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I really like to travel to special landmarks, such as the most northern part of each continent. I'm always looking for new things to travel to and therefore I'm looking now for the biggest detour ever.

Assume two places A and B. What is the biggest difference between the airline distance of these two places and the route I have to take using public transport.

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Actually I didn't get the question.. but do you mean something like JFK->LGA? with public transportation you need 30 minutes or less.. with airlines you can make it in 48 hours if you want? is this what you mean? – HaLaBi Jul 19 '12 at 9:11
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This remind me the story of Kéraban the inflexible, by Jules Verne, who didn't want to pay the fee to cross the Bosphorus in Istanbul and decided to go around the Black Sea instead. – mouviciel Jul 19 '12 at 9:42
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I suppose you're asking for the ratio between the shortest distance between two places using ground-based public transport and the shortest distance 'as the crow flies'? This is probably practically impossible to answer. – MastaBaba Jul 19 '12 at 10:32
@MastaBaba excatly – RoflcoptrException♦ Jul 19 '12 at 10:45
Given that both of gerrit's answers below make a good point, perhaps the question should indeed require A and B to be airports. :) – MastaBaba Jul 19 '12 at 14:56
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closed as not constructive by dlanod, Gagravarr, mithy, Rory Alsop, Gilles Jul 19 '12 at 20:15

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2 Answers

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If it's just a ratio: from Karesuando (Sweden) to Karesuvanto (Finland) is 1 km, but by bus one would need to do Karesuando–Vittangi–Haparanda–Tornio–Rovaniemi–Karesuvanto, which is 832 km and would take at least 3 days. That's a ratio of 832. Of course, sensible would be to just walk (a sign in Tornio suggests exactly that for the last 459 km).

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That's funny. There's no public transport that crosses the bridge between the two? – MastaBaba Jul 19 '12 at 14:42
No. The Swedish bus drives only on the E45, the Finnish one on the E8, and the village is small so there is no local public transportation. The E45 and the E8 are not crossing (Wikipedia is wrong here as of 2012-07-19T14:49:24Z) but connected by a small road over the bridge. I think in areas with less open borders it's quite common for buses to drive only to and from the border on both sides, with international travellers crossing on foot. – gerrit Jul 19 '12 at 14:50
Very true. Though, for the purpose of the question as it currently stands, small walks between stations would have to be allowed. After all, for example changing from a train to a plane also requires you to walk a certain distance. – MastaBaba Jul 19 '12 at 14:57
@gerrit if you find an error on Wikipedia please correct. The power in Wikipedia is fully based on the community correcting errors. – Andra Jul 19 '12 at 18:01
@Andra true, but I don't have a source for my claim other than "I've been there", and Wikipedia doesn't like original research. I tried to find a source for the road-number for the 200 meters of road from the Swedish side to the border, but couldn't find any. – gerrit Jul 19 '12 at 19:16
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Answer: ∞

Because, what about closed border crossings? The distance between A and B is approximately 0. In the linked example, even by car it's 169 km according to Google Maps, but I guess by public transport one would have to go via Rovaniemi, Kemijärvi, Кандала́кша, Му́рманск, and Заполя́рный, which makes it 1119 km already...

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Good point. I once wanted to cross from Khabarovsk, in Russia, into China, but wasn't allowed to. Public transport would have required me to make a detour possibly through as far away as Vladivostok. – MastaBaba Jul 19 '12 at 14:55

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