tubechallenge.com

My immediate 5-minute planning skills proved rubbish when I found myself in London today and decided to do an All Lines Challenge.
Started at Moorgate (MET) and finished at Bank (W&C) in 1:38:27.
Oh, and I also managed to fail a 'Waterloo & City line challenge' on the last leg of my journey.

A Waterloo and City line challenge?

The surfing! Remember?!

Oh that piss easy thing ...

Been there, done it, fell over a few times ...

tubeguru wrote:fell over a few times ...

weakling!

Right, this all lines challenge business - do you have to do different branches of lines, like the Bank + Charing Cross branches of the Northern Line?

Also, and this next question might sound almost so stupid that it's not worth asking, but I've started so I'll finish - do you actually have to travel on all lines, or does passing through a station on a different line to the one you're currently travelling on count? i.e. would going through Bond Street on the Jubilee count as having done the Central Line? I'm guessing probably not, as there's no way it'd take as long as an hour to do.....

But answers to the first question would be top notch, and piss-taking responses to the second one expected.

You only need to travel on one of the branches of the Northern, otherwise we'd get into silly world by having to get to the Richmond Branch and Chesham branches etc.

By going to a station like Bond Street on the Central does not mean that you have also travelled on the Jubilee. Basically you need to travel on 12 trains (each line).

petermiller36 wrote:You only need to travel on one of the branches of the Northern, otherwise we'd get into silly world by having to get to the Richmond Branch and Chesham branches etc.

Aye - thought as much.

petermiller36 wrote:By going to a station like Bond Street on the Central does not mean that you have also travelled on the Jubilee. Basically you need to travel on 12 trains (each line).

Cool. You'd think it'd be easier than it actually is to get a good time. I've just had a couple of tries (just using journeyplanner) and haven't yet come close to the record.

I think you also have to use the DLR.

One thing:

at http://www.tubechallenge.com/all_lines.html it says

The idea is to travel on at least one section of each of the London Underground's twelve lines (including the Waterloo & City) in the shortest time.

This would suggest the following things, both of which i assume are incorrect:

a) travelling on the Circle line from Liverpool Street to Tower Hill would count as having done all of the Metropolitan, Circle, District (the short section between TH and the junction to Aldgate/Aldgate East) and Hammersmith and City (the short section between LS and the junction to Aldgate/Aldgate East) lines.

b) if I started with the (completely random, btw) central line from Bond Street to Oxford Circus then I would not have to start the watch until the train was just stopping at Oxford Circus because then you would have done a small section of the central line -- and similarly at the end.


NB: (b) is contrary to Guinness all stations rules where it says

7. The clock must start the moment the doors close on the first train taken by the challengers.

It must stop the moment the challengers set foot on the platform at the last station.

No. The clock starts when the doors close on the first train, as usual, and finishes... actually, when DOES it finish?

I would assume it finishes when you step onto the platform having arrived at the station on the last of the 12 lines.

Also, travelling between M0o0o0orgate and Liverpool Street on the Circle line does not count as having done the Metropolitan and Hammersmith lines as well!! You have to travel on all three trains!

I don't believe that you have to do the DLR, but it can prove very useful.

Yes, my definition on the site may not be 100% clear but to make it clear here:

You have to make at least ONE journey on a train running in service on each of the 12 lines. So using a C Stock train to do Tower Hill to Aldgate only counts as the Circle. Getting a H&C train from Barbican to Liverpool Street counts only as the H&C as you used a train running in service on the H&C line.

The challenge starts when the first train departs the first station and ends when the doors open at the end of the journey on the 12th line.

So, in theory, you only need to travel between two stations on each line to do it, which is what Geoff and I did when we set the current "record". We used the DLR too.

If the DLR is necessary than surely a national rail is too?

Again, I don't think the DLR is necessary. Hence National Rail is not necessary. The DLR and National Rail are not compulsory in any other Tube Challenge, so there is no reason for them to be in this particular Tube Challenge.

Whilst using the DLR isn't mandatory for the All Lines, only one of the attempts mentioned on Geoff's Site doesn't use it, with the most common use being Bank to Shadwell to change for the ELL.

One thing to remember if you're going to attempt the challenge is that the W&C is due to be closed from 2006-04-01 to 2006-09-01 inclusive.

Cheers,

Barry

So It's Down To 11 Lines?
That must eliminate the need to go from bank to bloody shadwell