Inspired by a post on another thread about the former Calais - London Eurostar journey, I’m wondering how many train journeys there are around the world which takes less than an hour and cross a time zone, hence the illusion that you arrive ‘before’ you leave if you are travelling westbound. Calais - London took 55 minutes, therefore you ‘arrived’ (09:56) 5 minutes before you left (10:01). In the eastbound direction, you’d ‘arrive’ an extra hour after the true journey time (so for example a 09:56 departure taking 55 minutes would arrive at 11:01).
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Trivia: Train journeys under an hour that cross a time zone
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edwin_m
Veteran Member
There ought to be some in North America, for example the time zone changes just east of Chicago. But Amtrak don't have a "real" timetable online and their journey planner is so useless I'm struggling to get any point-to-point times off it.
StephenHunter
Established Member
Some Romania-Hungary journeys?
Henffordd
Member
Or between Spain and Portugal?
DanielB
Member
Mockava in Lithuania to Trakiszki in Poland is one at least, looking a bit funny as the DB journey planner displays a journey duration of -45 minutes.
Ukraine to Poland is a bit hard to get out of a journey planner as they seem not to display all stops. But Mostiska II in Ukraine shows IC 705 to Przemysl Glowny departing at 4.49 at Google Maps and according to the DB journey planner arrival in Przemysl Glowny is at 4.25 hrs.
Ukraine to Poland is a bit hard to get out of a journey planner as they seem not to display all stops. But Mostiska II in Ukraine shows IC 705 to Przemysl Glowny departing at 4.49 at Google Maps and according to the DB journey planner arrival in Przemysl Glowny is at 4.25 hrs.
Technically yes: From Arad you'd arrive in the Hungarian border station 9 minutes before departure. But you can't get anywhere further as the train has a 35 minute stop at the border station.
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The Wolverine service from Chicago to Detroit has two stops either side of the time zone change. Hammond to New Buffalo are 54 minutes apart, heading west you arrive 6 minutes before you leave, going east it takes 1:54
(I agree their website is appalling, last time I had any need to check their website they did have proper schedules)
Gloster
Established Member
I don’t think it is possible anymore, but this used to be the situation between Haparanda in Sweden and Tornio in Finland: the journey was only a few km and took seven minutes.
rf_ioliver
Member
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I was going to post this - at the moment there are no trains (other than freight), but the passenger service is expected to be restarted late 2024, 2025?
All 4 of them
nwales58
Member
Well done on whichever lines you have reopened so quickly.All 4 of them
Elvas-Badajoz at 14-16' is the shortest there at present (Valença-Tui was shorter but no longer stops there).
Curtici-Lököshaza wins at 10'
For Australia the only interstate connection for Queensland I can find is Kyogle – Brisbane Roma Street. That would work when New South Wales, Australian Capital Territory and Victoria have daylight savings time, apart from the fact that it looks like it's a two hour journey (192 km, so I'm sure it's not just Google Maps being unable to work with time zone differences). I'd also guess that any interstate services to / from Western Australia, South Australia or the Northern Territory would be over an hour. Nhill (Victoria) to Bordertown (South Australia) is 52 minutes, but the time difference is only thirty minutes. As far as I can tell everywhere in Australia with DST changes clocks on the same days, so there's no chance of having a ninety minute time difference.
Matapédia, Quebec is UTC -5 / -4 and Campbellton, New Brunswick twenty-eight minutes away is UTC -4 / -3.
Matapédia, Quebec is UTC -5 / -4 and Campbellton, New Brunswick twenty-eight minutes away is UTC -4 / -3.
jamesontheroad
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December 2024 is looking likely. Finnish trains will take just a few minutes to travel from Haparanda to a renovated platform at Tornio-C then Tornio Itäinen. Haparanda - Kemi should take about 45 minutes.
Falcon1200
Established Member
A source of confusion to fellow passengers when I made this journey back in 1986; They thought they had over an hour before their connection departed, instead of the actual few minutes!
jamesontheroad
Established Member
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Still risky at the combined Haparanda-Tornio bus station, where CET and EET are used alongside each other for buses departing towards Sweden and Finland!
From Wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_in_Switzerland
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_in_Switzerland
I remember this being reported at the time in UK media, in particular the confusion being caused for international trains.
Belarus and Poland has a two hour time difference but no trains currently cross this border. Looking at an old timetable there was a train that left Brest (Belarus) at 14:02 and arrived Terespol (Poland) at 12:18 taking 16 minutes. But the time difference makes it look as if it arrives almost two hours before it left. In the opposite direction there was a train that left Terespol (Poland) at 20:32 and arrived at Brest (Belarus) at 22:48 taking 16 minutes. But the time difference makes it look as if it takes almost two hours. The situation at this border is quite unique as there are not many railway lines that cross a border with a two hour time difference.
Has there ever been passenger services between Afghanistan and China?
StephenHunter
Established Member
I don't think there's even been a line between them.
In the USA, in Indiana, the South Shore electric commuter line crosses from Eastern to Central time west of South Bend. Running time across the boundary between South Bend and Hudson Lake stations is about 23 minutes, so timetable time is 1 hour 23 minutes eastbound and minus 37 minutes westbound
At some point it's changed - when I was out there almost 45 years ago the CSS&SB timetable stated 'all times are Chicago time', which was an answer to the issues over the differences between Illinois (which was Central time, and observed Daylight Saving Time), and Indiana, part of which matched Illinois, and part of which didn't, keeping Eastern Standard time all year (no Daylight Saving clock change)
I've been thinking about this one. While I didn't travel on it, only seeing the railcar trundle past me while I was in Arica, there is the Arica (Chile) to Tacna (Peru) line. Journey time a little over an hour, I think, but the time difference is two hours. Does that count?
Broken Hill, NSW uses South Australia time and Menindee, also NSW, uses NSW time, meaning there's a 30 minute time difference between them, but as they're ~45 minutes apart by train they still don't match the criteria.
Gloster
Established Member
The European Rail Timetable gives the Beograd-Thessaloniki night train as crossing from North Macedonia to Greece. Southbound it is Gevgelija 07.23-Idomeni 08.28, while the return is 20.11-19.16. The distance is 3 km and those are the only trains at the moment.