tubechallenge.com

I'm intrigued by the AZ challenge - to the extent of trying to devise a computer approach to figuring out the best route.

I started by finding all the times from stations beginning with A to stations beginning with B using http://www.tubeplanner.com/ (a little old I know, but it lets you stick the to and from stations in the URL which makes it easier to hit with a robot). Likewise for all the B to C, C to D etc. Then searched through for the best route which came out to be 349 minutes (estimated journey times between stations in the brackets):

Angel (8) Bank (5) Chancery Lane (35) Dollis Hill (28) Euston Square (6) Farringdon (9) Great Portland Street (27) Harrow-on-the-Hill (15) Ickenham (46) Knightsbridge (6) Leicester Square (18) Marble Arch (7) Notting Hill Gate (11) Oxford Circus (10) Paddington (10) Queen's Park (15) Regent's Park (22) St. James's Park (13) Tower Hill (18) Upton Park (35) Victoria (5) Westminster

Obviously this doesn't take into account the time to change trains at each station - or the difficulty of the changes. I'd be interested in hearing how this compares to expert devised routes ?

Incidentally - flipping a couple of conditions yields the supposedly worst possible route:

Amersham (101) Becontree (125) Chesham (120) Dagenham East (98) Eastcote (86) Fairlop (83) Greenford (85) Hornchurch (109) Ickenham (81) Kenton (87) Loughton (82) Mill Hill East (93) Northolt (77) Oakwood (70) Plaistow (70) Queensbury (97) Roding Valley (99) South Harrow (106) Theydon Bois (100) Uxbridge (70) Vauxhall (73) Watford

What do you think ?

Just one thing how can Harrow-on-the-Hill to Knightsbridge be quicker then Harrow-on-the-Hill to Kingsbury?

haha, i like the worst route. although, Chesham - Debden - Eastcote looks worse on a map i must say

joy54 wrote:Just one thing how can Harrow-on-the-Hill to Knightsbridge be quicker then Harrow-on-the-Hill to Kingsbury?

Well the approach I took wouldn't necessarily find the shortest time for a I (Ickenham) station to a K station (Knightsbridge or Kingsbury as you suggest). Rather it finds all the possible A -> B journeys. Then it finds all possible A -> C journeys and for each determines the shortest time via any B.
Having that it looks at all possible A -> D journeys and for each considers the shortest time via any of the C stations (knowing the shortest A->C route to there).
Consequently it might well be that the Ickenham -> Knightsbridge would be slower than Ickenham -> Kingsbury , but Knightsbridge would only be chosen as the shortest K en route to Leicester Square.

All that said, Ickenham to Kenton might be a better move still if you got off at Northwick Park and did the 5 min walk from there - is that allowed in the rules ?

Have a look at my page here: http://www.*****.co.uk/tubechalleng ... /index.htm

I can't find the A-Z(W) routes on that page - what were they and I'll try and figure the timings based on the tubeplanner.com site I used to get the base times

I am the record holder for the Alphabet Challenge and our route is a secret. sorry about that.

joy54 wrote:I am the record holder for the Alphabet Challenge and our route is a secret. sorry about that.

With respect, I don't think it'll take a genius to work it out since I know where you started, where you finished and that you went to Dollis Hill and Waterloo at some point.

Ah thats where your wrong...

joy54 wrote:Ah thats where your wrong...

What, that I'd never guess it?

No your information you quoted was wrong.

joy54 wrote:No your information you quoted was wrong.

So correct me. Don't leave me hanging ...

If I correct you I will give away my route.

joy54 wrote:If I correct you I will give away my route.

Hang on.

I said:

With respect, I don't think it'll take a genius to work it out since I know where you started, where you finished and that you went to Dollis Hill and Waterloo at some point.

The only one of those which can be wrong is Waterloo since I know where you started (Aldgate) and finished (Westminster) and I saw the picture of your partner at Dollis Hill - a station I know and recognise thanks to the huge backpacker's poster you included in the picture. So, the only one that could be possibly wrong is Waterloo.

*checks something*

Yes, although you didn't have Waterloo as your W, you may have passed through Waterloo at some point anyway. You will notice I said "you went to ... Waterloo ... at some point" and not "Waterloo was your W".

Therefore, could you explain to me how telling me you didn't do Waterloo as your W will enable me to determine your entire A to Z route as I don't believe I possess ESP as a personality trait.

Waterloo is wrong yes. It was a photo I gave Geoff when I was doing the All Line Challenge the same day as I had no photos of me on Alphabet

joy54 wrote:Waterloo is wrong yes. It was a photo I gave Geoff when I was doing the All Line Challenge the same day as I had no photos of me on Alphabet

Ah, now you just corrected me - I now know your entire route.

*rolls eyes*