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Trivia: Railway Journeys that Require 4 or More Changes

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Esker-pades

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Inspired by this comment:
How many journeys require one to change trains 4 times ?

Wick to Stourbridge Town I suppose . . .

Restrictions:
The journey must be entirely within Great Britian. No Banavie to Sospel journeys please.
Please be as general as possible. For example, if Lelant Saltings to Barrow Haven required 4 changes (I haven't checked), so would any journey between the St Ives Branch and the Barton Branch.
Please keep journeys logical. I know it is possible to do St Johns to New Cross in 5 changes if one travels via Dover, Exeter, and Pwllheli, but one could also do the 90 second journey direct. However, it may also be much faster to make a journey in 4 changes where much slower alternatives with fewer changes exist.
 
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SWTCommuter

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How about St Denys to Malton?
Change at Southampton Parkway, Waterloo, Oxford Circus, King's Cross, York.
 

RT4038

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You can do that with just two changes (Southampton Central and York) by using Cross Country from Southampton Central to York.
Inspired by this comment:


Restrictions:
The journey must be entirely within Great Britian. No Banavie to Sospel journeys please.
Please be as general as possible. For example, if Lelant Saltings to Barrow Haven required 4 changes (I haven't checked), so would any journey between the St Ives Branch and the Barton Branch.
Please keep journeys logical. I know it is possible to do St Johns to New Cross in 5 changes if one travels via Dover, Exeter, and Pwllheli, but one could also do the 90 second journey direct. However, it may also be much faster to make a journey in 4 changes where much slower alternatives with fewer changes exist.

Whitby line stations to all sorts of places - Aberystwyth, Portsmouth, Wick .....
 

Esker-pades

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Whitby line stations to all sorts of places - Aberystwyth, Portsmouth, Wick .....
The Esk Valley has direct services to and from the ECML (Newcastle on Mondays-Saturdays, Darlington on Sundays). That knocks out a few places going north.

Going south, it would be quicker to change at Middlesbrough and board the TPE to York. However, Aberystwyth is only one change away from there (Birmingham).
 

MarlowDonkey

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Marlow to Exmouth and vice versa at peak hours.

Change at Bourne End, Maidenhead, Reading, Exeter.

Marlow to anywhere really.

The connections at Reading can sometimes make taking the semi fast to Taunton and changing there to Cross Country slightly faster to Exeter than waiting at Reading for the next fast to Taunton. That could make five changes.
 

ValleyLines142

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Cardiff Bay to Stourbridge Town.

Cardiff Queen Street, Cardiff Central, Birmingham New Street, Birmingham Moor Street, Stourbridge Junction

You can also go via Hereford and Worcester instead of via Birmingham.
 

yorkie

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Marlow to Exmouth and vice versa at peak hours.

Change at Bourne End, Maidenhead, Reading, Exeter.

Marlow to anywhere really..
Yep, good examples include:

Marlow to Stourbridge Town

Marlow to Barton-on-humber

Marlow to Wick

Also I note that some journey planners (which, last time I checked, included RailEurope) don't provide the fastest itineraries, if a slower itinearary is available with fewer changes. In theory that should be an accredditation fail but these sorts of issues never seem to be picked up by Rail Delivery Group.
 

Iskra

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Chapeltown can provide quite a few, which I think is good for somewhere located so centrally;

Harwich; 4-5
Llandudno Town; 4-5
Stourbridge Town; 4-5
Cardiff Bay; 4
Walton-on-the-Naze; 4-5
Henley on Thames; 4-5
Wrexham Central; 4
Braintree; 4-5

Highest I found was Mallaig at 7, but sadly there was an option to get there with just 3 so doesn't count.
 
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Iskra

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Well that's what I thought it was! Or was it something else?

Sorry, I thought you were on the wind up!

Chapeltown-Sheffield-Edinburgh-Glasgow Queen Street-Mallaig is what NRE is currently giving me.

Perhaps the XC trains aren't extending to Glasgow at the moment?
 

ValleyLines142

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Sorry, I thought you were on the wind up!

I was, to some extent! :lol:

Iskra said:
Chapeltown-Sheffield-Edinburgh-Glasgow Queen Street-Mallaig is what NRE is currently giving me.

Perhaps the XC trains aren't extending to Glasgow at the moment?

I believe not, because here in Cardiff we have also lost our daily morning Voyager to Manchester.
 

SWTCommuter

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You can do that with just two changes (Southampton Central and York) by using Cross Country from Southampton Central to York.
True but it's quicker via London with more frequent services and cheaper advances are more likely to be available. Looking on the National Rail journey planner for tomorrow (15 April) the cheapest via London is £59 and the cheapest with Cross Country is £129.
Fastest Journey SDN-MLT
(Currently, under the reduced timetable there don't seem to be any direct Southampton to York services so it would also be necessary to change at Birmingham)
 
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xotGD

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Baildon to lots of places south of London not on Thameslink.

No direct train to Leeds gives it an edge in this game.
 

AJM580

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Any journey from stations on the local branches in Norfolk to Stourbridge Town require 4 changes, for example Salhouse - Stourbridge Town, change at Norwich, Peterborough, Birmingham New Street - walk to Birmingham Snow Hill and last change at Stourbridge Jn.
 
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4 changes is clearly too easy. Are there any journeys that *require* (as in, are impossible to do without) 5 or more changes?

Cardiff Bay to Stourbridge Town.

Cardiff Queen Street, Cardiff Central, Birmingham New Street, Birmingham Moor Street, Stourbridge Junction

You can also go via Hereford and Worcester instead of via Birmingham.

The last train of the day runs from Cardiff Bay to Cardiff Central, so this only requires 4 changes.*

*You'd be left sitting at Cardiff Central overnight, but all I said was that it was possible, not that it was practical.
 

gnolife

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Chapeltown can provide quite a few, which I think is good for somewhere located so centrally;

Harwich; 4-5
Llandudno Town; 4-5
Stourbridge Town; 4-5
Cardiff Bay; 4
Walton-on-the-Naze; 4-5
Henley on Thames; 4-5
Wrexham Central; 4
Braintree; 4-5

Highest I found was Mallaig at 7, but sadly there was an option to get there with just 3 so doesn't count.
Llandudno is 2 changes, Sheffield, then Manchester Piccadilly, with the Borderlands line just one further change away at Shotton. Walton-on-the-Naze is 3 changes, Sheffield, Norwich and Colchester.
 

London Trains

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Nutfield/Godstone/Edenbridge/Penshurst/Leigh to Stourbridge Town

Redhill
Victoria OR London Bridge OR St Pancras
Euston
Bham New St
Bham Moor St OR Smethwick Galton Bridge
Stourbridge Town

6 changes??
Actually this one is better...

Redhill
Reading
Bham New St
Bham Moor St OR Smethwick Galton Bridge
Stourbridge Junction

5 changes
 

xotGD

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Nutfield/Godstone/Edenbridge/Penshurst/Leigh to Stourbridge Town

Redhill
Victoria OR London Bridge OR St Pancras
Euston
Bham New St
Bham Moor St OR Smethwick Galton Bridge
Stourbridge Town

6 changes??
Actually this one is better...

Redhill
Reading
Bham New St
Bham Moor St OR Smethwick Galton Bridge
Stourbridge Junction

5 changes
Redhill
Victoria OR London Bridge OR St Pancras
Marylebone
Stourbridge Jn


4 changes :smile:
 

London Trains

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Redhill
Victoria OR London Bridge OR St Pancras
Marylebone
Stourbridge Jn


4 changes :smile:

But to get to Marylebone from any of those 3 London terminals requires you to change on the Tube as none of them have direct services to Marylebone as none of them are served by the Bakerloo line.
 

xotGD

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But to get to Marylebone from any of those 3 London terminals requires you to change on the Tube as none of them have direct services to Marylebone as none of them are served by the Bakerloo line.
Fair point - walk from Baker Street :D
 

alxndr

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Exmouth (or other places on the line) to Lowestoft (or other places on the line).
 
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It occurs to me that the Isle of Wight lets you make some journeys that require six changes. Shanklin to Kelvindale for example, changing at:

Ryde Esplanade
Portsmouth Harbour (by hovercraft)
London Waterloo
London Euston
Glasgow Central
Anniesland

I'm not sure if a journey that requires a boat/ hovercraft is really in the spirit of this thread though.

EDIT: I've just realised this journey can be done with just five changes as follows:

Ryde Esplanade
Portsmouth Harbour
Bristol Temple Meads
Edinburgh Waverley
Glasgow Queen Street

Nutfield/Godstone/Edenbridge/Penshurst/Leigh to Stourbridge Town

Redhill
Victoria OR London Bridge OR St Pancras
Euston
Bham New St
Bham Moor St OR Smethwick Galton Bridge
Stourbridge Town

6 changes??
Actually this one is better...

Redhill
Reading
Bham New St
Bham Moor St OR Smethwick Galton Bridge
Stourbridge Junction

5 changes

Redhill
Reading
Leamington Spa OR Worcester Foregate Street
Stourbridge Junction

4 changes
 
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