tubechallenge.com

Am I to take it that this has dried up, and you need to be told the answers?

Yes please.

OK then. Let's all argue over these, shall we?

1. What is the longest official station name on the National Rail network?

University for Queen Elizabeth Hospital and the University of Birmingham (63)

Followed by Rhoose Cardiff International Airport (33 characters), and Manchester United Football Ground (30)

2. Which stations have the same number of platforms as letters in their name?

Brighton
Ely
Carlisle
Lewes
Par
Purley
Sheffield
Tring
Woking
Vauxhall
Chester

There may well be more of these. It depends if you count disused platforms.

3. Which English cities appear in London Underground station names?

GLOUCESTER Road
LANCASTER Gate
LEICESTER Square
LIVERPOOL Street
LONDON Bridge
OXFORD Circus
PRESTON Road
WESTMINSTER

4. Excluding "London", Which UK location appears in the most station names?

ACTON: North Acton, South Acton, West Action, East Acton, Acton Central, Acton Town and Acton Mainline

5. How many UK stations can you name with a geometrical shape in their name?

Winnersh Triangle
Bromley Cross
Waltham Cross
Kings Cross
Charing Cross (x2)
Starcross
New Cross
New Cross Gate
Cross Gates
Crossflatts
Starcross
Salford Crescent
Oval
etc.

6. English passengers on some trains from Linz, Austria might be worried about the smell. Why is this?

Several of the trains from Linz Urfahr station show the destination as the village of Rottenegg.

7. Which UK station name is an acronym?

IBM.

8. Which two stations in the UK that share a place name are furthest apart?

Berwick (East Sussex) to North Berwick - 380 miles

9. There are 3 stations on the National Rail network sharing an identical name There are 318 miles total distance between them. What is the shared name of these stations?

Whitchurch (Cardiff, Hants, Shropshire)

10. What is the furthest destination to appear on a sign anywhere on the London Underground?

Rio de Janeiro (seen on the Jubilee platforms at Stratford station after the Olympic Games)

11. What journey would you have had to make to connect from the "North Express" to the "Further North Express"?

North Express ran from Southampton to Cheltenham Spa Landsdown. Further North Express was Inverness to Wick. The North Express ran until 1914.

What's the answer for 4) if you exclude TFL stations?

No idea.

I wonder what counts as official, because I seriously doubt that University etc is offically the name - it may be on the station signs, but the 'fors' are not normally considered part of the name.

There are seven Suttons (although they do not all refer to the same place)

Kings Sutton
Little Sutton
Sutton
Sutton Coldfield
Sutton Common
Sutton Parkway
West Sutton

Well, I said that earlier in the thread as a suggestion for the answer. I got told 'no' though.

I will admit that I had overlooked Sutton as an answer. As it turns out, it is the joint-top answer for that question, so it counts.

As for "official" station names, it's a bit of a minefield, as different sources quote different "official" names. I think University is a bit of as dodgy correct answer, and I have done some searching on forums and found people suggesting all sorts of things that make good answers themselves.

Maybe it was a stupid question.

As far as quizzes go, I would agree that a question without a definitive answer is stupid

But I had it on good authority that the "official" name of University is whatever it says it is above.

Ahem. Question 8 - Hampton Wick and Wick? 498 miles.

Sorry to bring this up again. I was searching for the word shape.

The Orange One wrote:Ahem. Question 8 - Hampton Wick and Wick? 498 miles.

Sorry to bring this up again. I was searching for the word shape.

The places have to have the exact SAME name, not just contain the same word.

Hampton Wick and Wick are two completely differently-named places.

tubeguru wrote:The places have to have the exact SAME name, not just contain the same word

That doesn't make sense when the given answer was Berwick to North Berwick.

Edit: Newport (Essex) to Newport (S Wales) looks to be about 140 miles. No guarantee that's the furthest, though it does beat any of the three Whitchurch to Whitchurch distances.

Hmmm, would it surprise you to discover that I can't remember the answers?