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I will have to confirm on the day if I'm attending, I'm working that morning and need someone to do my last bit for me in order to attend.

Attending.

tractakid wrote: ↑10 Sep 2025, 22:00

2) Naturally, Bank/Monument is the outlier. Loophole is valid. Lets celebrate the quirk!

Not the only outlier either given the connectivity between Moorgate (LUL) and Liverpool Street (EL), or between Farringdon (EL) and Barbican(LUL).

I presume that although Liverpool Street LU poisons Liverpool Street EL, the poison doesn't then spread to Moorgate, just as poison doesn't spread between Bank and Monument.

tractakid wrote: ↑10 Sep 2025, 21:36 Feel free to pointlessly wait before boarding your next train toward the pub.

I definitely won't be waiting to genuinely poison myself!

RJSRdg wrote: ↑12 Sep 2025, 08:55 Not the only outlier either given the connectivity between Moorgate (LUL) and Liverpool Street (EL), or between Farringdon (EL) and Barbican(LUL).

I presume that although Liverpool Street LU poisons Liverpool Street EL, the poison doesn't then spread to Moorgate, just as poison doesn't spread between Bank and Monument.

Correct, they are separately named, so if your route poisons Liverpool Street, it will not spread to Moorgate (like Bank and Monument).

Another exercise in "how not to do it".

After some exploration of the Liverpool Street/Aldgate area (trying to se eif I could walk from Liverpool Street to Aldgate and beyond without using a road!) I joined the others outside Aldgate just before 12:30. We opened the first envelope which contained:

Aldgate
Moorgate
KXSP
Pimlico
Bank

Everyone boarded the Circle line at Platform 1, into a carriage of lads who were intrigued as to why we were all opening envelopes and reading bits of paper.We didn't really have time to explain properly (perhaps we should have cards or QR code badges with a link to the Explorerticket site on...). With their encouragement ringing in our ears, we all ran down to the Central line for the hop over to Bank, leaving Team Iain behind. Here the travelator to the Northern line was out of use so we all descended a spiral staircase.James and I decided not to push past an older lady slowly descending the stairs, so we were left behind by most of the rest of the pack, allowing Team Iain to catch up. Up the Northern via Moorgate to KXSP. I attempted to give James and Team Iain the slip by going to the front og the train for the escalator to the Victoria line, but on a Northbound Train, that escalator is at the back! I wasted some time being completely disoriented and never saw anyone else after that!

Down the Victoria Line to Pimlico where I hopped off to open the second envelope, containing:

Mile End
Euston Square
Clapham North
London Bridge (LU)
Bethnal Green (LU)
Lancaster Gate
Camden Town
Chancery Lane
Edgware Road (Subsurface)
Finchley Road

I hopped back on to the Vic and down to Stockwell for the short hop to Clapham North. Unfortunately I was so engrossed in planning my route that I forgot to get off andwound up at Clapham Common, thus poisoning Clapham North. So back up to CN (wait) and Stockwell (wait again - which thanks to my error put me on a gap in the service). Up to London Bridge where I'd hoped to get a train to City Thameslink but with none running today I went back down to the Jubilee as far as Canada Water, up the ELL to Whitechapel and over to Mile End then Bethnal Green where I came up amid a heavy shower of rain.I intended to catch a #8 or #388 to Shoreditch High Street but instead managed to catch a #388 in the opposite direction! Fortunately Google Maps showed that the route was heading in the general dirwection of Hackney Central so I satayed on until it turned off to the right, and with advice from another old lady, I caught the #277 to Hackney Central. Then over the NLL to Camden Road. By now my knee was playing up so I walked to Camden Town and caught a train to Kentish Town with the hope of catching a Thameslink to West Hampstead.Unfortunately the next Thameslink was quarter of an hour away and that was showing as cancelled, so it was the long walk to Kentish Town West and NLL again to Finchley Road and Frognall and another walk to Finchley Road. Met to Baker Street and H&C to Edgware Road. Caught a #23 bus towards Marble Arch but that suddenly stopped and waited with no explanation.The doors were open so after a few minutes'wait, I hopped off and walked the rest of the way to Marble Arch (the bus passed me about 100m before the Marble Arch stop), then over to Lancaster Gate, or rather Queensway as LG was closed. Then back over to Chancery Lane with poison stops at Marble Arch and Oxford Circus for a finish of 4:06:06.

However in typing this up, I realise I missed Euston Square completely so my time is invalied! (Had I reliased this when I reported in, I might have had time to head back out and complete, but I had visited two poison stations after my "completion" so I don't know if that would have been possible).

Tangy - please remove me from the results. Thanks!

An exercise in how you really REALLY don't do it...

Met everyone at Aldgate, completely engrossed in my music I didn't hear tractakid calling my name from the top of the stairs, oops. Kick off at 1230, opened my envelope and at this point I was behind two other challengers heading for a southbound service, we all made a 180 and then headed for the northbound service to Liverpool Street then onto Bank on the Central Line. Ran to the Northern Line to miss a train by mere seconds due to not being able to overtake a couple of very slow passengers on the stairs. Tangy and tractakid managed to so I saw them off, 6 minute wait. I had a feeling it was going to be one of those days already. Crawled to Kings Cross where I changed for the Victoria Line heading for Pimlico. Stayed on the train once I opened my second envelope and alighted at Stockwell to head north to tackle London Bridge. Completely misread the stations and didn't see that we had Clapham North to visit, I realised when I went through Elephant and Castle. The dread filled me pretty quickly I can tell you that, my fault entirely.

I decided to head for Canada Water and considered trying to tick Clapham North off by taking some pain on the Windrush Line, when I arrived there was over an 8 minute wait so I decided very quickly to go north instead to Whitechapel to tick off the eastern part of the Central Line. As I got onto the District Line platform, lo and behold a train is just leaving so another 5 minute wait on the platform. Headed to Mile End, back to Bethnal Green and then onto Shoreditch High Street half running and half bussing. Almost a perfect connection, arriving on the bus 90 seconds before a train was due to depart, so it was off to Highbury and Islington, with the view to get a Mildmay Line to Camden Road. As I arrived into Highbury and Islington, guess what? A Richmond bound service was on the other platform, before the doors had even opened on the train I was on, the Richmond service shut it's doors and left. There's a theme here and I was not impressed.

To avoid a 15 minute wait at H+I I decided to go down to Kings Cross, take a penalty then head to Euston Square from there. To avoid another penalty I almost inexplicably had a bright idea to run from Euston Square to Mornington Crescent, so I did. Arriving in feeling a fair way fatigued, guess what? I get to the platform to see another train with the doors closed! However as it transpired I quickly realised this wasn't in service and soon departed empty, I then realised that there were severe delays due to a points failure at Camden Town. A 12 minute wait for a train followed. Ran to Camden Road from Camden Town, hopped on a train to West Hampstead as, at this point I couldn't be bothered to run from Finchley Road + Frognal to Finchley Road. Jubilee Line all the way to Baker Street as there was a significant wait at Finchley Road for a Met Line otherwise. Baker Street - Edgware Road then my next run was up, Paddington to Lancaster Gate. Set off, arrived at Lancaster Gate to find the station was closed due to a staff shortage which I was unaware of.

At this point I was ready to give up at 12 stations and call it a day but after some convincing I thought 'I know this time is going to be rubbish, I may as well finish it, whatever', so I jogged up to Queensway, Central Line to Bond Street, Elizabeth Line for one station to avoid Oxford Circus, then back onto the Central Line to Chancery Lane. Double backed to Holborn, second time penalty. Piccadilly Line to Leicester Square where I genuinely considered going to Waterloo, SWR to Clapham Junction, Windrush to Clapham High Street then finish at Clapham Common. I had a small window to look at train times and realised I'd have been stuck at Clapham Junction for 15 minutes, so instead I took the painful option of going direct to Clapham North on the Northern Line and cop three penalties at Kennington, Oval and Stockwell. So that's what I did, finishing up with a time of 04:40:26.

Having misunderstood the rules and thinking if you 'poisoned' yourself you had to alight at the poisoned station and wait 5 minutes, I served 25 minutes worth of penalties. In truth I don't think it would have made much of a difference and that one is on me. Stupid mistakes, ie not reading the list properly and seeing Clapham North on there and getting hamstrung pretty much everywhere made this a painful endeavour. Somehow clocked 14000 steps though!

See you in November.

Overall a good challenge which went downhill rapidly at the end.

Started at Aldgate by running on to the waiting northbound circle before opening the envelope (together with Milo) but the doors remained open for about a minute allowing everyone to catch up (my battery pack also fell out of my bag and on to the tracks at this point; this was swiftly followed by my pen at King’s Cross before I realised my bag was not sufficiently tight).

The first set of 5 stations were very straightforward and I think pretty much everybody did the same route. I made very quick connections at Liverpool Street (dropping some) and at Bank (dropping everyone bar Tangy who was ahead and Andrew and James who ran on as the doors were closing). My condolences to Rhys here as he was really close to making this train and the 6 minute wait for the train behind appears to have set off a chain of unlucky and catastrophic events. Up through Moorgate to King’s Cross St Pancras where Andrew (surprisingly to me, at least) ran off to change for the Victoria line. Immediately after he left, it was announced the train would be held. Myself and James became embroiled in a game of chicken (both having intended to change at Euston), before I left after about 45 seconds and sprinted through Kings Cross to get on the same train as Tangy and Andrew just as the doors were closing. I think James was 1 or 2 trains behind here.

Anyway, down to Pimlico where we all opened the envelope, saw Clapham North and stayed on the train. Down to Clapham North via Stockwell and then back up to Bank via London Bridge, having to wait for poison at Stockwell and then Bank. Tangy bailed at London Bridge, where I thought he was heading West, but later found out he was trying to avoid poison at Bank by using the East London Line. Andrew stayed at the Monument end of the Northern Line platform at Bank, while I moved up towards the Central line connection. The stairs up to the Central line were ridiculously busy which may have caused me to miss an Eastbound train - 6 minute wait for the next one, so I gambled and headed west to tick off Chancery Lane. Then headed back, stepping back a train at St Paul’s, Bank, and Liverpool St, through Bethnal Green to Mile End. On the platform at Mile End were Milo and Tangy; I was a station up on them at this point having ticked off Chancery Lane, but would later finish behind both of them. Back into Central London via Whitechapel, the Elizabeth Line to Farringdon and then subsurface over to Euston Square waiting for poison at Liverpool St and KXStP. Run to Euston, where my cunning plan of getting a Lioness line train to South Hampstead to avoid the poison was thwarted by 5 seconds, and so I had to run back down to the northbound Bank branch platform (with the idea that I could always serve the poison sentence on the higher frequency Victoria line if necessary). Luckily there was a High Barnet train and then 1 minute later (although ended up being more like 4) an Edgware. Up through Camden Town to Belsize Park, run to Finchley Road and Jubilee down to Baker St. Had I known that Lancaster Gate was closed, I may well have stayed on to Bond St. As it was, I waited 5 minutes for a subsurface to tick off Edgware Road (H&C, Circle, District) before making my fatal mistake and continuing to Paddington Bishop’s Road. Ran to Lancaster Gate with the clock at just over 2 and a half hours, only to find that the station was closed! After checking the rules, I realised I was forced to run to Marble Arch to complete a pass-through, and thus finished the challenge in a time of 2:44:43 at Queensway. I am pretty confident that had I got off at Edgware Road to run to Marble Arch I would have been much closer to Andrew’s time, but I think his route was likely just naturally faster. Thanks tangy for organising a superb challenge and (hopefully) see you again for round 2.

My route was thus:

1) Aldgate START to Moorgate; I opted to forget that the central line existed.
2) Moorgate to Bank.
3) Bank to King's Cross St. Pancras (via Moorgate poison); I got onto the same train as Tangy but had to leave to serve poison for the next train which was 7 mins behind - most others were on this train.
4) King's Cross St. Pancras to Stockwell (via Pimlico where the 2nd envelope was opened).
5) Stockwell to Clapham North. Again, just witnessing the other trains doors close as we rolled in.
6) Clapham North to Bank (via Stockwell and Bank poison) (via London Bridge).
7) Bank to Mile End (via Bethnal Green) (via Liverpool Street poison). I met Tangy at Mile End who took the ELL and JLE? - me catching up by going the more direct yet more poisoned route.
Mile End to Monument.
9) Bank to Queensway (no poison at Bank due to entering via Monument) (via Chancery Lane) (via Oxford Circus poison) (via Lancaster Gate pass-through). There was no warning on my train that LG was going to be closed so my door position was a bit screwed but surprisingly I found Tangy at the bottom of the lift along the way.
10) Bayswater to Edgware Road Circle. Running here was very worth it as my app showed 10 mins but infact the previous train was a minuite delayed.
11) Edgware Road Circle to Euston Square. Here I lost Tangy again.
12) Euston to Chalk Farm (via Euston poison taken at platform) (via Camden Town); I took poison at one platform but ended up running around the station for a while finding a train which functioned correctly. The northern line was suspended for 2 minuites before service was reinstated for some reason unkown. I met Andrew but he couldn't take the same Edgware service as me as he was serving poison.
13) C11 Bus from Primrose Hill (U) to Swiss Cottage. I had to run half way up the hill as the bus directly from CF was in 17 minuites.
14) Swiss Cottage to Finchley Road FINISH

15/15 Stations 02:43:57

Like nearly everyone else I jumped on the Hammersmith-bound Circle line train at Aldgate for one stop, got a perfect interchange at Liverpool Street to the Central line, and then a terrible change at Bank (wrong door position, travelators closed, spiral staircase and narrow corridor full of people) meant I missed the train that the leaders had caught.

Rather than waiting 6 minutes I decided to take matters into my own hands by running to Moorgate instead, and got to the westbound subsurface platform just as a train left. I caught the Metropolitan service two minutes later through King's Cross St Pancras to Euston Square, ran to Warren Street, and took the Victoria down to Pimlico.

Unlike others I chose to step back a train at Pimlico to plan my route for the second envelope, possibly needlessly given continuing south was the only logical next step. I doubled back at Clapham North but in my focus on route planning I actually forgot to take a poison at Stockwell. I got off at Oval instead to step back a train there, so it didn't affect my time at all. I continued through London Bridge to Bank, where I had to wait out the full 5 minutes before running to Monument and seeing a further 4 minutes to wait for a District line service there.

I eventually got to Mile End and took the westbound Central line through Bethnal Green and Chancery Lane, taking poisons at Liverpool Street, Bank (again), and Oxford Circus. I passed through a closed Lancaster Gate to Queensway, where, as others reported, I was at the wrong end of the platform. I ran up the stairs and along the road going platform-to-platform in only 2 minutes but I was rewarded with a 6-minute wait for the next train.

I had a nice 1-minute cross-platform interchange to the Hammersmith & City line at Edgware Road to Baker Street, where I saw Andrew C boarding the train I was getting off. I correctly estimated he was 15 minutes ahead of me here. Getting lucky again with a 1-minute connection onto a terminating-platform-starting Metropolitan service to Finchley Road, on which I decided what my strategy would be to go back south: look at the times of the second train on each line (Jubilee and Metropolitan), and take the Metropolitan unless the Jubilee was 3+ minutes faster. The actual times displayed were Jubilee 1 minute and 2 minutes; Metropolitan 7 minutes and 10 minutes, so it was an easy choice to take the Jubilee.

Returning to Baker Street, I saw Tangy sprint off as soon as my train opened its doors. I shared a perplexed "what was that all about?" look with a startled member of the public, and proceeded to do the exact same thing when the second train arrived 70 seconds later (my cheapest poison of the day), and got the next eastbound Hammersmith & City train. My different route to everyone else on the first envelope meant I now had to take a poison at Euston Square, but none at Euston. Fortunately the following train was only 85 seconds behind (in fact, I think it was the Metropolitan train that was 7 minutes away back at Finchley Road).

The boards at Euston displayed trains to Edgware in 1 minute departing from both the Charing Cross and Bank branch platforms. I went to the Charing Cross platform instinctively because it was closer, not considering it would mean an extra stop at Mornington Crescent. It was actually quite tight to get this train, so I doubt I could have got the Bank branch train. We then waited outside Camden Town for an excruciating couple of minutes, presumably so that Bank branch train could arrive and depart first, before I could finally finish in a time of 2:47:21.

Before we go any further, I ought to point out that two people called James took part in this round, which is why some of the reports so far may not have made sense when compared to each other! Hopefully this, the report of James R, will help clarify things.

And there was centainly a lot of clarification which took place before the start of this round, both in this thread and in person immediately before the challenge. It sounded devilishly hard when I first read the concept but a few trial runs with the generator made it seen much more reasonable.

However, I didn't want to do anything rash early on and potentially paint myself into a corner. So when the challenge started, I did envelope-before-barriers and took a moment to consider options. It turned out that there was a very obvious order to do the 5 stations in the first envelope. I was last through the barriers at ALDGATE but still just make the anticlockwise Circle line train with everyone else. I suspected that we might all complete the first set of stations at the same time at the same station, but all the early connections were razor tight and the pack got split up. I managed to make the first trains at both Liverpool Street and BANK, putting me in the same train as Andrew C and Sacha as we headed north through MOORGATE. (I later found out that Tangy was also on that train but in a different carriage.)

Andrew C (and Tangy) left Sasha and myself at KINGS CROSS ST PANCRAS, which we thought was weird as the Euston change to the Victoria line is shorter. There was then an annoucement that our train was being held there for some unspecified reason. We kept waiting for the doors to close but they didn't. Sasha bailed for the Victoria line after about 30 seconds. I did the same about 90 seconds after that. This was my first mistake. My second mistake was blindly following signs for the Victoria line and ending up going down the really, really long tunnels. Train in the platform when I finally arrived, but I was at least one, probably two trains behind the other 3 by now.

At Oxford Circus, it was announced that we would not be stopping at Green Park due to a fire alert. So no poison would be left there. Something which was to affect my later route planning.

Approaching PIMLICO, I decided to double-back if Victoria, Sloane Square or St. James' Park were on the second list, otherwise stay on the same train. None of them were, so I kept heading south. Changed at Stockwell and went to CLAPHAM NORTH, where I just missed a doubleback and had about 3 minutes to wait for the next one. Jumped back a train back at Stockwell as it was poisoned, where Andrew B passed me whilst I waited. That was the last I saw of anyone.

Headed north to LONDON BRIDGE, then did something a little unexpected. I didn't want to have to deal with of avoid poison twice to get the eastern stations and come back in, so decided to save them for the end and take advantage of the poison gap at Green Park. So I changed to the westbound Jubilee (just missing a train), headed to Bond Street (just making one) and went to Lancaster Gate.

Except that at Marble Arch I was told that Lancaster Gate was also closed (due to staff shortages, although we weren't told that at the time) and so we would be passing though, which scuppered my plans to run to Paddington. So a vaild pass-though at LANCASTER GATE and out at Queensway, where I was at completely the wrong end of the train due to the last minute change of plan, and I just missed a lift up to the ticket hall. So I ran up the stairs and on to Bayswater.

I checked the departure boards before entering Bayswater, as if there was a wait of more than about 4 minutes I was going to run on to Royal Oak, to remove the need to change at Edgware Road. As it happens, there was a 2 minute wait. This was rather lucky, as the Wimbledon brach had gone done and there we no Wimblewares running, resulting in a 10-minute frequency. In fact, when I got to EDGWARE ROAD (SUB-SURFACE), I saw an Olympia bound train on the departure board. 2 minutes here for a train to Baker Street. I though about a doubleback to Euston Square here but decided against it.

Made my third mistake at Baker Street by insisting on catching a Met to Finchley Road. There was a terminator in platform one, so waited on that for 2 minutes, until an Uxbridge train came up from Aldgate, so I switched to that and had a further 2 minute wait before heading off. If I went for the Jubilee I could have be halfway there by the time I finally left.

Exit at FINCHLEY ROAD and ran up the hill through the rain to Belsize Park. Again just missed a lift so ran down the stairs. And 8 minutes for a southbound train. Through CAMDEN TOWN to Euston (Bank Branch) where I waited on the platform due to poison. The next train came along only a minute later and I ran to EUSTON SQUARE. Just missed a train here, despite vaulting over a lady trying to pick up 4 bags of shopping, but there was another about a minute behind. East to KXSP and another platform wait for the next train, about 2 minutes this time, before running (the correct route) to the Piccadilly line. The train was full of football fans who had been watching the Arsenal game, but that didn't cause any issues.

A brilliant change to the Central at Holborn and on to CHANCERY LANE. I had formed a plan to avoid the poisoned Bank and Liverpool Street by going St. Paul's (run) Mansion House Mile End Bethnal Green, but I realised that it would not save me any time. I saw from departure boards that I would have a 5 minute wait at Bank and a further 3 minutes at Liverpool Street if I just stayed on the Central line, which was fine to me so I did exactly that, before passing through BETHNAL GREEN and finishing at MILE END.

Aldgate Liverpool Street Bank KSXP Stockwell (via Pimlico) Clapham North London Bridge (poison at Stockwell) Bond Street Queensway (run) Bayswater Edgware Road Baker Street Finchley Road (run) Belsize Park Euston (poison) (run) Euston Square KXSP (poison) Holborn Mile End (poison at Bank and Liverpool Street)

I found the second set of stations very hard to plan for. A very Zone 1 heavy round which would have been very fast without the twist but caused a lot of issues with the twist and, despite being hard, worked really well. For the record, I was poisoned at 5 stations, had 2 station pass-throughs (one of which helped me, the other hindered me) and visited KSXP on all 4 lines (counting the sub-surface as one line).

It was an interesting twist from last years champion Andrew, and our initial tactics before the envelopes was for envelope one to try and avoid poisoning stations with multiple lines like Liverpool Street, Bank and KCStP, so we were planning to go south from Aldgate. On opening the envelope this changed completely and we got on the train with all the others, and changed at Liverpool Street onto the Central line to pick up Bank, here we got held up and missed the train that the leaders caught, and had the 6 minute wait that the others suffered. We headed up the Northern line through Moorgate to Kings Cross St Pancras. We had spent the journey seeing if we could come up with a creative way to Pimlico to avoid poisoning the Vic, but the Thameslink to E&C didn't work, so we changed onto the Victoria line and got the lucky break of Green Park being closed. We opened the second envelope as the doors opened at Pimlico, and seeing Clapham North stayed on.

We changed at the Northern line and went down to Clapham North for a double back, taking a poison break at Stockwell with a few other challengers. We left the train at London Bridge and that was the last we saw of anyone for a while. We changed to the Jubilee line taking advantage of Green Park not being poisoned and changed onto the Central line at Bond Street. We passed through the closed Lancaster Gate and got a decent change at Notting Hill Gate onto the District line, however our luck ran out at Edgware Road where we had an 8 minute wait for a circle line train to get to Baker Street. Here we got the Met up to Finchley Road and ran up to the Mildmay line in a foot race with Tom, Edward and Josh which was academic as there was a 3 minute wait for the train to Camden Road. Another foot race to Camden Town where we had a slow climb down the stairs due to the escalator being out of action. Here trains 1 and 4 were Bank branch, 2 and 3 were Charing Cross branch so we took the second train to alleviate the poison penalty at Euston. Here we saw a red flash scorch out of the station (it was Milo !), we were much slower to Euston Square, and onto to KCStP where we were had another poison penalty before getting onto a crowded Picc line train (Arsenal fans leaving the match !), down to Holborn for a change onto the Central line, through Chancery Lane, poison at Bank and Liverpool Street before going through Bethnal Green to complete at Mile End in 3:02:35.

We had a few long changes, but it was fun with the twist, although the prospect of the poison was never enough to make us do anything funky. Well done to Tangy and Andrew for organising.