Trivia: Evenly Spaced Main Destinations

[DynamicSpirit]

I was idly looking at a map today and it struck me that, if you're going from London to Bristol by train, the biggest intermediate stops are Reading and Swindon, and the distances are remarkably close: As the crow flies, you have:

• 33 miles Paddington-Reading
• 36 miles Reading-Swindon
• 35 miles Swindon-Bristol Temple Meads

Are there any other major routes where the main intermediate stops are so evenly distributed?

For the purposes of this thread, you can measure distance either as-the-crow-flies or actual distance along the tracks. Or exceptionally you could use typical journey times. But it must be the most important stops on the route: You can't just go pointing out a tiny hamlet that happens to be midway between the terminuses! Change of train is allowed as long as it is the usual route by which you would sensibly make the journey.

 

[Fawkes Cat]

I was idly looking at a map today and it struck me that, if you're going from London to Bristol by train, the biggest intermediate stops are Reading and Swindon, and the distances are remarkably close: As the crow flies, you have:

• 33 miles Paddington-Reading
• 36 miles Reading-Swindon
• 35 miles Swindon-Bristol Temple Meads

Are there any other major routes where the main intermediate stops are so evenly distributed?

For the purposes of this thread, you can measure distance either as-the-crow-flies or actual distance along the tracks. Or exceptionally you could use typical journey times. But it must be the most important stops on the route: You can't just go pointing out a tiny hamlet that happens to be midway between the terminuses! Change of train is allowed as long as it is the usual route by which you would sensibly make the journey.

In this particular case the London - Bristol corridor is a very longstanding route, and it's quite noticeable that even now the major settlements along the A4 (aka the Bath Road and Great West Road) are market towns about half a day's walk from each other - so someone halfway between (say) Maidenhead and Reading could walk for a couple of hours to whichever they wanted, spend half a day marketing or otherwise doing town things, and then another couple of hours walking home again.

And given that the pre-railway towns were evenly spaced, while the railway ended up going round by Swindon, it's not particularly surprising to find that the main stops on the railway are pretty evenly spaced as well.

 

[Mojo]

The main corridor through the West Midlands has stations roughly every ten minutes.

11 miles Rugby - Coventry
10 miles Coventry - Birmingham Intl
8 Miles Birmingham Intl - Birmingham NS
12 miles Birmingham NS - Wolverhampton

 

[Mag_seven]

Doncaster - York - Darlington?

 

[PGAT]

~25 miles London - Gatwick
~25 miles Gatwick - Brighton

 

[greyman42]

Doncaster - York - Darlington?

You could add Newcastle to that?

 

[The exile]

In this particular case the London - Bristol corridor is a very longstanding route, and it's quite noticeable that even now the major settlements along the A4 (aka the Bath Road and Great West Road) are market towns about half a day's walk from each other - so someone halfway between (say) Maidenhead and Reading could walk for a couple of hours to whichever they wanted, spend half a day marketing or otherwise doing town things, and then another couple of hours walking home again.

And given that the pre-railway towns were evenly spaced, while the railway ended up going round by Swindon, it's not particularly surprising to find that the main stops on the railway are pretty evenly spaced as well.

Not to mention the fact that the location of Swindon (as an important settlement) was entirely determined by the GWR.

 

[sot]

Stoke-Rugby-Milton Keynes-Euston each ROUGHLY 30 minutes.

Although the prior stations aren't this

 

[D6130]

Guildford-Haslemere-Petersfield-Havant.

 

[Traveller54]

Glasgow Queen Street - Falkirk High 20 miles
Falkirk High - Haymarket 22 miles (24 to Edinburgh Waverley)

 

[jackot]

Reading-Guildford-Gatwick?

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Glasgow Queen Street - Falkirk High 20 miles
Falkirk High - Haymarket 22 miles (24 to Edinburgh Waverley)

Was also going to suggest that one, but wasn't sure if the spacing was sufficiently even enough.

 

[YourMum666]

Kings X - Peterboro 76 miles, Peterboro - Doncaster 79 miles

 

[rapmastaj]

I was idly looking at a map today and it struck me that, if you're going from London to Bristol by train, the biggest intermediate stops are Reading and Swindon, and the distances are remarkably close: As the crow flies, you have:

• 33 miles Paddington-Reading
• 36 miles Reading-Swindon
• 35 miles Swindon-Bristol Temple Meads

Are there any other major routes where the main intermediate stops are so evenly distributed?

For the purposes of this thread, you can measure distance either as-the-crow-flies or actual distance along the tracks. Or exceptionally you could use typical journey times. But it must be the most important stops on the route: You can't just go pointing out a tiny hamlet that happens to be midway between the terminuses! Change of train is allowed as long as it is the usual route by which you would sensibly make the journey.

Nice example, but surely on this route Bath Spa is a main destination, with higher passenger flows than Swindon?

On the WCML between Stafford and Carlisle the stations seem pretty evenly spaced, though Warrington should be slightly further south.

 

[Halish Railway]

Leeds to Sheffield ~ 39 miles
Sheffield to Derby ~ 36 miles
Derby to Birmingham New Street ~ 41 miles
Birmingham New Street to Cheltenham Spa ~ 45 miles
Cheltenham Spa to Bristol Temple Meads ~ 46 miles

Maybe a bit of a stretch with the Cheltenham example as its much smaller than the other destinations listed.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

On the WCML between Stafford and Carlisle the stations seem pretty evenly spaced, though Warrington should be slightly further south.

Be a bit drastic to re-badge 'Acton Bridge' as 'Warrington Parkway'?!

 

[rapmastaj]

Be a bit drastic to re-badge 'Acton Bridge' as 'Warrington Parkway'?!

Just expand the car park a bit, add in some ugly metal barriers and call it Cheshire Parkway

 

[DynamicSpirit]

Leeds to Sheffield ~ 39 miles
Sheffield to Derby ~ 36 miles
Derby to Birmingham New Street ~ 41 miles
Birmingham New Street to Cheltenham Spa ~ 45 miles
Cheltenham Spa to Bristol Temple Meads ~ 46 miles

Maybe a bit of a stretch with the Cheltenham example as its much smaller than the other destinations listed.

I would say Cheltenham is fine. It's an important stop in terms of just about every XC train calling there, and as far as XC is concerned, it's also the main connecting point from the North for the whole Gloucester area. That's quite a good example for having 6 successive evenly spaced places.

 

[D6130]

Preston-Blackburn-Accrington-Burnley Manchester Road.

 

[rapmastaj]

Leeds to Sheffield ~ 39 miles
Sheffield to Derby ~ 36 miles
Derby to Birmingham New Street ~ 41 miles
Birmingham New Street to Cheltenham Spa ~ 45 miles
Cheltenham Spa to Bristol Temple Meads ~ 46 miles

Maybe a bit of a stretch with the Cheltenham example as its much smaller than the other destinations listed.

You can go even further!

Bristol Temple Meads to Taunton ~ 44 miles

 

[Taunton]

Not to mention the fact that the location of Swindon (as an important settlement) was entirely determined by the GWR.

I did once read that Swindon was decided as a "halfway" point as, although nearer Bristol, locomotives with smaller driving wheels were to be used for the gradients on the western section, so the number of wheel revolutions on each "half" of the journey would be equal.

 

[MargaretNoodle]

Chesterfield to Nottingham: 28 Miles
Nottingham to Grantham: 22 Miles
Grantham to Peterborough: 29 Miles
Peterborough to Ely: 30 Miles
Ely to Thetford: 23 Miles
Thetford to Norwich: 30 Miles.

Maybe a bit too much of a drop down to 22/23 miles to be considered evenly spaced.

 

[Irascible]

Bristol Temple Meads to Taunton ~ 44 miles

It's another 30 to Exeter, but that's balanced out by the next 52 to Plymouth. To be fair it's quite hard to evenly space places in Devon

 

[Bedpan]

~25 miles London - Gatwick
~25 miles Gatwick - Brighton

Time wise you can place East Croydon mid way between London Bridge and Gatwick, and Haywards Heath mid way between Gatwick and Brighton.

So, London Bridge dep to East Croydon dep 14 mins
East Croydon dep to Gatwick Airport dep 16 mins

and then after changing trains...
Gatwick Airport dep to Haywards Heath dep 12 mins
Haywards Heath dep to Brighton arr 14 mins

 

[D6975]

Leeds to Sheffield ~ 39 miles
Sheffield to Derby ~ 36 miles
Derby to Birmingham New Street ~ 41 miles
Birmingham New Street to Cheltenham Spa ~ 45 miles
Cheltenham Spa to Bristol Temple Meads ~ 46 miles

Maybe a bit of a stretch with the Cheltenham example as its much smaller than the other destinations listed.

Beat me to it. Living in Bristol I was very aware of the even timings between stops when heading up north.
Bristol-Cheltenham however is only 44 point something, TM-New St is under 90.

 

[Class15]

Nice example, but surely on this route Bath Spa is a main destination, with higher passenger flows than Swindon?

On the WCML between Stafford and Carlisle the stations seem pretty evenly spaced, though Warrington should be slightly further south.

Oxenholme to Penrith is far longer than Lancaster to Oxenholme or Penrith to Carlisle.

 

[devon_belle]

Waterloo-Salisbury 83 miles
Salisbury-Exeter 89 miles

 

[brad465]

Woking is more or less halfway between Waterloo and Basingstoke, with Waterloo-Woking 24 miles and Woking-Basingstoke 23 miles.

Reading-Guildford-Gatwick?

Firstly does it count if a reversal has to take place en route? Second, wouldn't Redhill be a main destination as well?

 

[BeijingDave]

Just expand the car park a bit, add in some ugly metal barriers and call it Cheshire Parkway

Liverpool-Warrington-Manchester-Stalybridge-Huddersfield-Dewsbury-Leeds fairly evenly spaced, which were the usual stops on the Transpennine services going through Warrington Central for many years.

Although some stopped at Hunts Cross, Widnes and/or Birchwood too.

 

[DynamicSpirit]

Firstly does it count if a reversal has to take place en route? Second, wouldn't Redhill be a main destination as well?

Yes I would say that a reversal is fine if that's the normal rail route between places. But missing Redhill is iffy - I'm inclined to agree with you that Redhill is as big a destination as Guildford on that route. That's a bit subjective though.