By railway, again, it's not far (5)

I believe the answer is:

metre

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'not far' is the definition.
I can't tell whether this defines the answer.

'by railway again it's' is the wordplay.
'by' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'railway' becomes 'r' (eg in Great Western Railway).
'again' becomes 'met' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should believe this answer much more).
'it' becomes 'e' ('e' can mean 'electronic' which is similar to 'IT').
'r' after 'met' is 'metr'.
'metr'+'e'='METRE'

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for metre that I've seen before include "Approximately 39 inches" , "Basic unit of length" , "Approx 39 inches" , "Approx. thirty nine point three seven inches" , "measure of length" .)

I've seen this clue in the Evening Standard.

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