Trivia: which settlement would be furthest from a rail service, if Bude loses that status?

[DynamicSpirit]

Moderator note: Split from https://www.railforums.co.uk/threads/preliminary-work-on-okehampton-line-progress-updates.210323/

One bit of trivia made me curious: The supplement mentions that Bude will lose its status as the town furthest of any in England from a rail service.

Anyone know which town would inherit that status with an Okehampton re-opening? (my guess would be either Louth or Minehead)

 

[DelW]

One bit of trivia made me curious: The supplement mentions that Bude will lose its status as the town furthest of any in England from a rail service. Anyone know which town would inherit that status with an Okehampton re-opening? (my guess would be either Louth or Minehead)

That's an interesting question. Assuming it's as the crow flies, not best road route, I can't find anywhere to beat Bude, even if Okehampton is reopened.

My not-very-scientific method is scaling off an Ian Allan sectional atlas,which seems (I think!) to have a consistent if undefined scale.

Bude is almost equidistant from Gunnislake (77mm on the map), Liskeard (77mm) and Bodmin Parkway (76mm). Okehampton reduces this to 73mm (approximately - it goes across a page break). But I can't find any other town between 73mm and 77mm from its nearest NR station.

Minehead is best at 58mm from Taunton or 61mm from Tiverton Parkway. Louth is nowhere near, only 39mm from Grimsby. There are quite a few at between 40mm and 50mm, but I haven't found any others over 50mm. So unless my methodology is wrong, which is certainly possible, Bude retains its title.

 

[30907]

Using Googlemaps road routes I get similar results: 29 miles for Bude-Okehampton, which is at least 4 miles shorter than any present options; Minehead-Taunton is 24.
As the crow flies the figures would be lower in each case, but not so as to make a material difference.

 

[topydre]

Hugh Town, Isles of Scilly? 37 miles from there to Penzance.

If so, I think Hugh Town will keep the title for rather longer than Bude!

 

[SargeNpton]

Hugh Town, Isles of Scilly? 37 miles from there to Penzance.

If so, I think Hugh Town will keep the title for rather longer than Bude!

If you are going off the mainland then some residents of the Shetland Isles may wish to dispute that. Unst to Thurso?

 

[DarloRich]

If you are going off the mainland then some residents of the Shetland Isles may wish to dispute that. Unst to Thurso?

Stornaway by boat and road? Garve must be about the closest station. Somewhere like Lochinver on the main land ( by road?)

 

[Mak1981]

Sticking to mainland UK, Campbeltown to Girvan by crow flies is 32 miles across the clyde, or by road distance Campbeltown to Oban 86 miles got to be up there, there's a few smaller villages near Campbeltown that could increase that by a few miles

 

[DynamicSpirit]

I think for the purposes of this thread, we should restrict the discussion to the mainland (or to any island that already has a national rail service on it). Also note that my starting post specified England. I don't believe places like Thurso or Stornaway count as 'England'

(Nothing against Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland, it's just that this discussion originated from a magazine article referring to England, in the context of the Okehampton re-opening)

 

[urbophile]

If you are going off the mainland then some residents of the Shetland Isles may wish to dispute that. Unst to Thurso?

Shetland is not in England! There must be many places in Scotland a long way from a rail service.

 

[norbitonflyer]

Kielder, in Northumberland, is nearly 40 miles by road from the nearest stations, at Tweedbank and Carlisle. Stretching a point to call it a town though.

 

[Mak1981]

Kielder, in Northumberland, is nearly 40 miles by road from the nearest stations, at Tweedbank and Carlisle. Stretching a point to call it a town though.

Nearest is Hexham at 35 miles from kielder by road, Haltwhistle is 19 by crow flies

 

[InOban]

I know that this thread refers specifically to England, but famously the nearest railway station to Lerwick is Bergen...

 

[Gloster]

I know that this thread refers specifically to England, but famously the nearest railway station to Lerwick is Bergen...

It is difficult to find a small scale map of the North Sea and my maths may be wrong, but I reckon Lerwick to Thurso is around 155 miles and Lerwick to Bergen is a bit over 200. However, when there was a catastrophic fire in Bergen in 1916, the glow was supposed to have been visible in Lerwick.

 

[HSTEd]

I make Lerwick 223 miles from Bergen, and 137 miles from Thurso, using Google Earth

 

[InOban]

I think that the story refers to a WW2 recruit asked to name his nearest mainline station. And he decided that Aberdeen was the mainline station, and where the ferry from Lerwick would take him. The joke was of course that Norway was already under Nazi occupation.

If you were to extend the thread to mainland Scotland, then Campbeltown must be in the running. 96 miles by road to Arrochar.

 

[NorthOxonian]

I think that the story refers to a WW2 recruit asked to name his nearest mainline station. And he decided that Aberdeen was the mainline station, and where the ferry from Lerwick would take him. The joke was of course that Norway was already under Nazi occupation.

If you were to extend the thread to mainland Scotland, then Campbeltown must be in the running. 96 miles by road to Arrochar.

I'd heard the story in reference to Shetland's former MP, Jo Grimond.

As to your latter point, Southend will be slightly further, though it is a small rural village rather than a reasonably sized town. That's another 8 miles or so beyond Campbeltown. Though of course, both are close-ish as the crow flies to Girvan (34 and 31 miles respectively).

 

[InOban]

As the crow flies the nearest station to Southend, and possibly campbeltown also, will probably be in Northern Ireland.

 

[Mak1981]

As the crow flies the nearest station to Southend, and possibly campbeltown also, will probably be in Northern Ireland.

Cambeltown to Girvan 32 mile still closer than Larne 40 mile
Southend is 31 to girvan and 32.8 to Larne all by crow flies

Glenbarr a small village just north west of campbeltown comes in at 34 miles by crow flies to ardrossan harbour

Oban is closer to campbeltown than arrochar by road at 86 miles

 

[Dave Beeching]

Kielder, in Northumberland, is nearly 40 miles by road from the nearest stations, at Tweedbank and Carlisle. Stretching a point to call it a town though.

Yeah, I think Kielder is a village. It is pretty remote though.

 

[swt_passenger]

Kielder, in Northumberland, is nearly 40 miles by road from the nearest stations, at Tweedbank and Carlisle. Stretching a point to call it a town though.

But only about 34 by road from Hexham...

 

[21C101]

In t'old days if you applied for a job on BR you had to write the name of the nearest station on the application form so they could send you a blue ticket if called for interview.

I'm told on one occasion they had an application from a chap in Shetland who wrote Bergen [Norway] on the form and on another, a chap in Kent who wrote Dymchurch on his.