Hopeful Traveller's All Lines Challenges

[hopeful traveller]

I'm thinking of having another go on Friday afternoon. Anyone up for it?

EDIT: Obviously, I'll find the CIN people first...

[The Orange One]

Farringdon Barbican Moorgate Liverpool Street Bank Waterloo Embankment Westminster Green Park Oxford Circus Piccadilly Circus (onwards to either Green Park or Leicester Square - Green Park is better but if Leicester Square comes first...)

Gave me 41 minutes 20 seconds. Mostly because:

No nasty waits for the Circle - all the difficult sub-surface lines are at the start
No nasty long runs at Bank
No nasty travelator at Waterloo
The only nice change at Green Park

And perhaps using the nice spiral staircase (carriage 5 door 2 from the southbound Bakerloo - something they don't tell you) you may be able to cut this down.

Or perhaps you have something much better - hope you get a record.

[palkanetoijala31]

I'm thinking of having another go on Friday afternoon. Anyone up for it?

EDIT: Obviously, I'll find the CIN people first...

I SOMEHOW DOUBT ON fnc that we will want to segway off on all lines attempt

[tractakid]

Rhys wasn't suggesting you did.

[The Orange One]

Perhaps you might like to find a FNC route including the Waterloo and City line. Then you can record an All Lines Challenge Time. Also make sure you get a Zone One time, a Bottle time, a Mouse time, a Points of the Compass time and a South of the Thames time.

Perhaps you might like to set up a set of R15 stations (obviously full LU network), with a starting station of your start station. Then you'd get a R15 time as well.

[hopeful traveller]

Surprisingly good signal on the sub-surface, and, amazingly, got a signal on the sub-surface platforms at King's Cross, all of which helped to tweet @TubeRhys.

15:00
Rhys Benjamin is carrying the Tube Rhys flag (available for £9.99) and is about to do another all lines challenge...

Well, went to Farringdon and did a bit of waiting. I only say 'a bit' because a perfect three turned up straightaway!

15:06
Away we go. Lines done: 1/11.

15:08
As luck would have it, it was a perfect three that came straight away...

All three of the sub-surfaces around the top of the Circle were S Stocks! I love a good S Stock, but I don't think people feel as much love for them as I do. S Stocks are just brilliant.

15:09
S STOCK MANIA!!!!

I got to Liverpool Street and headed for the Central line. And it was a fairly non-descript change, arriving at the platform about 5 seconds before the train pulled in. That's decent by my standards.

Now, at Bank, there is a secret corridor, which I had only ever done in reverse (and I swear it's slightly uphill the other way round) from the Central to the Waterloo & City, which is not advertised on the Central line platforms. I got to Bank to see a Waterloo & City line train arriving, but not departing. We sat for two minutes at Bank... and again I got my Waterloo doors completely mixed up! I knew it was one of the ends, and I picked the wrong one. D'oh! This set me back at Waterloo, as I lost two minutes waiting for a Northern line train. Embankment was a REALLY sexy change (no time to speak to the kiosk man here), and then I hurtled down the escalators at Westminster... and had to wait one TFL minute for a Northbound Jubilee line. I was convinced that it was a certain door. But I got it wrong again as I'd picked the Victoria line to perfection and not the Piccadilly line. As the Victoria line ran like clockwork I knew there was no point changing my route. I struggled to the Piccadilly line but didn't lose any time as there was an Arnos Grove train on the platform. Yes please!

I went for the secret stairs at Piccadilly Circus, and amazingly got a little lost in the station (don't know why!) but lost two minutes waiting for a train to Queen's Park. Sexy Oxford Circus... almost. It was going to be a sexy change but a woman held the doors open so the driver re-opened them, allowing this woman to get in, closing them again, and losing about 20 seconds. When you roll up at Warren Street with a time of 00:44:03, you begin to rue those 20 seconds....

[tractakid]

Finally, a decent time.

[tubeguru]

Rhys Benjamin is carrying the Tube Rhys flag (available for £9.99)

Seriously? You've made a flag?

[hopeful traveller]

Rhys Benjamin is carrying the Tube Rhys flag (available for £9.99)

Seriously? You've made a flag?

Yes, you asked this question months ago...

[tubeguru]

Rhys Benjamin is carrying the Tube Rhys flag (available for £9.99)

Seriously? You've made a flag?

Yes, you asked this question months ago...

Obviously the bemusement has yet to wear off.

[hopeful traveller]

Finally, a decent time.

Harsh.

[hopeful traveller]

Went out and did yet another one. This is how it went, without Embankment open...

Started at Farringdon and waited for a 'perfect two'. Got to Moorgate and down the Northern Line, but with a terrible three minute wait. There wasn't going to be another perfect two for a while, so I ploughed on. In the middle of rush hour I legged it down to the Waterloo & City Line, but AGAIN got the Waterloo doors wrong, meaning I took a detour onto the JLE via the NR concourse. Sexy change nonetheless, and up to Westminster. District and Circle Lines to Victoria, down a super-crowded escalator and only just made the train. Green Park change was fine, but I'm sure there's a slight uphill in that change! Eastbound Piccadilly, and then some important info for you all.

I got to Piccadilly Circus and ran up the usual way to find that the spiral stairs to the Bakerloo had been closed! They were using them for building works. Made a train (just) - but would I have made an earlier one? I'll never know.

Then at Oxford Circus, I just needed to get on ANY Central Line to finish. Except, for the first time in my life, I couldn't get in trains owing to overcrowding!

Got off at TCR and recorded a woeful 49:24.

[The Orange One]

I knew!! I found out when travelling to uni, but it slipped my mind.