neaby-metro-station

This page is to document websites and offline material that provides information about the closeness to train, metro, tram or other transport station data on pages.

Rationale

In London, people commonly refer to an area by the London Underground station closest to it and that station name often becomes a shorthand for the area near it. For example, the area around King's Cross station is commonly referred to as "King's Cross" rather than its older, pre-railway name, Somers Town.

Some London area names are not widely known: Nine Elms is close to Vauxhall station but if one wished to provide directions to that area, simply stating it is "near Vauxhall" is more instructive for most people.

Obviously, directing people to a nearby station serves a practical purpose - enabling people to get to a location via public transport.

Why not just take the geo coordinates of a location and then (using data from a service like OpenStreetMap, perhaps) find the nearest train station? Simply working out as the crow flies where the nearest station is won't necessarily help. Sometimes a station might be a short distance further but provide more reliable or frequent connections. Sometimes the walk to a closer station might take longer for pedestrians because of a complex road system and having to make lots of crossings. Perhaps a natural feature like a river is in the way.

Examples

Web

• Beer in the Evening: example listing, shows distance from nearby London Underground and National Rail stations
• Rightmove: example listing, shows distance to 3 nearest London Underground/Overground and National Rail stations
• Wikipedia: "Nearby transit access" - e.g. Chisenhale Gallery, London
• ...feel free to add more...

Print

• Frommer's England and Frommer's London travel guidebooks