Great Western Coffee Shop

There's active travel and active travel
https://www.cyclinguk.org/cycle-magazine/great-rides-ride-all-os-maps (https://www.cyclinguk.org/cycle-magazine/great-rides-ride-all-os-maps)
A hardy and determined individual. Well beyond my capabilities.

How many OS Landrangers can you cover by train?

There’s a challenge (working out which ones you could reach by train, that is) that I could not resist!
I think the answer is 169, with most of the unreachable-by-rail maps being those for the Shetlands, Orkneys, Hebrides, and remoter parts of Scotland (principally in the Highlands, but also a few in the Southern Uplands and Borders). Sheet 95 is the Isle of Man, and 190 is the only one entirely in England with no rail connection (Bude & Clovelly).

The article does mention that he took a train to Ullapool, so he was probably hallucinating by then (and his is no disgrace for doing so on such an epic...)

Mark

Excellent work, thanks for this It might be that the Campaign for Borders Rail will address some of these shortcomings. Whether it does or not, I can recommend life membership of it (and indeed once gave an introduction to the campaign to I think the Friends of the Severn Beach Line).

Mark

https://campaignforbordersrail.org/ (https://campaignforbordersrail.org/)

So how long do you think it would take a reasonable person with a Gold Card? Not saying the man on the bicycle was unreasonable, just more motivated than most of us. A challenge for Geoff Marshall?

All 650?

As part of a post yesterday, I was looking at UK parliamentary constituencies and their main network stations and could only find two mainland constituencies without a single passenger station (counting local mass transit on rails such as the London Underground as part of the main network for the purpose).  Orkney and Shetland, and Western Isles also, obviously, no rail stations. And there may be some in Northern Ireland not on their rail network.

Can you spot the two without stations?  Have I missed any?

Banff and Buchan, the second one being Houghton and Sunderland South?

Though they've no stations themselves, railheads do still have a bit of a presence for Orkney, Shetland and the Western Isles.

Also, thinking of Ullapool: while it never managed to have a rail link built, the bus to and from Inverness is actually mainly for ferry passengers, bus tickets really need to be booked in advance and space on the bus for travel to and from the village itself is more than a bit hit and miss as I found out one December.

Mark

Also North West Durham?

https://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/election-maps/gb/

Kingston upon Hull East + Kingston upon Hull North?

Louth and Horncastle?

Oxford East? Leicester West? North West Leicestershire? Nottingham East?

Staffordshire Moorlands?

*Looks at Birmingham* *Runs out of steam, takes a break* :-)

Mark

Thanks, Mark ... the second one I had was Aberdeen South - but you have been much more thorough that I was.   Some - such as Nottingham East does have local rail mass transit in the form of trams, I believe.    Others, yes, I should have noted; your are right though in many cases there's a station serving some of the local catchment all be it in the next constituency - Wylam station serves whatever that next consituency to it on the map is (North West Durham, perhaps?)

Ah, Aberdeen South, well spotted... and yes, some of these are city constituencies that do not actually contain the city's station. (Tips hat / gnashes teeth / commiserates at Leicester West, Nottingham East...)

Mark

PS An interesting read on Nottingham Victoria Centre at its 50th birthday here: https://municipaldreams.wordpress.com/2022/11/15/the-victoria-centre-nottingham/