MISC | Ten Longest Continuous Rail Journeys on Earth.

[Yardmaster]

(walking from platform to platform accepted)

My guess for the longest is Thurso or Wick to Ho Chi Minh City ....

[Yardmaster]

Although you might hitch longer journeys on freight trains, I believe the longest journey you could make in my country is one of 7,351 kilometres, between Mt. Isa, Queensland, and Bunbury, Western Australia, via, Townsville, Brisbane, SYdney, Broken Hill, Port Augusta and Perth.

It's actually a bit longer than that since I've used the highway distances between Mt. Isa & Townsville.

[DiggerD21]

Do you speak of a single journey without changing trains?

[SM247]

That isn't a single journey - it utilises (I am guessing)
- The Inlander (QR Traveltrain) to Townsville
- Cairns Tilt Train or The Sunlander/Queensland Class (QR TravelTrain) to Brisbane
- Brisbane XPT (CountryLink) to Sydney
- Indian Pacific (Great Southern Railway) to Perth via Adelaide
- The Australind (TransWA) to Bunbury

You could make it even longer by travelling on the Melbourn XPT and the Overland between Sydney and Adelaide.

The longest single journey in Australia is the I-Pac, about 4300-4400km from Sydney to Perth and involves the longest completely flat and straight stretch of track in the world, about 500km in length on the Nullarbor Plain.

Tha Ghan is about 3000km in length between Adelaide and Darwin.

Other long journeys are the various CountryLink and QR coastal routes, most of which would be at or exceed 1,000km.

[Yardmaster]

Originally Posted by SM247

That isn't a single journey - it utilises (I am guessing)
- The Inlander (QR Traveltrain) to Townsville
- Cairns Tilt Train or The Sunlander/Queensland Class (QR TravelTrain) to Brisbane
- Brisbane XPT (CountryLink) to Sydney
- Indian Pacific (Great Southern Railway) to Perth via Adelaide
- The Australind (TransWA) to Bunbury

You could make it even longer by travelling on the Melbourn XPT and the Overland between Sydney and Adelaide.

The longest single journey in Australia is the I-Pac, about 4300-4400km from Sydney to Perth and involves the longest completely flat and straight stretch of track in the world, about 500km in length on the Nullarbor Plain.

Tha Ghan is about 3000km in length between Adelaide and Darwin.

Other long journeys are the various CountryLink and QR coastal routes, most of which would be at or exceed 1,000km.

well, I was thinking of the longest journey- by the shortest route- with as many changes as necessary. To get from Thurso Scotland to Ho Chi Minh City Vietnam I'd guess I'd have to change trains in Edinburgh, London maybe, Paris,
Moscow, Beijing and Hanoi at least.

[earthJoker]

It seems there is nor rail track through the Sinai Peninsula, so prolly from western europe to eastern asia is the longest continous rail journey. Maybe they should build that connection so one can travel from Cape Town to Vladivostok.

[sweek]

Longest single journey you'll find in the Netherlands is Heerlen to Schagen, at 274 km using roadway distances.
Obviously that's no where near the longest journey you can make on a single train.

According to Wikipedia's Trains-Siberian Railway article:

The main route, the Trans-Siberian, runs from Moscow to Vladivostok via southern Siberia and was built between 1891 and 1916. It is often associated with the main Russian train that connects these two cities. At 9,288 kilometres (5,772 miles), spanning 8 time zones and taking about 7 days to complete its journey, it is the third longest single continuous service in the world, after the Donetsk-Vladivostok and Moscow-Pyongyang services, both of which follow the Trans-Siberian.

[Küsel]

I would go for the Transsib - but probably it's only for touristic traffic as the one through Canada.

[earthJoker]

The transsib is not only for touristic traffic, if that's what you wanne say Kuesel.

[Yardmaster]

OK, this is what I was thinking here ... suppose you grabbed a little railway trolley and went as far as you possibly could down the line ... how far could you go? you're allowed to switch axles at a break of gauge. You can also shift your trolley from one track to an adjoining track.

My guess:

1. Thurso (Scotland) to Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) Vietnam ... at least 15,000 km
2. Mt. Isa Queensland to Geraldton Western Australia: close to 8,000 km
3. Hay River Canada to Tizimin (via Merida), Yucatan, Mexico. Maybe further, probably not.
4. Capetown, South Africa, to Mahagi Port, Lake Albert, Uganda.
5. Maraba, Para, Brazil, to Esquel, Chubut, Patagonia, Argentina.
6. Chittagong, Bangladesh, to Zahedran, Iran. (it seems that this will be connected through Kurzan and Tehran to Scutari, Turkey ... and through Russia to Thurso, Scotland!)

unfortunately, accurate measurements are hard to come by ...

[UD2]

the Trains-Canada Raillink, 1 ticket, 1 train, 6400km (4000 miles).

[Yardmaster]

Originally Posted by UD2

the Trains-Canada Raillink, 1 ticket, 1 train, 6400km (4000 miles).

According to my rail atlas:

Capetown- Pretoria: 999 km
New Delhi-Mumbai: 1384 km
Chicago- Los Angeles: 3577 km
Sydney- Perth: 3938 km
Montreal- Vancouver: 4680 km
Moscow-Vladlivostok "almost" 10,000 km

but see my comments above.

[Bitxofo]

Inside Spain, the longest train journey is about 1,400 km. and it takes 10-12 hours.

[UT596001]

¿Estrella Galicia?

[oz.fil]

does a subway loop count? it is a continuous journey

[Tubeman]

Originally Posted by oz.fil

does a subway loop count? it is a continuous journey

Yeah I was going to be a smartarse and say London's Circle Line, but the fact it shuts down for 4 hours a night pisses on that claim... Oh well!

[Bitxofo]

Originally Posted by UT596001

¿Estrella Galicia?

Estrella Galicia takes longer: 15 or 16 hours, but I think the distance is shorter: 1200-1300 kms.

[Yardmaster]

Hmm ... perhaps my command of English is not what I thought it was.

Thurso Scotland to Ho Chi Minh City Vietnam ... the longest journey, versus travelling endlessly on a city subway loop? Hay River Canada to Merida Mexico? Mt Isa to Geraldton? Perhaps the term " longest" means something different to me.

[Justme]

Originally Posted by Yardmaster

well, I was thinking of the longest journey- by the shortest route- with as many changes as necessary. To get from Thurso Scotland to Ho Chi Minh City Vietnam I'd guess I'd have to change trains in Edinburgh, London maybe, Paris,
Moscow, Beijing and Hanoi at least.

You should play around with Germany's National Rail web site. Naturally, you would expect to be able to check train time tables in Germany, but their site is so good, you can almost pick any destination around the world you could get to "from Germany" by train.

Seriously. The site has an English page, so you can easily do your own searches, but keep in mind that German place names may differ from the English.

I done a quick search for tomorrow morning from Thurso, Scotland to Beijing (or Peking as the Germans still call it) and got this: Link

Travelling time 8.8days and 6 changes.

try starting at http://www.db.de/site/bahn/en/start.html this is the English page at www.db.de

I'm sure with a bit of searching, you could find some distance longer. Also, keep in mind that www.db.de would probably try to find the shortest or quickest route. Of cause, you really good find a much longer one if you really wanted to ;O)

[empersouf]

There used to be a single rail line from Lisboa to Hanoi!
So you could travel between Portugal and Vietnam without changing train.

And I think, in terms of this thread, you could hop on a train in Lulea, Sweden and end up in Hanoi Vietnam.....
That would be longer than Thorso-Hanoi I think?