Are you taking this into Italian or another language? Then you don't need this additional suggestion. But most importantly I'd say you are 'measuring' the distance here. I've cut a few words, but otherwise the idea is the same as the others.

I understand you trouble here since when discussing 'sträcka' in terms of rail tracks, you are lookng along the tracks, the distance to travel from one point to the next. But here, the Swe uses the same word (in error I think) to measure across tracks, presumably at a road or other crossing.