Re-routing the alphabet

[tubeguru]

And there should be loads more routes because there must be lots of "straight lines" in the style of the snake challenge where letters can be ticked off quite quickly.

For example, off the top of my head, Chancery Lane via Holborn would give you H, O, B, N, S, A, H, B, E, G, S, K, H, G, P, L, H and C. That's 12 unique letters in a much shorter time than it would have taken before.

But maybe the starting station should be a random draw, to eliminate the possibility of the thing becoming more "fixed" to avgoid a situation where people work out that the best route is always from, for example, a D and then automatically follow the same route as everyone else to the other letters.

[Wanstead]

It's not that different for trying to get Q though. Since only three stations start with this letter, and only one is in Zone 1, it's likely everyone would route through it. It's not such a problem with V...

[Starkey7]

For example, off the top of my head, Chancery Lane via Holborn would give you H, O, B, N, S, A, H, B, E, G, S, K, H, G, P, L, H and C. That's 12 unique letters in a much shorter time than it would have taken before.

Pardon? Chancery Lane to where via Holborn?

[greatkingrat]

That is the puzzle.

[Wanstead]

That is the puzzle.

Which is easy to solve once you realise a station has been skipped.

[tubeguru]

Yes, I edited it and accidentally edited out "Hounslow East".

On the subject of the letter I and people always doing the same routes for Ickenham, I have a solution - remove "I" from the challenge.

[Root]

...the rules change so you now have to visit a station beginning with every letter of the alphabet (bar J,X,Y and Z) in the fastest possible time, in any order.

Yes, that's a very good idea indeed. I propose that we adopt this as the "official" new format of the alphabet challenge immediately. There could be a mass-participation event to set the first handful of times, although of course I won't be able to attend. I just don't see the value in keeping the old format of the challenge, seeing as hardly anybody attempts it.

This idea is so simple and seems to make so much sense, I'm surprised no-one has mentioned it before. Pat yourself on the back, Matt.

[dudey]

You lot are all just scared that if you try it you won't beat the americans

[mullardo]

When I first read about the challenge I didn't realise that it had to be in order, I just thought you had to do it like this proposal. I think this is a much better idea.

[Edgemaster]

I now want to attempt the original method

[hwolge]

I agree this would make the challenge a lot more interesting. Too bad with the single I. I think the "perfect" solution to that would be: Random start and random end, which has the added benefit of "mass finish" with immediate results available!

And of course, from a theoretical point of view, finding the optimum route is then an NP-complete problem (i.e. "travelling salesman"), albeit quite limited, whilst the original alphabet challenge was very limited in complexity (total number of possibilities to investigate was be AxB+BxC+CxD etc where each letter stands for the number of stations beginning with that letter. Dead easy, even manually doable).

[al]

I agree this would make the challenge a lot more interesting. Too bad with the single I. I think the "perfect" solution to that would be: Random start and random end, which has the added benefit of "mass finish" with immediate results available!

Do you mean that a specific station would be randomly drawn for the finish, or just a letter? If the latter, you are still not guaranteed a mass finish, as the "finish lines" could be strewn across the network! If the former, then a local pub could be pre-arranged for the obligatory sport with liquid refreshment opportunity.

[hwolge]

I agree this would make the challenge a lot more interesting. Too bad with the single I. I think the "perfect" solution to that would be: Random start and random end, which has the added benefit of "mass finish" with immediate results available!

Do you mean that a specific station would be randomly drawn for the finish, or just a letter? If the latter, you are still not guaranteed a mass finish, as the "finish lines" could be strewn across the network! If the former, then a local pub could be pre-arranged for the obligatory sport with liquid refreshment opportunity.

My thought was a specific station drawn for finish (or secretly prearranged near a convenient pub).