Which station should we meet at?
When everyone is coming from a different part of the city, meet at the station the most lines pass through rather than the one closest to the middle - an interchange is reachable without doubling back from far more of the city, and a change costs more time than a few extra stops. togather times each person's real journey and names the stations that keep the group even.
Start from the network, not the map
The instinct is to look at a map, find the middle, and pick the nearest station to it. That works when everyone is coming from the same direction and fails the rest of the time, because a station’s usefulness has almost nothing to do with where it sits and almost everything to do with what runs through it.
A station on a single line is convenient for the people already on that line and awkward for everybody else. An interchange is reachable from several directions without doubling back. When a group is scattered, that difference is worth far more than a few kilometres in the right direction.
The three questions worth asking
- How many lines meet here? More lines means more of the group arrives without a change, and a change is the expensive part of any journey.
- Which direction do those lines come from? Four lines that all run north-south do not help a group split east and west.
- Can everyone actually wait there? A platform with nothing around it is a bad meeting point even when the timings are perfect, because the first person to arrive stands still for ten minutes.
Why a change costs more than extra stops
A change is the walk between platforms plus the wait for the next service, and it is unpredictable in a way that riding is not. Five extra stops on the line you are already on is usually cheaper than one change, which is exactly why the fair station is often further out than the group expects - it is the one that lets people stay on a single service.
togather does this comparison properly: it times each person’s real door-to-door journey, changes and walking included, on the mode that person is actually using. The stations it returns are the ones where the average trip is short and the spread between the longest and shortest journey is small, with everyone’s time shown next to the result.
Add everyone’s starting point, pick how each person travels, and settle it in about a minute.
How togather works it out
List where everyone is starting
Up to six starting points, and a district or a nearby station is precise enough. This is the part groups usually skip, and it is the part that decides the answer.
Rule out single-line stations
A station on one line is only convenient for the people already on it. Interchanges are what make a spot reachable from several directions without anyone changing twice.
Compare the real journeys, not the map
togather times every person's door-to-door trip, changes and walking included, then shows the stations where the average trip is short and the gap between the longest and shortest journey is small.
Questions
- Which station should we meet at if everyone is coming from a different part of the city?
- Pick the interchange that the most of your group can reach without changing lines twice, not the station nearest the geographic middle. In practice that is a major multi-line hub, and which one depends on the specific starting points - which is what togather calculates.
- Is the most central station always the fairest?
- No. Central stations win often because networks radiate from the centre, but a group spread across one side of a city is usually better served by a big outer interchange that saves everyone the trip in and back out again.
- How much does a change cost compared with extra stops?
- More than people expect. A change means the walk between platforms plus the wait for the next service, which regularly costs more than riding four or five extra stops on the line you are already on. That is why interchanges beat proximity.
- What if some of the group is not arriving by train?
- Set those people to their own mode. Someone cycling or walking in is timed on the road network, and their time is compared against the rail journeys in minutes, so the station that wins is the one that is fair to the whole mixed group.
Settle it in about a minute
Add everyone’s starting point, pick how each person travels, and send the result to the group. No download, no sign-up.
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