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Don't forget that there are two entrances at High Barnet - so which way you go in may depend how you've run there (or where you might have got off a bus).

Some photos:

Trapped behind the barrier at Heathrow Terminal 4, I ended up phoning the station supervisor just to be sure i'd get in! (number was taped to the barrier)

On the platform! 4 mins to go!


On the first train!

Everyone's favourite station!

Bit of a wait at Finchley Central- possibly due to these guys clearing something off the track?

Me again, slightly more fatigued

Laydybird! At Debden, iirc.

And... using the very last dregs of battery, taken by a very tired or slightly drunk man, at Chesham!


Also, added 2 bits to my write up, at the end.

Good show. Quite a day! It's worth doing as many long stretches as you can, in my opinion, and not changing trains too often. That's what slows you down, I believe.

There are sections and transitions involved in the route that I really liked, and thought worked well. However, I do not feel I linked them up very well. My goal is to re-work the route, particularly to avoid the messy clean-up of the central London stations.

When I started putting routes together I tried to change as little as possible; on the face of it you should save time as you spend time on the changes. Even if a train is already at the platform you have still spent time moving between platforms, which at some stations can take up to a minute (or even more). I also tried to avoid double backs where possible for similar reasons. While I still think that these aren't bad principles, at times it didn't help as there was sometimes a long (as in several minute) wait at the end of a long stretch on a line. For example coming in from Cockfosters I planned to go through to Hammersmith, run to the other Hammersmith, and then up the H&C to Baker Street and down the Bakerloo to E&C. However that left me with a lengthy wait at Hammersmith. It actually turned out to come down the Picc line to Piccadilly Circus, go up the Bakerloo to Baker Street, and do the H&C bit the other way round with a nice connection. Then back up the Picc to P.Circus and down the Bakerloo to E&C. In this case the tidier changes saved me 7-8 minutes.

I guess what I'm saying is that while there are some good general principles, there are exceptions. I've been doing this for about six months now and have spent a lot of my spare time trying different routes, and I think they do get tidier with more practice. I think you had two long waits for MHE and the loop - that's already half an hour or so you can save if you can tidy that up, and there's other bits like the bus from H&W to HOTH and then doubling back to Preston Road that can be tidied up (hint - look at the physical location of stations on a geographical map like the A-Z). I'm definitely still learning (for instance I discovered a new bus last week), and even people like Geoff say they learn something pretty much every time they do a run.

Do you have a date for the next run?

Haha yes - I'll never use the W12 again (from bitter experience). I've used the U1 twice now, but both times have been in the middle of the day, I wouldn't use that in rush hour.

Another trap I can tend to fall into is doing sections in a fixed order, e.g. I always seem to do the right hand branch of the northern and the top of the Picc, then go along the Met/Circle/H&C to Baker Street and do the other branch, and do Upminster right at the end of the day (usually on a packed commuter train). There's no real need for this though, apart from wanting to get MHE out of the way early on, I could do those three sections in any order, or do something inbetween the two Northern Branches. Another one is getting fixated with using a "cute" change, such as a new bus I've discovered, or a little used back way between platforms. Ultimately the only real test is "Is it faster?"