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In the Pottermore article on Platform 9 and 3/4 it's mentioned that other fractional platforms exist (7 1/2, for instance). Is it ever stated elsewhere where these platforms lead? Perhaps you could get a connection from your hometown by accessing one of these platforms?

AncientSwordRage
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    It's a shame Rowling has apparently never been to Kings Cross station. The only walls are between 8 and 9, 4 and 5, and the new 0 and 1. There's no wall between 7 and 8, or even 9 and 10. – Daniel Roseman May 01 '12 at 10:11
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    @DanielRoseman no wall's that we muggles can see at least... – NominSim May 01 '12 at 12:09
  • JKR says in that very article that she hasn't concretely determined where the other platforms go. – Gabe Willard May 01 '12 at 18:05
  • There wasn't mention of any other platforms in the Seven or the Three. If there's more about them it'll have to be in Pottermore or, possibly, word of god. – Kevin May 01 '12 at 22:42
  • Pottermore Info: http://www.flickr.com/photos/slytherincess/7134806473/ I thought I had read about this, but I couldn't place where. I finally figured it must have been Pottermore. – Slytherincess May 02 '12 at 08:13
  • @DanielRoseman: See http://scifi.stackexchange.com/q/68001/4918 Had JK Rowling seen King's Cross Station before writing the first book? – b_jonas Nov 15 '15 at 20:13
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    @DanielRoseman King's Cross has renumbered its platforms more than once in the last couple of decades. – Darael Nov 15 '15 at 20:41
  • The books' description more closely matches Paddington, but trains from there head towards Wales, not Scotland. – OrangeDog Jan 05 '16 at 18:38
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    @Daniel Roseman You are assuming that in all train stations the tracks are numbered sequentially. Once I took a train from 30th Street Station in Philadelphia, PA to my suburb at Chalfont. But due to a problem the train stopped at Suburban Station and we had to get on another train on another track. And there I noticed that track number one was not at one side but between two tracks with higher numbers. So maybe Platform 9 & 3/4 is in a wall between 8 and 9, for example, being numbered out of sequence. – M. A. Golding Feb 07 '21 at 17:59

1 Answers1

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Dumbledore smiled at him. ‘We are in King’s Cross, you say? I think that if you decided not to go back, you would be able to ... let’s say ... board a train.’

‘And where would it take me?’

‘On,’ said Dumbledore simply.

Deathly Hallows - page 578 - UK - chapter 35, King's Cross

Perhaps the ¼ and ½ platforms simply lead On . . . wherever and whatever On may be!

Barring Word of God, I think this is the closest canon reference we're going to get to the other trains. Yes, I realize Dumbledore is speaking metaphorically. And yes, I realize the trains are not specifically described in canon.

On is just an idea. :)

ETA: This kept niggling at me, so I signed into Pottermore and checked the information on Platform 9¾ . . . and I found something. JKR perceived other trains leaving from other fractioned platforms. She thought one might be like the Orient Express, while others would be used on special occasions to take witches and wizards to one-off events, like a concert (or maybe even a magical creatures zoo or circus!)

Sayeth You-Know-Who:

In choosing the number of the concealed platform that would take young witches and wizards to boarding school, I decided that it would have to be a number between those of the Muggle platforms - therefore, it was clearly a fraction. This raised the interesting question of how many other fractional platforms lay between the whole-numbered platforms at King's Cross, and I concluded that were probably quite a few. Although these are never mentioned in the book, I like to think that it is possible to take a version of the Orient Express off to wizard-only villages in continental Europe (try platform seven and a half), and that other platforms may be opened on an as-required-basis, for instance for large, one-off events such as Celestina Warbeck concerts (see your ticket for details).

The number nine and three-quarters presented itself without much conscious thought, and I liked it so much that I took it at once. It is the 'three-quarters' that makes it, of course.

[J.K. ROWLING - POTTERMORE - PLATFORM 9¾]

lfurini
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Slytherincess
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