You’d think I’d asked the universe’s most baffling question. Where do neutrinos come from? What, exactly, is consciousness? No. Where in the UK has the best train connections? Not the busiest station. Easy-peasy: Waterloo, which, according to the government’s Office of Road and Rail, last year clocked 100m entries and exits through its turnstiles. Anyway, not that. Not where has the worst connections, either. Only patches of the Scottish Borders, its western coast, Skye, Mull, the far north-west, the Cairngorms, around Loch Ness, north-east above Aberdeen, and a snippet by Bude and Burnham Market are more than 30km from a station. Anyway, not that. Rather, which place has the most departures going to the most destinations. I briefed my network of trainspotters (father-in-law wrote timetables for British Rail). Hmm, it said. I asked Trainline’s data bods. “Blimey,” they exclaimed. But, at last, days later, the answer. The most trains? Clapham Junction, with one every 13 seconds at peak. The most destinations? Manchester Piccadilly, Leeds or Birmingham New Street, all hubs of vast regional networks with intercity and local stations. At New Street, say, you can go direct to Penzance and Aberdeen, or Smethwick. Network Rail agreed: Clapham Junction for volume, Birmingham New Street for the most destinations over the greatest distance. Another mystery solved! Next: so, Donald Trump: what’s that all about?
