough usage to justify the work.

 

[Indigo Soup]

I wonder how many Thurso to Plockton tickets get sold?

In 2023-2024, eleven.

amusing but it would be nice if it realized if you're more than say 500 miles away from the nearest station you probably want stations near airports. I suspect there isn't enough usage to justify the work.

It wouldn't be unreasonable to recognise that the user is outside the UK (or even GB) and default to some sensible station for overseas visitors - perhaps Kings Cross for LNER.

 

[RT4038]

In 2023-2024, eleven.

It wouldn't be unreasonable to recognise that the user is outside the UK (or even GB) and default to some sensible station for overseas visitors - perhaps Kings Cross for LNER.

Is it really an issue, in the grand scheme of things? Would you spend Development time (and therefore money) on doing this? Hardly.

 

[Indigo Soup]

Is it really an issue, in the grand scheme of things? Would you spend Development time (and therefore money) on doing this? Hardly.

It's certainly a non-issue for most users, but if anticipating a reasonable number of passengers from overseas it might not be totally ridiculous for an operator to think about how to address it.

 

[bishdunster]

Estate agents advertising properties in Minehead give the nearest station as Rhoose !

 

[EbbwJunction1]

Estate agents advertising properties in Minehead give the nearest station as Rhoose !

They must use the same logic as Wetherspoons!

 

[mm333]

The number of times visiting friends in East Kent that the store finders suggest Southend. I’ve yet to use any that have suggested Calais!

 

[Trainguy34]

The number of times visiting friends in East Kent that the store finders suggest Southend. I’ve yet to use any that have suggested Calais!

I have, if it wasn't so expensive to get there Calais would be somewhat viable!

 

[mm333]

I have, if it wasn't so expensive to get there Calais would be somewhat viable!

At least now it’s just at the foot of the cliffs at St Margaret’s where you still get the ‘Welcome to the French Mobile Network’ texts.