Tube Challenge Unplanned II - Weds 24th October

[tangy]

Since I end work at 1630, I can make this with ease. Route planning on the move should be interesting.

Can times be in 24 hour clock format please? As when I initially read the opening post I thought you meant 0645 and not 1845!!!

[jamesthegill]

There will the annual "Park Challenge" which will take place the week before Xmas........keep watching the forum for news

That's handy, I'm up in London that week for a Circle Line pub crawl

[Going Underground]

That's handy, I'm up in London that week for a Circle Line pub crawl

Nice one

Post the date for that when you have it, will see if I can get along

[Going Underground]

Since I end work at 1630, I can make this with ease. Route planning on the move should be interesting.

Can times be in 24 hour clock format please? As when I initially read the opening post I thought you meant 0645 and not 1845!!!

Z1 tonight 1830hrs at Goodge St., if you can make it Tangy

[Soup Dragon]

All being well I should be able to get to Holland Park in time for the 1845 start. Hopefully we get a good spread of stations to keep things interesting.

[Going Underground]

Hello all,

Hope last night went well, sorry to have missed it but I just got in from the night shift that prohibited my attendance. If it went well I suggest we aren't shy about doing it again sometime, and hopefully I can make it

Greetings Matt

Sorry you couldn't make it we had a good night with yet more controversy and Stewards Enquiries but I will leave our splendid organiser to post the details......
I agree about doing this again sometime, it seems to suit an evening quite well and is my favourite Alternative Challenge (Only the full network tops this )....

I will give you the 15 stations in order of computer printout and see what you can come up with in zero seconds thinking time...

Holland Park
Royal Oak
Canada Water
Old Street
Rotherhithe
Shepherds Bush (central)
Oxford Circus
Tufnell Park
Holloway Road
Charing Cross
Stepney Green
Ravenscourt Park
London Bridge
Fulham Broadway (Chelski at home last night )
Paddington (Main)

The clock starts now ......


Hakan

Would you mind running these through your deep thought computer and see if anyone came close to the"optimum" route

Cheers

[Starkey7]

Well, here's my route:

Holland Park -> Shepherds Bush -> Oxford Circus -> Waterloo -> Canada Water -> Whitechapel -> Mile End -> Bank -> Tufnell Park, run to Holloway Road -> Kings Cross -> Hammersmith -> Ravenscourt Park -> Earls Court -> Fulham Broadway.

[hwolge]

And the vote from the Swedish Jury is:
Holland Park
Shepherd´s Bush (Central Line)
Shepherd´s Bush (H&C Line)
Royal Oak
Paddington (H&C Line)
Paddington
Oxford Circus
Charing Cross
Waterloo
London Bridge
Canada Water
Rotherhithe
Whitechapel
Stepney Green
Mile End
Liverpool Street
Moorgate
Old Street
Tufnell Park
King´s Cross St. Pancras
Holloway Road
Earl´s Court
Fulham Broadway
Earl´s Court
Ravenscourt Park

in 2h55m24s on an "average day"...

[Soup Dragon]

Well, here's my route:

Holland Park -> Shepherds Bush -> Oxford Circus -> Waterloo -> Canada Water -> Whitechapel -> Mile End -> Bank -> Tufnell Park, run to Holloway Road -> Kings Cross -> Hammersmith -> Ravenscourt Park -> Earls Court -> Fulham Broadway.

I'm disappointed in your route, surely at the end you should have thrown in the West Kensignton to West Brompton run to avoid going back through Earls Court. I can't believe you would pass up the chance of another run

[Soup Dragon]

And the vote from the Swedish Jury is:
Holland Park
Shepherd´s Bush (Central Line)
Shepherd´s Bush (H&C Line)
Royal Oak
Paddington (H&C Line)
Paddington
Oxford Circus
Charing Cross
Waterloo
London Bridge
Canada Water
Rotherhithe
Whitechapel
Stepney Green
Mile End
Liverpool Street
Moorgate
Old Street
Tufnell Park
King´s Cross St. Pancras
Holloway Road
Earl´s Court
Fulham Broadway
Earl´s Court
Ravenscourt Park

in 2h55m24s on an "average day"...

Amazing... this is the route that myself & Jamie initially came up with (apart from the Mile End business) However in the end we changed our plans because we thought that Holloway Road to Fulham Broadway would take too long. The route we used was as follows:

Holland Park
Shepherd´s Bush (Central Line)
Shepherd´s Bush (H&C Line)
Royal Oak
Paddington (H&C Line)
Paddington (main)
Fulham Broadway
Earls Court
Ravenscourt Park
Barons Court (changed to PIC)
Green Park
Oxford Circus
Embankment (passing through Charing Cross)
Stepney Green
Whitechapel
Rotherhithe
Canada Water
London Bridge
Tufnell Park (passing through Old Street)
Kings Cross
Holloway Road

Actual time was 2h56m34s which was good enough for first place and very close to the projected time from Hakan.

[tpfkar]

A quick write-up from me, as I shoud get to work early today...

Firstly thanks to all who turned up, and for being on time so we could start promptly. A bit of a shame the turnout was relatively low, but I'm aware there were a couple of people who hoped to come but couldn't make it in the end. Thanks to Kevin for printing out the station lists after I forgot, and given what happened I think we can safely assume he didn't cheat and look at the list first.

I was joined by friend Hannah for the first half hour, although the teams were together early on. The stations were drawn as above, and en masse we knocked off Shepherd's Bush and jogged over to the H+C.

We then headed up to Paddington where the teams separated. It was here I made my big mistake which may have cost me the victory...I heroically charged down to the Bakerloo and held the doors for Hannah, to the point of getting an angry tannoy message from the driver, but as we headed off, I realised that given that I'd planned to take the district down to Fulham Broadway, I'd got on the wrong train

I considered an Edgware Road reverse (had I been on my own I'd have gone for it, and I think it would have been the best thing to do.) but we were both out of breath after the Paddington run, so I stayed on to tick off Oxford Circus. I didn't want to do charing cross as that would put me in the middle of the map with stations to left and right - interesting that doing this is Hakan's suggestion!

So I decided to get back to the plan, by changing to Vic at Oxford Circus then Pic at Green Park, at this point Hannah decided she'd had enough tube excitement for one evening and headed back home. I did ask her to text me any ideas for Holloway Road to Tufnell Park for later, she asked a member of station staff who told her that there was no way of getting between them....

Very neat change onto District at Barons Court (as it turned out, I'd have missed it at Hammersmith) and a slick Ravenscourt Park turnaround. However if only I'd had my map to run West Ken to West Brompton, as the return was very slow (10 mins lost over 2 stations) due to congestion in Earls Court. Then to Fulham Broadway and back. Same problem; getting out was fine, getting back was slow especially as I just missed a train at Fulham Broadway itself.

Thankfully things went better here, although I figured that I was 10 mins down due to the wrong train at Paddington, and about 10 again due to the district line - although I figured the other teams would have had the same problems. Picc to Picc Circus, Bakerloo to Charing Cross, Northern to Tufnell Park. Decision time - how to get to Holloway Road?

Why not? I thought. So I ran out of the station, and had a good look at a map near the exit. Although it was 30s dead time which could have been avoided if I had brought my map, I had my suspicion confirmed that the two stations weren't *that* far apart, so decided to go for it. I had to walk the last third of the route, but still managed platform to platform in 12 minutes, faster than it would have been reversing via Kings Cross. Excellent connection down the Picc, and I felt that I had just made up the time I had lost earlier at Paddington.

However although the last section of my route was straightforward, I had some stinking connections, and there was no real alternative at this stage. I had 7 mins on the platform at Kings Cross to get down to London Bridge, and without knowing it got on the same train as tangy here - our routes were identical from here. London Bridge was good onto Jubilee, but 5ish mins at Canada Water and 6 at Whitchapel sadly knocked us over the three hours that I was convinced I would beat until the end. Could have been worse...on getting to Whitechapel I jumped onto the first train, before tangy pointed out that it was an H+C about to head in the wrong direction! So a Stepney Green finish for the both of us.

Back to KFC Earls Court, and the results came in as follows:

1)Anthony + Jamie Brown (Shepherd's Bushed) 2:56:34

A very similar route to mine, without the Paddington goof. They finished at Holloway Road having been through Stepney Green earlier. Given that I took the North London run on, I think I could have given them a good run for their money without my mistake. But congratulations to them both.

2=) Martin Hazel (Zippo's Oxford Circus) 3:05:11

Don't remember much about his route, but the last four trains were the same as mine.

2=) Ric Brackenbury with Hannah Burton (Unplanned and Unhinged) 3:05:11

See above!

4) Kevin, Ryan and Philip Brown (Should have shaved our Shepherd's Bush) 3:09:37 *

Should have read the list of stations more like it! The last in the list was clearly Paddington (Main) but when this was read out to Kevin, he was only told Paddington. As a result they sailed through on the H+C early on, not to return. So although their route had many good features (such as given the issues with the district around Earls Court, a Fulham finish I think) they actually only visited 14 out of the 15 stations required. So not Kev's strongest two days of tube challenging!

General feeling afterwards was that this was a more straightforward route than the previous run in May, but also that the Unplanned challenge is one of the best and most exciting of the alternative challenges. As a result, I'll take soundings for a third run sometime in the new year. I would also be happy to provide stations using my program for anyone who wanted to have an informal go at this - please let me know.

Thanks again to all who made it, and I stuck to my unenviable record this year of messing up when doing a challenge with someone else!

[Going Underground]

Well, here's my route:

Holland Park -> Shepherds Bush -> Oxford Circus -> Waterloo -> Canada Water -> Whitechapel -> Mile End -> Bank -> Tufnell Park, run to Holloway Road -> Kings Cross -> Hammersmith -> Ravenscourt Park -> Earls Court -> Fulham Broadway.

How did you get from Shepherds Bush Oxford Circus? Just need to know how you visited Royal Oak and Paddington mainline...

[Starkey7]

Central line from Shepherds Bush to Oxford Circus.
Hot and Cold from Kings Cross to Hammersmith.

[tangy]

Time for my report of the Unplanned 15.

I met up with the others at Holland Park as each team turned up shortly before 1845. As the envelopes were opened, frantic discussions were going on amongst the teams but everyone started by doing teh Shepherds Bush run to the H&C station then up to Padd H&C knocking off Royal Oak .

This is were teams split up with me and Anthony's team deciding to take the Wimbleware to knock off Fulham Broadway early before the Chelsea match was in full swing. However getting between West Brompton and Earl's court took about 6 minutes due to congestion at Earl's Court.

Me and Anthony's team stayed together for the double back at Ravenscourt Park whereby on the way back to Earl's Court I changed onto the Picc at H'smith in an attempt to avoid the problems at Earl's Court but when I rejoined the District at South Ken I think I got back on the very same train I bailed off at Hammersmith!!

Next was Charing Cross, so stayed on the District to Embankment and changed to B'loo to Oxford Circus. A cross-platform interchange to the Vic and it was up to KX, whereby another change ensued to get onto the Picc up to Finsbury Park via Holloway Road. At Finsbury Park, I ran out of the station and got a route 4 bus within a few minutes to Tuffnell Park.

The Northern line wasn't very good at all, arrived Tuffnell Park, first three trains via CHX, meaning a change at Camden, which wasn't very good either with 4 mins on the display!

Then it was to London Bridge and a good change onto the Jubilee for Canada Water. As I was running up to the ELL, I met Ric, who had the same stations as me to go. Through Rotherhithe, up to Whitechapel and up the stairs and there we stood for six minutes. However Ric almost ended up at Aldgate East as he boarded a terminating H&C ready to go back towards Hammersmith.....

Stepney Green at 03 05 11.

[/b]

[Going Underground]

Central line from Shepherds Bush to Oxford Circus.
Hot and Cold from Kings Cross to Hammersmith.

But still no Paddington mainline as far as I can see?