tubechallenge.com

Having had the Olympics really get me into the mood for tube challenging, I've just got back from an All Lines Challenge - but I'm not entirely sure if it's valid.

My time was 47:59 (nowhere near the quite remarkable record time).

The question is about the Circle line. As part of my route I went westbound along the top half of the circle line with the aim to travel along one station each on the H&C, Circle & Metropolitan lines. However I realised when I got there that it has now become impossible to tell the difference between a westbound H&C and a westbound Circle in this section as both services now show 'Hammersmith via Paddington' on the platform indicators and on the front of the train.

As a result, I elected to travel one station on a Hammersmith train, get off then wait for another Hammersmith train, then get off and change to a Metropolitan. It is likely, therefore, that I did travel on an H&C and a Circle, though not easy for me to know for sure. I didn't think to write down the Duty Numbers which could be retrospectively checked against the timetable.

It is still possible to do the ALC and be sure (ie if you just use the southern half of the circle, and the eastern end of the H&C; or if you travel eastbound along the top half of the circle where the destinations make it clear). The result of both of these solutions is that there is an extra restriction on what routes you can use.

Do people reckon my time still counts? Or not?

Ah, very good point jonny! I hadn't thought of this. My personal opinion on this, is that your time should be valid. As you say, there is no practical way of knowing where the trains have come from, and therefore all westbound trains to Hammersmith could be either H&C or Circle. I would say it is acceptable to make up for this by taking the journey twice.

I think the current record is unbeatable anyway. I may have to give it one more crack, now that this has thrown up an interesting scenario for the route that both mine and Steve & Matt's records used.

dudey wrote:Ah, very good point jonny! I hadn't thought of this. My personal opinion on this, is that your time should be valid. As you say, there is no practical way of knowing where the trains have come from

The working timetables must somehow distinguish between Circle and H&C trains by their train number ranges, wouldn't you have thought?

The train number ranges may well be the same - I wouldn't be surprised if H&C trains become Circle trains during the day or vice versa. If you know what I mean.

The only way to tell (unless someone 'in the know' can shed some light on this) would be to track it exactly via the WTT and even then that wouldn't be 'foolproof' as trains don't always run as per the WTT.

I guess you could always ask one of the passenger "Where did this train come from?" but you might get some strange looks.