Anti-Circle Line Challenge

[tubeguru]

I've heard some dubious ideas for alternative challenges before, but this is just ridiculous!

Tubeguru - the Lottery Tube Challenge would be great but it would only account for 49 stations ... unless you take into account all the Lottery draws on one night and derive a larger set of stations from those.

Yeah, you'd have to duplicate numbers somewhere.

OK, how about this?

The challenge takes place on a Sunday. Therefore, Chancery Lane and Temple won't figure in the challenge. Any temporarily closed stations don't count either (Queensway, H4 eg).

Number the stations (ignoring all closed stations and Sunday closures) in alphabetical order from 1 to 49 and then start at 1 again and so on until all are numbered.

Then, on the Saturday evening before, note down the 7 numbers in the main Lottery draw (6 main balls plus the bonus) and the ORDER in which they were drawn (do not arrange them in numerical order).

Let us assume that the numbers chosen are 31, 3, 21, 15, 44, 28 and 11.

Go through the list of tube stations IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER and find all of the stations numbered 31 and write them down in the order they appear in the list of stations. Then find all stations numbered 3 and write them down in the order you find them. And then 21. And so on, listing them all down in the order you find them on the list.

When you are done, you will have no more than 42 stations listed (7 balls, no more than 6 possible stations per ball based on 252 stations open on a Sunday these days - number the stations and see for yourself).

The challenge therefore is as follows:

You must start at the first station on your list (in the example above, it would be the first station numbered 31 in the alphabetical list of stations) and finish at the last station on the list (the last station numbered 11 in the list of stations) and MUST visit all of the stations in between.

The stations in between do not have to be visited in any particular order. You may pass through the final station on the way round but you may NOT count it as having been visited until you have been to every other station on the list. The challenge must end at the final station on the list and not at a station of your choosing.

Usual challenge rules apply etc etc.

Depending on the stations chosen by the balls, you will need to plan how much time you will need the following day!

Is it OK for a rough idea?

[tubeguru]

Or you could use the numbers on the Wednesday draw to give you more time to plan it but I prefer the rush of finding out your stations on the Saturday night.

[CrunchySaviour]

That introduces an element of apprehension and drama! I like it a lot!

Well done, TG.

[CrunchySaviour]

No! Wait! Some lines are closed at the weekend due to engineering works!

[TheFatBuoy]

Excellent idea. We could maybe do a "Euro Millions" tube challenge as well, with some sort of added twist whereby the two bonus balls (or whatever they're called) represent two stations, and if those two stations are visited within a certain time slot (a very small window) then someone gets some sort of prize, or pint, or something.

But yes, the anti-piccadilly challenge is a bit mad, though to answer people's questions:

You could get to West Ruislip by taking the normal train from Marylebone.
You could walk from Hammersmith to Ravenscourt Park.
Someone's suggestion of the challenge starting just before the train from Earls Court arrives in West Kensington is a good one.
The problems of Olympia, Chiswick Park/Tuenham Green and Highbury & Islington still remain.

In short, it's a shite idea.

[tubeguru]

Let's not compllicate it by bringing in EuroMillions and Thunderball.

Maskboy - take into account which lines are closed on Saturday when you draw up the numbered list of stations before the National Lottery draw.

That way you KNOW which stations will not come out and so you needn't worry.

[tubeguru]

OK, I did a "test" National Lottery Challenge.

I used a random set of numbers and THIS Sunday's closure list.

The stations closed (or inaccessible) this Sunday are (to the best of my knowledge):

Queensway
Chancery Lane
Temple
Heathrow T4
Northwick Park
Preston Road
Great Portland Street
Euston Square
Farringdon
Barbican
Dollis Hill
Neasden
All stations between Woodford and Epping (but not Woodford)
All stations between Hainault and Woodford (but not Hainault)

No Met between Harrow-on-the-Hill and Aldgate and no Jubilee between Willesden Green and Kingsbury.

The numbers I drew in order were: 11, 8, 42, 26, 25, 10 and 30.

I crossed all of the above stations off the list, removed DLR and NLL and numbered the stations 1 through 49, repeating as necessary.

The stations drawn, therefore, IN ORDER were:

<b>11</b>:
Balham
East Ham
Kentish Town
Park Royal
Sudbury Town

<b>8</b>:
Arnos Grove
Eastcote
Kennington
Oval
Stonebridge Park
Woodside Park

<b>42</b>:
Chiswick Park
Hendon Central
North Acton
South Ealing
West Ham

<b>26</b>:
Bounds Green
Gloucester Road
Liverpool Street
Rickmansworth
Upton Park

<b>25</b>:
Boston Manor
Gants Hill
Leytonstone
Richmond
Upney

<b>10</b>:
Baker Street
East Finchley
Olympia
Paddington (either I suppose)
Sudbury Hill

<b>30</b>:
Burnt Oak
Greenford
Mansion House
Ruislip Gardens
Walthamstow Central

So, the challenge would be to get from Balham to Walthamstow Central via all of the stations in between. The lack of Met from central London to Harrow and the missing bit of Jubilee line between Willesden Green and Kingsbury makes Rickmansworth interesting especially as you'd expect Wembley Park to be closed too if there's no Met from Harrow-on-the-Hill to Aldgate.

The only way, therefore, to get north of Harrow is to get to the Uxbridge branch of the Met and get a train back to Harrow and then up to the north west. Could be tricky.

Is Wembley Park actually closed this weekend? From the line closures in the area you'd assume so but I forgot remove it from the list so it has affected the numbering of the stations after it in the list (well, 18 of them if my maths is right and only one or two stations in the above example).

Anyway, take a tube map, mark the stations above on it and think about how hard it's going to be to do this on a Sunday. I think you could just about fit the above example in (no stations inside the Circle line note).

Your thoughts?

[zeibura]

i like it! but i don't like the idea of doing it on a sunday

[tubeguru]

OK then, the Thursday after a Wednesday draw.

[TheFatBuoy]

Sounds like a plan. Would competitors be issued with a definitive list of line/station closures, or would it be up to them to make sure they knew?

But yeah, I could be up for something like that.

Also, here's maybe over-complicating it a little, but, no. Actually, no, forget that. What I was going to say is that the organiser, or maybe two independent people could produce a "shortest route" time for each group of stations, so the winner would be who beats (or gets closest to) that time, rather than just does their set of stations the quickest. A more fair way of doing it - a sort of handicap system, if you like.

Maybe actually. It might work.

[TheFatBuoy]

And it would appear I can't read for shit. I thought each group would just do each small set of stations (i.e. the group that correspond to the one number). My bad.

[tubeguru]

Yeah - the groups of stations are just the ones relating to each ball.

All you need to do is get from the first station to the last station calling at all the other stations in any order.

If such a challenge happened, it would need official adjudication. The "organiser" would know the stations affected and would know which stations not to have in the list. If it's being done on a weekday then the only closures I see are Queensway and H4 which makes it easier.

Of course, since the start station is unknown before Wednesday night we can't really get the first train from that station unless we don't fancy any decent sleep.

The thing is, with the example above you have to visit a lot of the "branches" - out to Upney, Gants Hill, Burnt Oak, Woodside Park, Ruislip Gardens, Rickmansworth, Richmond and Stonebridge Park.

It's almost a full challenge and as such, may require more time than we think. The challenge is to see if you can actually do it.

[greatkingrat]

I reckon that the stations listed above could be easily done in a day, even with Sunday frequencies. My first attempt at a route came to 9hrs 37 mins and that included several lengthy waits.

[tubeguru]

As little as that?

That's quite good. This could work well.

[tubeguru]

Having just re-read my 2006 proposal for the National Lottery-based challenge I still think it's a good idea (see above).