Long platforms

["Roderick Smith" <rodsmith@werple.net.au>]

Sorry for the late reply: my isp's service is deteriorating; most items in
this thread didn't come to me, I had to search via the Railpage archive.

John Marshall 'Rail: the records', Guinness 1985 gives the world's longest
16 passenger platforms as:
Washington State (Chicago USA red line): 1066 m
Khargpur (India): 833 m
Perth (WA, Australia): 762 m
Sonepur (India): 736 m
Bulawayo (Zimbabwe): 702 m
New Lucknow (India): 685 m
Manchester Victoria & Exchange: 682 m (the Exchange portion was out of use
from 5.5.69, but was intact).
Bezwada (India): 640 m
Jhansi (India): 617 m
Gloucester (England): 603 m
Colchester (England): 585 m (with a horizonal step in it, and serving two
tracks).
Kotri (India): 578 m
Mandalay (Burma): 545 m
Bourkemouth (England): 533 m
Perth (Scotland): 522 m
York (England): 516 m

Other long ones were:
Storvik (Sweden): ~500 m
Edinburgh Waverley (Scotland): 486 m
York (England): 480 m
Trichinopoly: 471 m
Ranaghat (India): 464 m
Crewe (England): 460 m
London Victoria (England): 457 m
Dakor (India): 448 m
Newcastle upon Tyne (England): 423 m
Cambridge (England): 382 m

His research was highly Anglocentric, and probably missed more than the
other long Australian ones.

The Washington State one in Chicago is run as two stations; trains make two
stops; the two are separated with a partition, so that passengers are not
able to walk the length.  The southern stop connects with the blue line;
the northern one connects with the elevated.  When I rode it in 1996, my
train was delayed for 10 min at the southern end before moving forwards.

AFAIK Perth Terminal really is 762 m (holding 33 carriages).  When it was
built, regular double-set operation was envisaged; at the time a standard
set had 13 vehicles.

Port Pirie was built with two faces of 701 m.  One was full length sg; the
other was used as two part length platforms.

Even before the 1955 rebuilding, Bulawayo had the longest platform in
Africa.  In ~1955 the station was remodelled from one with island platforms
to one which was a stub-end terminus.  I cannot determine if this
lengthened or shortened the platforms.  Croxton 'Railways of Zimbabwe',
David & Charles 1982, did not give the lengths in either era.

Kalgoorlie had a sign in the sg era stating the length of the platform, and
pointing out that this was longer than Albury's platform.  However, I
cannot find a photo of the sign in my collection, or even a note of the
figures in my notebooks.

Two posters have conflicted on the length of Albury: 457 m & 500 m; VR
listed it as 456 m.

Recorder did not record the length of the platforms at AN's new terminal at
Keswick; Bulletin stated that all three faces were 500 m.

Flinders St pfm 1 was lengthed at the western end in the early 1950s, and
at the eastern end in about 1965.  As at 1983, the combined length was 708
m.  AFAIK it has been shorted by a few metres at the eastern end as part of
the reshaping to accommodate Federation Square.


This gives a current Australian listing:

Perth Terminal: 762 m
Melbourne Flinders St pfm 1: ~708 m
Port Pirie: 701 m
Adelaide Keswick: 500 m
Kalgoorlie: ?
Albury sg: 456 m
Melbourne Spencer St pfm 3: 434 m
Melbourne Spencer St pfm 2: 420 m (ie 18 vehicles)
Melbourne Spencer St pfm 1: 411 m (ie 18 vehicles)
Roma St north-coast platform: ?
Cronulla: 390 m
Sydney pfm 1: 370 m (ie 16 vehicles)
Melbourne Flinders St pfm 10 & 12: 350 m
Maryborough (Vic): 348 m
Broken Hill: ?
Rockhampton: ?
Mildura: ?

New Zealand must have had some in the 400 m class, as a common design was a
double-length platform with an intermediate scissors crossover (eg
Dunedin).

-- 
Regards
Roderick Smith
Rail News Victoria Editor