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With the "Most stations in sixty minutes challenge" I think it could still be a very interesting challenge with the added element of 2 bonus points added per interchange. Therefore you would have to weigh up the benefit of changing lines and waiting for another train, versus just staying on one line. The rules would be that you can't change line just for the sake of it i.e. on the Circle Line you couldnt change between District and Circle just to gain bonus points. The change would have to be a genuinely required change e.g. changing at Tower Hill anti-clockwise from District to Circle. For an interchange to count it has to be completed within the 60 minute limit, so if you did decide to change lines with 58 minutes on the clock and your departing train the door's close on 61 minutes the change is NOT COMPLETE and the bonus points are not gained. Normal GWR rules would apply in terms of unique stations (Hammersmith, Paddington, Edgware Road & Shepherds Bush all have 2 unique stations). Scoring would simply be 1 point per unique station and 2 bonus points per interchange.

I wish I was able to go to the events, especially if my suggestion is going to be used.

So you don't have to get back to your starting station within the hour any more? Also, I take it interchange means between lines, rather than between directions on the same line?

Soup Dragon wrote:With the "Most stations in sixty minutes challenge" I think it could still be a very interesting challenge with the added element of 2 bonus points added per interchange. Therefore you would have to weigh up the benefit of changing lines and waiting for another train, versus just staying on one line. The rules would be that you can't change line just for the sake of it i.e. on the Circle Line you couldnt change between District and Circle just to gain bonus points. The change would have to be a genuinely required change e.g. changing at Tower Hill anti-clockwise from District to Circle. For an interchange to count it has to be completed within the 60 minute limit, so if you did decide to change lines with 58 minutes on the clock and your departing train the door's close on 61 minutes the change is NOT COMPLETE and the bonus points are not gained. Normal GWR rules would apply in terms of unique stations (Hammersmith, Paddington, Edgware Road & Shepherds Bush all have 2 unique stations). Scoring would simply be 1 point per unique station and 2 bonus points per interchange.

How hard isn't it to create unambiguous rules?
1) How should a pure double back count (i.e. taking a train that has, as its first stop, the just previously passed station. I guess this would not count.
2) What is "genuinely required"? What if I arrive at Tower Hill from Aldgate East, can I change to Circle clockwise and get bonus points? I guess I should if I intend to go on to HSK, right? But what does then intent mean? Assume I may count those points and then change my mind and want to go to EC instead - another change already at Monument perhaps? Maybe I only get those first two points if I don't change again before HSK... But what if the 60 minutes expire right in the Cromwell curve (between Gloucester Road and HSK)?

It's quite simple really, what the rule is in place for is to stop someone on the Circle Line continually switching trains from Circle to H&C to Met to District etc. in order to gain 2 points for changing lines when in fact they haven't really changed lines at all. If you genuinely need to change e.g. at Edgware Road Clockwise from terminating Circle to H&C then this would be fine. Continuing the same journey on the H&C to Baker Street and you decide to hop on the Circle to GPS, then hop on the Met to Euston Square and then back on the H&C at Kings Cross this would not be allowed and would gain you no bonus points because you are just changing line for the sake of it.

al wrote:So you don't have to get back to your starting station within the hour any more? Also, I take it interchange means between lines, rather than between directions on the same line?

No in this version you could start and finish where you like.

Couldn't you do the points based on Zones i.e. 1 point for Zone 1, 2 points for Zone 2 etc. which would increase the route planning element of the challenge?

Soup Dragon wrote:No in this version you could start and finish where you like.

joy54 wrote:Couldn't you do the points based on Zones i.e. 1 point for Zone 1, 2 points for Zone 2 etc. which would increase the route planning element of the challenge?

I believe that these two rules/ideas would contradict each other. For instance, the Hainault Loop takes around half an hour to do, but the stations are 4 points each (being in Zone 4). Actually, starting with that route and these two rules I've got a desktop score of 71 (assuming that stations that straddle zones go for their lower amount) in around an hour.

I think that if you have points per zone then you need to have a starting station, but with 1 point per station then any starting place is fine.