Trivia- most circuitous route between closest stations.

[ATrainSpotter]

Waterloo to Waterloo East must surely be a contender here

I was about to say that!

 

[Watershed]

I didn't think this was possible, but a ticket is available between Blackpool North and South, via Kirkham. Admits it's a long walk between them (Mile?? More??) but still walkable and a single can be anything between £8.10 and £26.60.

£26.60 for goodness sakes....that is the Lancashire Day Ranger but there's no alternative save for the odd service which charges the lower fare (eg 1755).

That's an example of NRE suggesting a local rover when it doesn't know what other ticket to suggest. In reality it would be much cheaper to buy a combination of tickets, e.g. splitting at Kirkham.

 

[Horizon22]

Waterloo to Waterloo East must surely be a contender here

Waterloo > Clapham Junction > East Croydon > London Bridge > Waterloo East might be fastest. Via Overground and changing at Clapham Junction & Peckham Rye might be geographically closer but maybe slower. But yeah pretty circutious for a 1-2 minute walk although the OP did exclude London terminals!

 

[gimmea50anyday]

Suprised Newark hasn't been mentioned yet...

 

[Recessio]

Edenbridge to Edenbridge Town? I can't even calculate a route as all mapping the tools and website just say to walk it (10-15 minutes). I reckon it would be at least two changes though?

 

[Sm5]

Acton Mainline to Acton Central ?

 

[Howardh]

That's an example of NRE suggesting a local rover when it doesn't know what other ticket to suggest. In reality it would be much cheaper to buy a combination of tickets, e.g. splitting at Kirkham.

Q - if someone wanted to get from one Burscough station to the other the route is lengthy, and there is no ticket, but as above why can't NRE suggest a rover for that?

In these days of vlogs, someone out there would make a trip of it, "I can see the other station from here, but can't get to it directly...so let's go the long way round!!"

 

[Watershed]

Suprised Newark hasn't been mentioned yet...

There are services that serve both stations, reversing at Newark Crossing East Jn. In fact, this and next weekend there's even a ~2-hourly service doing that.

 

[ATrainSpotter]

Hatton Cross and Heathrow 1,2,3? (central)?

 

[iphone76]

Southend Victoria to Southend Central?

 

[ffesti]

Can this not (in theory) be done by changing at both Chinley and Hazel Grove? Something like 18 miles then.

In theory, yes. In practice no. There is (unbelievably) a single train per day which stops at both HAZ and CLY, being the 0604 from HAZ (2S90)

Despite having 2 trains per hour per direction all day passing through, they don’t stop.

Hertford North to Hertford East

On the tube : North Ealing to West Acton

HFN to HFE is given as 2hr 59mins by train (via Stevenage, Cambridge and Broxbourne), or 21 minutes on foot

 

[plugwash]

The two Wigan stations are visible from each other and are only a few tens of metres apart. There's no direct service so how would I get from station to station just using the train.

Change at Hindley.

I looked at the times for the middle of the day tomorrow and got 41 minuites for wallgate to north western and 43 minuites in the opposite direction. Most of that time is spent waiting at Hindley as services are relatively infrequent.

 

[BJames]

Edenbridge to Edenbridge Town? I can't even calculate a route as all mapping the tools and website just say to walk it (10-15 minutes). I reckon it would be at least two changes though?

I thought of this one too - I imagine the route is Edenbridge-Redhill-East Croydon-Edenbridge Town (as the other direction would take you to Tonbridge-London Bridge-Edenbridge Town but pretty sure this would take longer) - but definitely a circuitous route.

 

[plugwash]

Can this not (in theory) be done by changing at both Chinley and Hazel Grove? Something like 18 miles then.

It's possible but highly impractical because there are very few trains that stop at both Hazel Grove and Chinley. The line from Hazel Grove to Chinley sees roughtly 2 TPH but the vast majority of those trains run non-stop from Stockport to Dore or Sheffield.

Central to Newtown via that route is only possible once per week on a Saturday and takes nearly two hours due to long interchange times.

New Mils Central 07:06 -> Chinley 07:13
Chinley 0803 -> Hazel Grove 08:16
Hazel Grove 08:48 -> Chinley 09:00

Newtown to Central via that route does not seem to be possible in a single day. The only train from Hazel Grove to Chinley leaves at 06:15 (Monday to Saturday, no service on Sundays), however the First train from New mills newtwon to Chinley doesn't arrive until 06:35 on a weekday and 09:22 on a Saturday.

If we use Stockport Instead of Hazel Grove, more options open up (as some of the EMR trains stop at Chinley but not Hazel Grove), but we are still talking a handful of feasible itinaries per day in each direction.

 

[Lukeo2311]

Ellesmere Port - Helsby, to get there you have go via Chester or get the parliamentary service in the early morning or in the evening

 

[WizCastro197]

Whyteleafe South and Whyteleafe?

 

[busestrains]

These following six examples are probably contenders for this:

• Canterbury East to Canterbury West
• Dorking to Dorking Deepdene
• Edenbridge to Edenbridge Town
• Farnborough Main to Farnborough North
• Maidstone East to Maidstone West
• Windsor & Eton Central to Windsor & Eton Riverside

I am not sure of the exact distances but they are all a short walk from each other but all require a very long route to go entirely by train instead.

 

[Llandudno]

Hartford to Greenbank

 

[Islineclear3_1]

Most circuitous route?

How about Canterbury West to Canterbury East going either:

via Minster, Minster curve, and Dover Priory (reverse)
via Ashford (reverse), Folkestone and Dover Priory

To walk between the 2 stations takes about 15min

Maidstone East to Maidstone West going either:

via Ashford (reverse), Paddock Wood (reverse)
via Otford (reverse), Sevenoaks, Tonbridge and Paddock Wood

Again, walking time between the two is about 15min

 

[A0wen]

Bicester North - Bicester Village ? (Double back at Haddenham or to Oxford and Banbury).

Is there anything direct between Yeovil Junc and Pen Mill now ? I know there was at one point, not sure if there still is.

Gainsborough Central - Gainsborough Lea Road.

 

[Mike99]

Not the most circuitous, but I was born here, Penge East to Penge West

 

[CaptainHaddock]

Reddish South to Reddish North would be a bit of a challenging journey by rail, especially on a weekday!

 

[London Trains]

Morden (LU) to Morden South

I presume the shortest and fastest route would be Northern Line to Balham, Southern to Clapham Jct, SWR to Wimbledon and TL to Morden South.

The route with the least changes would be Northern Line to E&C then TL.

 

[Mag_seven]

Birmingham Moor St to Birmingham New St
Paisley Canal to Paisley Gilmour St

 

[diffident]

Birmingham Moor St to Birmingham New St

I was just going to suggest this! I'm thinking XC from New St to Leamington Spa, and then Chiltern to Moor St?

 

[London Trains]

I was just going to suggest this! I'm thinking XC from New St to Leamington Spa, and then Chiltern to Moor St?

Would probably be a much faster route to change at Smethwick Galton Bridge instead.

 

[diffident]

Would probably be a much faster route to change at Smethwick Galton Bridge instead.

Of course! Didn't even cross my mind!

 

[London Trains]

Epsom Downs to Tattenham Corner: (Epsom Downs > West Croydon > Norwood Jct > Tattenham Corner or Epsom Downs > Selhurst > East Croydon > Tattenham Corner)

Balham to Tooting (Thameslink) - actually consecutive stations based on track layout but they have no direct services. The shortest route based on distance would be either Balham > Mitcham Eastfields > Streatham > Tooting or Balham > Streatham Common > Streatham > Tooting. Both routes involve passing through Streatham Junction 3 different times!

 

[duncanp]

Was that actually Kilburn?

Sorry, I mean Camden Road station on the London Overground.

Then on the tube, you have South Wimbledon - Wimbledon, Cockfosters - High Barnet, Ruislip - West Ruislip and Northwick Park - Kenton.

Can we expand this to outside the UK?

If so, then Comines (France) to Comines (Belgium) would be a circuitous route via Lille Flandres and Kortrijk if going by rail, or three quarters of a mile to walk.

 

[AgeoftheTrain7]

Probably not the best contender in terms of extra time, but Heath High Level to Heath Low Level in South Wales.

A minute or two by foot, or a change onto a different valley line at CDQ.