NATIONAL RAIL |
DESCRIBE ONLINE |
We're pleased to report that we've enlisted the services of Chris Cook, who has offered to help us resolve errors and ambiguities in our National Rail map and station finder.
As a result, the information in our National Rail pages will be subject to change over the coming months, in that some stations will appear on different lines. This will also cause changes within the station finder. Please bear with us.
There are three ways to access guides to National Rail stations within this section of our site:
This is a text equivalent, not a graphic map of the National Rail network. It is not designed to be a journey planning tool, though some of our users track the sequence of stations to good effect.
The front page includes a list of nodes which serve as entry points to the map. In general, if you follow one of the links from the front page of the map, you'll reach a page containing a list of lines served at the selected node. Many nodes, such as Derby, just address a single station, whilst others, including London, Birmingham and Manchester, address more than one station from which you can access information about relevant lines.
Our original intention was to merely show the geography of the network, so our "lines" reflected where the ironwork went, rather than trying to show where actual services ran. Thanks to the valuable help we're receiving from Chris Cook, our lines are being revised to provide a more useful and realistic representation of the services provided via the network. This process is ongoing, relying on Chris and I finding the time to progress it, please bear with us.
Each line is established as a two column table, in which the left-hand column is a list of stations in the stated direction and the second column contains links to other lines served by a station (where appropriate).
The link from a station named in the first column will either lead to a text guide to that station, a network node page, or to further information about that station. If there is no link on a station name, it means that we've yet to provide a guide to it.
The front page of our station finder includes a list of single letter links, each of which addresses a page listing the stations whose names begin with that letter.
The information in each page is set out in a three-column table.
Each station name is set up as either a level 5 or 6 heading to aid navigation through these large pages. The first instance of each second letter is established at level 5, whilst other names sharing that second letter are at level 6. This means that, on the complex "B" page, if you're looking for Burnley Central, via JAWS, you can enter this page, move to the first name (Bache). You now hit the "5" key, which will bring you to Beaconsfield, Bicester North, Blackburn, Bodmin Parkway, Bracknell and Buchanan Street.
From here you can hit the "6" key until you reach Burnley Central. This is shown as serving the Preston-Colne line.
Note that, some tramway and light rail stations are included in this station finder. As Chris and I develop this service, a National Tramways and Light Rail station finder will be developed, distinct from the National Rail version. Note that we have a London Underground station finder which can be reached through our London Underground information front page.
This was originally set up to show our work to potential customers, however, as our site has grown, it now provides a useful alternative means of finding station guides.
The "Our Site" section includes links to National Rail and London Underground information.
The national Rail section has been divided into England/Wales and Scottish stations. Each section lists the stations for which we've published text guides, in alphabetic order. the second column of this list links to the website of the sponsor(s) of each guide.
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© 2003 Terry Robinson