Trivia: Settlements without a station where the two nearest stations are on different lines

[A0wen]

olney - wolverton/mkc (wcml ) or bedford (mml)
towcester - milton keynes (wcml ) or banbury (chiltern)
dunstable - luton (mml) or leighton buzzard (wcml)
Cambourne - St Neots (ECML) or Cambridge
Wells/Shepton Mallet - Bath or Castle Cary

Olney - Wolverton and MK are closer than Bedford.

Towcester - Northampton's closer than Banbury or Kings Sutton so doesn't count as same line as Milton Keynes or Wolverton (which is closer to Towcester than MKC)

Dunstable - closest stations are Leagrave and Luton - Leighton Buzzard's much further out.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Any examples where the 2 nearest stations do not share a destination in common?

Another example would possibly be somewhere like Burnham Deepdale (population 800) on the North Norfolk Coast and other nearby settlements. Nearest stations are probably King's Lynn (destinations served = Cambridge and London Kings Cross/London Liverpool Street) and Sheringham (noting that Greater Anglia trains from the latter only ever seem to operate to Norwich).

 

[Magdalia]

Ongar - formerly top of the Central line - closest stations now are Brentwood and Harlow Mill.

Nearest to Ongar is Shenfield followed by Brentwood.

Cambourne - St Neots (ECML) or Cambridge

Cambourne does qualify but nearest after St Neots is Shepreth.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Buckingham - roughly in the middle between MKC/Bletchley and Bicester North, with Aylesbury/Vale Parkway also options.

 

[Magdalia]

Haverhill in Suffolk is roughly equidistant (although quite far out of the way) between Audley End (West Anglia), Sudbury (Branch to Marks Tey on Great Eastern) and Newmarket (Cambridge to Ipswich)

Nearest to Haverhill is Dullingham followed by Newmarket.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Any examples where the 2 nearest stations do not share a destination in common?

Another example might be Pickering in North Yorkshire (population = 6800). Nearest railway stations on the national network are Malton (on the Scarborough-York line) and then Egton or Grosmont (on the Middlesbrough-Whitby line).

Handy though that it's got a heritage railway line on its own doorstep.

 

[Magdalia]

Buckingham - roughly in the middle between MKC/Bletchley and Bicester North, with Aylesbury/Vale Parkway also options.

Nearest to Buckingham are MKC and Wolverton.

 

[Ken H]

Giggleswick. Gig station is nowhere near the village. And Settle is actually nearer than Gig stn. Both have trains to Leeds but Gig goes to Lancaster/Morecambe and Settle goes to Carlisle.

 

[Ayman Ilham]

St Davids in Pembrokeshire, West Wales - Britain's smallest city and ONLY city in the UK to never have had a train station to begin with (St Asaph, Ripon, Wells and Armagh all previously had train stations) due to its remote location - its nearest stations are Fishguard & Goodwick (Fishguard Harbour line) and Haverfordwest (Milford Haven line), both of which are on separate lines diverging from Clarbeston Road.

 

[Magdalia]

Another example would possibly be somewhere like Burnham Deepdale (population 800) on the North Norfolk Coast and other nearby settlements. Nearest stations are probably King's Lynn (destinations served = Cambridge and London Kings Cross/London Liverpool Street) and Sheringham (noting that Greater Anglia trains from the latter only ever seem to operate to Norwich).

There are seven Burnhams and I think they all qualify with Kings Lynn and Sheringham. Go a bit further east and you are in Sheringham/West Runton territory, a bit further west and it is Kings Lynn/Watlington.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Nearest to Buckingham are MKC and Wolverton.

Wolverton didn't occur to me, but I know someone who lives in Buckingham and he always goes to Bletchley, primarily because you can always get in the car park.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

There are seven Burnhams and I think they all qualify with Kings Lynn and Sheringham. Go a bit further east and you are in Sheringham/West Runton territory, a bit further west and it is Kings Lynn/Watlington.

Indeed. Perhaps Wainfleet/Havenhouse on the Boston->Skegness line are marginally nearer to some of them, but only if "as the crow flies" distances are allowed.

 

[Ayman Ilham]

Meltham in West Yorkshire (near Huddersfield), nearest stations are Slaithwaite on the Huddersfield line (to get to Manchester) and Honley on the Penistone line (to get to Sheffield) - I believe it's more convenient for people living there to just use the direct bus service if they wanted to get to Huddersfield

 

[A0wen]

Bidford on Avon - according to Google Maps:

Honeybourne 5.3 miles
Stratford upon Avon 6.8 miles

And the other stations nearby are Evesham 7.2 miles and Stratford upon Avon Parkway 7.7 miles

Lutterworth - again Google Maps:

Rugby 6.7 miles
Narborough 9.9 miles

 

[Magdalia]

This works best when the nearest station has no close neighbours on the same line.

Places east of Diss, such as Harleston, where next nearest is Halesworth, or north of Diss, such as Tivetshall, where next nearest is Eccles Road, meet the criterion.

Places east of Spalding, out towards Long Sutton, next nearest is Kings Lynn. Going north from Spalding places such as Sutterton or Algarkirk next nearest is Hubberts Bridge or Boston. The one I like is going west from Spalding, places such as Bourne, which are near the ECML but the nearest stations are Spalding and Stamford.

Indeed. Perhaps Wainfleet/Havenhouse on the Boston->Skegness line are marginally nearer to some of them, but only if "as the crow flies" distances are allowed.

I'm doing this with paper maps and a ruler, and I don't have a good map showing all of Norfolk and Lincolnshire on the same page. I think that Wainfleet and Havenhouse are too far away from the Burnhams, even as the seagull flies. But bizarrely Wainfleet and Havenhouse may be the nearest to Sunny Hunny!

 

[A Challenge]

I'm sure the earlier example of Bakewell - Matlock and Grindleford qualifies as well

Not quite, the late evening EMR stopper along the Hope Valley continues to Nottingham and the last Matlock train runs through to Nottingham.

 

[Watershed]

Buntingford in Hertfordshire is surrounded by a 7-9 mile wide "ring" of stations:

Stevenage (8.6 miles)
Ashwell & Morden (7.0 miles)
Baldock (7.9 miles)
Royston (7.4 miles)
Bishops Stortford (9.6 miles)
Watton at Stone (7.4 miles)
Ware (9.5 miles)

...as I discovered, to my cost, when I once had to travel there! Ended up taking a taxi from Stevenage.

 

[Magdalia]

Halstead (Braintree / Marks Tey)

Nearest to Halstead are Chappel and Wakes Colne and Bures.

 

[D6975]

How about Cleckheaton - anyone mentioned that yet?
All stations between Batley and Mirfield to the South(ish),
Brighouse to the South West (sort of the same line),
Low Moor to the North West (definitely a different line)

 

[zwk500]

Would we count the Northampton Loop and WCML fast lines via Weedon as separate lines? If so, Rugby and Long Buckby are similar distances from Daventry as the crow flies.

No, Long Buckby is on the same line as Rugby.

 

[Roast Veg]

South Ossett, West Yorkshire, is nearly equidistant from Wakefield Westgate and Dewsbury stations, with both Ravensthorpe and Kirkgate a little further away.

 

[M&NEJ]

Otley - used to have a railway and probably still should. Nearest stations now are Menston (Leeds/Bradford to Ilkley) or Weeton (Leeds to Harrogate).

 

[Ken H]

Otley - used to have a railway and probably still should. Nearest stations now are Menston (Leeds/Bradford to Ilkley) or Weeton (Leeds to Harrogate).

or Horsforth. about the same distance as Weeton.

 

[Quakers Yard]

Loads in the valleys...Nelson being one of them as between Ystrad Mynach and Quakers Yard or Abercynon.

 

[AlastairFraser]

Watlington, Oxon - nearly equidistant between Princes Risborough (on the Chiltern Main Line, 10.7 miles) and Cholsey (on the Great Western Main Line, 10.5 miles).
Different destinations too in one direction - Princes Risborough has Birmingham, Oxford and Aylesbury in one direction, whereas Cholsey has only Didcot and the odd Oxford service, London is the main destination in the other direction for both.

Kingsclere, Hants - 6.6miles from Midgham station on the Berks and Hants line and 5.7 miles from Overton on the West of England Main Line.
Different destinations both ways this time - Overton has Salisbury/Exeter westbound and London eastbound, Midgham Newbury westbound and Reading eastbound.

 

[Ianigsy]

Otley - used to have a railway and probably still should. Nearest stations now are Menston (Leeds/Bradford to Ilkley) or Weeton (Leeds to Harrogate).

As an Otley resident, that was the first one that occurred to me, however Guiseley is quite a bit nearer than Weeton. I’ve walked from Guiseley before in extremis, but it’d take a lot for me to have to walk to Weeton. A similar situation applies to Addingham - Ben Rhydding is nearer than Steeton & Silsden.

 

[30907]

Buntingford in Hertfordshire is surrounded by a 7-9 mile wide "ring" of stations:

Stevenage (8.6 miles)
Ashwell & Morden (7.0 miles)
Baldock (7.9 miles)
Royston (7.4 miles)
Bishops Stortford (9.6 miles)
Watton at Stone (7.4 miles)
Ware (9.5 miles)

...as I discovered, to my cost, when I once had to travel there! Ended up taking a taxi from Stevenage.

Of which the 5 closest are on one line (stretching a point, perhaps) and neither of the others was served by the one-time branch line

I am sure there are many others across the country, but here's one: Great Harwood's nearest station by a long way is Rishton, but then it is, by road, more or less equidistant from Accrington, Church, Langho and Whalley - but Whalley wins (and if you choose the parish church rather than the former town hall, wins comfortably).

 

[gg1]

Langport in Somerset goes one better, it's 3 closest stations are on 3 different lines, Bridgwater, Crewkerne and Yeovil Pen Mill.

 

[spyinthesky]

Tidworth- Grateley SW and Pewsey GW

 

[InOban]

There are too many in Scotland to list (although someone will now produce the list for me !)