Trivia: Stations with the largest combined platform length

[ash39]

I used Orpington station earlier today and pondered whether the 4 long bay platforms and 4 through platforms had a combined platform length longer than my home station, York. I haven't looked it up yet but I presume you can find the info fairly easily so will look when I get home.

In terms of overall winner I would expect Euston, Waterloo and Edinburgh Waverley will be prime candidates, but I'd be interested to hear of any other 'surprise' stations with way more capacity than you'd expect for the station/catchment area?

 

[61653 HTAFC]

Bristol Temple Meads might be up there, with multiple long platform faces which are given two numbers each.

 

[Deafdoggie]

Crewe is possibly a contender, with two platforms that can fit a full Caledonian Sleeper (and with room to spare) and three more which very nearly can and 7 bays.

 

[D6975]

Waverley will beat Crewe with ease I suspect.

 

[swt_passenger]

from 2021 timetable planning rules:

Waterloo‘s 24 platforms provide 5740m in total.
Waverley total is 4229m
Crewe total is 2724m - a number of platform lengths vary by direction or route, the total includes all the longest options.
Bristol Temple Meads 2630m

I think we might have a winner…

 

[bishdunster]

I would suggest that Bournemouth must be a contender with the combined length of platforms 3 & 4 being one continuous length of tarmac.

 

[172007]

Winner has 8000m of platforms and is located in England. Can anyone guess where I am thinking?

 

[61653 HTAFC]

Winner has 8000m of platforms and is located in England. Can anyone guess where I am thinking?

Possibly St Pancras if you include the international platforms and the Thameslink platforms?

 

[172007]

Possibly St Pancras if you include the international platforms and the Thameslink platforms?

Close, very close, think a little out of the box.

 

[swt_passenger]

Winner has 8000m of platforms and is located in England. Can anyone guess where I am thinking?

Cheriton?

 

[Class800]

depends on the rules of your game but if you accept Kings Cross-St Pancras that would be surely the longest set of platforms, if you count all of the Kings Cross-St Pancras underground platforms, then all of the mainline Kings Cross, all of the mainline St Pancras, thameslink St Pancras and international St Pancras.

If you don't count station complexes as defined by TFL (e.g. Kings Cross-St Pancras as one), Kings Cross itself may be a contender, just ahead of Euston.

Looking to future, once 'Euston-St Pancras station' opens (HS2, Crossrail 2), we could have a complex including all of Kings Cross, St Pancras and Euston, all connected without going outside rail property. That would win

 

[172007]

Cheriton?

Yes Cherriton, 10 platforms at 800m each. They are platforms as far as I am concerned even if they are primarily used for vehicles.

depends on the rules of your game but if you accept Kings Cross-St Pancras that would be surely the longest set of platforms, if you count all of the Kings Cross-St Pancras underground platforms, then all of the mainline Kings Cross, all of the mainline St Pancras, thameslink St Pancras and international St Pancras.

If you don't count station complexes as defined by TFL (e.g. Kings Cross-St Pancras as one), Kings Cross itself may be a contender, just ahead of Euston.

Looking to future, once 'Euston-St Pancras station' opens (HS2, Crossrail 2), we could have a complex including all of Kings Cross, St Pancras and Euston, all connected without going outside rail property. That would win

Cheriton channel tunnel Station. 10 platforms at 800 meters each.

 

[Class800]

What's the total length of all the parts of the Kings Cross-St Pancras complex then? Including the tube platforms, and both mainline stations, and international platforms?

 

[swt_passenger]

I would suggest that Bournemouth must be a contender with the combined length of platforms 3 & 4 being one continuous length of tarmac.

However the overall length is still less than Brockenhurst, another nearby four platform station.

What's the total length of all the parts of the Kings Cross-St Pancras complex then? Including the tube platforms, and both mainline stations, and international platforms?

Can I go back and add Waterloo East to Waterloo then?

 

[172007]

What's the total length of all the parts of the Kings Cross-St Pancras complex then? Including the tube platforms, and both mainline stations, and international platforms?

I will leave that open to everyone else as have not got a clue where to start with working that out. Got to be close if not slightly more. It's whether they can be argued as one station or 3 just linked very closely.

 

[Class800]

There is probably no singular right answer. It all depends on definitions. If you say one station name as per National Rail enquiries, then Kings Cross and St Pancras are separate. If you say one station name as per TFL, Kings Cross-St Pancras is one station on the tube, and can be considered to have 2 associated national rail stations Kings Cross and St Pancras plus the international terminal, and they could be counted all as one station complex. That would be my answer. But it depends on how you see things. Waterloo and Waterloo East is not a comparable example - as Waterloo East has a separate tube station attached to it (confusingly called Southwark (for Waterloo East)), so it doesn't share a tube station with Waterloo. Then, what's a railway? Is it just national rail, or anything that runs on rails. I would prefer the latter definition, so would include all the tube platforms at Kings Cross St Pancras too. HS2/Crossrail 2 station that is being billed as 'Euston-St Pancras' will make an enormous mega-station out of all 3 of Kings Cross, St Pancras and Euston - will be interesting to see if the separate names are even kept - maybe for historical reasons they will - but it will be one walk-through station apparently, but with two tube stations!

 

[BayPaul]

Are Liverpool Street and Moorgate a single complex (once Elizabeth Line opens). If so, the 10 Moorgate platforms, 17 Liverpool St mainline, 4 Underground and 2 Crossrail (33 in total) must add up to a fair bit.

 

[Class800]

That's an interesting one - do we go by the naming (i.e. there is a Kings Cross-St Pancras underground station which links them, but the Crossrail is Liverpool St not Liverpool St-Moorgate), or by an alternative method of considering a station complex as a station premises that you can reach without leaving railway property - but that would include Waterloo East as part of Waterloo and Moorgate as conjoined to Liverpool St

 

[YorksLad12]

from 2021 timetable planning rules:

Waterloo‘s 24 platforms provide 5740m in total.
Waverley total is 4229m
Crewe total is 2724m - a number of platform lengths vary by direction or route, the total includes all the longest options.
Bristol Temple Meads 2630m

I think we might have a winner…

Leeds has 3,709m across 18 platforms perched on viaducts, I'm pleased to say, with a few more metres to come over the next few years (apparently).

 

[Smitham]

Eurotunnel terminal at Folkstone. 10 800m island platforms. 8000m.

Edit: See I was beaten to it by Class 800.