Longest platform

[Steve Harris]

This is what it looks like - it separate platform 1 to the far end of it and platform 4 out of shot to the right. I think both platforms have been extended in recent years to take 12 coach trains.

That is certainly a bit of an eye sore on the station I spent a lot of my youth on.

If my memory serves me correctly Platform 1 has been 12 coaches long for decades. It got extended at the same time as platform 2 (back in the 90's ??), where as Platform 4 wasn't done until recently.

 

[Merle Haggard]

Substantial newspaper traffic. The layout would have facilitated more than one train (for different regional destinations) being loaded at the same time.

I remember it, it seemed to stretch into the distance and I was never sure whether you were allowed to use it to walk between the two stations. Tangentially, the reason I did do that walk one Sunday morning in steam days was because I had spent ages walking around the roads surrounding (and possibly beneath) Exchange looking in vain for the actual entrance, so just went to Vic and walked back.

 

[Magdalia]

If my memory serves me correctly Platform 1 has been 12 coaches long for decades. It got extended at the same time as platform 2 (back in the 90's ??), where as Platform 4 wasn't done until recently.

Platforms 1 and 2 at Cambridge were realigned for resignalling in the early 1980s, but not lengthened significantly. This ran the down road into platform 1 instead of onto the through line. I've not looked recently but for a long time the old curved alignment at the south end of platform 1 could still be discerned using a join in the tarmac.

The extension for 12 cars in platform 1 was for the 12 car GN trains introduced in 2009.

Platform 4 was done recently for the roll out of class 720s.

 

[AlastairFraser]

What about Reading West?

 

[Mcr Warrior]

What about Reading West?

What about it? Reading West doesn't have particularly long platforms, does it?

 

[MotCO]

I assume the platforms at Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch must be pretty long to accommodate the station name plates

 

[camflyer]

Thanks. Not been there (Cambridge) for several years.

The fence got put up sometime last year. Vert sensible addition as that section of the platform is regularly overcrowded so having an open platform face was an accident waiting to happen.

 

[AlastairFraser]

What about it? Reading West doesn't have particularly long platforms, does it?

The southbound platform is quite long, but have just checked and nowhere near Gloucester's longest.

 

[rower40]

Having grown up in Cambridge, I’d always been told that it was the longest single-platform station - i.e. no bridge or underpass - all platforms reached on the level. But it was the construction of platforms 7 & 8 that took the record away.

I hope the new yellow fence can be removed by nothing more than two big blokes and a large spanner - so that the Royal Train can come to a stand opposite the main entrance, to minimise the amount of red carpet needed.

 

[apinnard]

When I was a lad Colchester was alleged to be the longest platform in Britain although that probably referred to the structure as the platform face is not continuous.

If you walk from the end of P4 to the end of P3 at Colchester, and back again, you’d have walked three quarters of a mile.

 

[Par]

Pedantically this was the platform face that was in both Victoria and Exchange (the two stations were adjacent but one platform in effect connected the two)

A continuous platform not only in two stations, but also in two cities!

 

[FOH]

Paddington station P1 seems to curve forever including the old Motorail section. Or is it a separate platform? I can't remember...

 

[irp]

Paddington station P1 seems to curve forever including the old Motorail section. Or is it a separate platform? I can't remember...

No idea if it is one of the longest, but have walked it, and it certainly feels long every time. Then again two Class 57's and 7 Mk3 coaches aren't short, but I wanted a pic of the leading loco to Reading on the Down sleeper that night - even if it did sit down at Reading, and we had a run around for the rear loco to take over!

 

[Merle Haggard]

Paddington station P1 seems to curve forever including the old Motorail section. Or is it a separate platform? I can't remember...

Platform 1 only extended to just under the Bishop's Bridge Road overbridge. The platform face beyond (under Enterprise House) formed a bay serving a siding parallel to the Down Departure. The area was known as 'The Parcels Bay' from its purpose before Motor-rail.

I think that, more recently, the track from Platform 1 was slewed beyond the B.B.R. bridge partly onto the former siding alignment giving the impression that the platform face served it.

 

[Sun Chariot]

Platform 1 only extended to just under the Bishop's Bridge Road overbridge... the track from Platform 1 was slewed beyond the B.B.R. bridge partly onto the former siding alignment giving the impression that the platform face served it.

You're absolutely right and my mid1980s photos show the separate tracks for Down deparure platform 1 versus for the parcels bay.

 

[TheSeeker]

Waterloo International?

 

[jj1314]

Would guess that the biggest mismatch between platform length and location must be the Aberystwyth side platform at Dovey Junction. The reason for its length is clear - but on a cold drizzly morning with no trains or other passengers it looks very out of place.

You say that but I'm intrigued: what is the reason for such a lengthy platform?

 

[61653 HTAFC]

You say that but I'm intrigued: what is the reason for such a lengthy platform?

So that it can be served simultaneously by trains in either direction. In effect it is two separate platforms on the same side, similar to the setup at Penryn on the Falmouth branch in Cornwall.

 

[jj1314]

So that it can be served simultaneously by trains in either direction. In effect it is two separate platforms on the same side, similar to the setup at Penryn on the Falmouth branch in Cornwall.

Wow. I had no idea! Many thanks for getting back to me.

 

[61653 HTAFC]

Wow. I had no idea! Many thanks for getting back to me.

The changes were part of the upgrades to allow an hourly service to Aberystwyth. Where space allows (or where there isn't space for a conventional two platform arrangement) this removes the need to provide a step-free bridge or subway between the two platforms- something that would be overkill at a place like Dovey Junction.

 

[Magdalia]

Having grown up in Cambridge, I’d always been told that it was the longest single-platform station - i.e. no bridge or underpass - all platforms reached on the level. But it was the construction of platforms 7 & 8 that took the record away.

At Gloucester, I recall that when Eastgate closed, what's now platform 4 at Central was not in passenger use?

If my memory is right then the remodelled Gloucester was a longer single platform station than Cambridge.

I hope the new yellow fence can be removed by nothing more than two big blokes and a large spanner - so that the Royal Train can come to a stand opposite the main entrance, to minimise the amount of red carpet needed.

I can't recall a recent Royal Train arrival at Cambridge that involved rolling out the red carpet. I expect that, if that were needed, the train would stop in platform 1 and the doorway near the platform 3 buffer stop would be used to exit the station.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Would guess that the biggest mismatch between platform length and location must be the Aberystwyth side platform at Dovey Junction. The reason for its length is clear - but on a cold drizzly morning with no trains or other passengers it looks very out of place.

Is the platform at Dovey Junction (on the side of the station where trains to/from Aberystwyth call) all that long?

 

[MikeWM]

The fence got put up sometime last year. Vert sensible addition as that section of the platform is regularly overcrowded so having an open platform face was an accident waiting to happen.

Unfortunately, as can be seen from your photo and the other one earlier in the thread, they seem to have chosen to add just about the most ugly construction possible, which faces you every time you enter the station.

It also significantly narrows the walking routes to and from the platforms, increasing congestion, especially when the signaller for whatever reason decides to switch an incoming train between platform 1 and platform 4 (or 1 and 7) at the last moment, which is a fairly common occurrence.

I'm not aware of anyone actually falling off here in the 25+ years I've been regularly using the station, and I struggle to see why this has been added, other than to be seen to be doing something for the sake of it. And if they really felt they had to be seen to be doing something about the non-extant problem, couldn't they at least have done something a little more aesthetically acceptable?

 

[Wychwood93]

Waterloo International?

Constructed with the Class 373 Eurostar in mind - they were 387m - and IIRC the platforms were originally around 393m.

 

[Haywain]

Is the platform at Dovey Junction (on the side of the station where trains to/from Aberystwyth call) all that long?

321 metres according to the Sectional Appendix.

 

[swt_passenger]

Waterloo International?

No, altered to the normal 250m in 2017. The various crossovers and signals are now within the train shed.