tubechallenge.com

It has been announced today that London Underground's East London Line will close on 23 December 2007, to permit its reconstruction into the new extended version (which won't be part of LU, though it will still come under TfL). The extended line will open in 2010; bustitution will apply for 2+ years. The year's notice is being given because some commuters have annual season tickets and they may wish to reconsider renewing them if they expire after 23 December 2006.

http://www.subchat.com/read.asp?Id=355232
http://diamondgeezer.blogspot.com/2006_ ... 1640164836

So how is that going to affect you guys?

Based on past decisions from GWR (Guinness World Records, as opposed to the Great Western Railway ) it wouldn't surprise me if they made people use the replacement bus, even though the line will NEVER reopen as part of LU!

Cheers,

Barry

i'd hope they'll see that it's stupid expecting challengers to visit seven stations by bus on a TUBE CHALLENGE. one station, fine, doesn't make that much difference, but seven? they might aswell still have said we have to take the silverlink metro to watford junction, and the chiltern to aylesbury (as both are alternative services which replace london underground lines). so hopefully, they'll count the "east london line" as being CLOSED from that day, as it is.

and it'll be 268 btw, not 269. unless you're counting wood lane, in which case they shall have to reset the record anyway!

Guys, I do disagree with what Guiness say about Shoreditch but (as I may have said before, sorry if Im repeating myself) there is some logic in it. The Shoreditch replacement bus is operated by LUL - not TfL, Silverlink or whatever, making it 'technically' part of the London Underground. When a bus is put on across the whole line, it will probably be London Underground again, although not being a train. This causes a conflict in the rules:

TRAVELLING THE LONDON UNDERGROUND IN THE SHORTEST TIME

1. All of the stations served by London Underground trains must be visited.

We'll just have to wait and see what they say anyway.

Zeibura wrote:i'd hope they'll see that it's stupid expecting challengers to visit seven stations by bus on a TUBE CHALLENGE. one station, fine, doesn't make that much difference, but seven? they might aswell still have said we have to take the silverlink metro to watford junction, and the chiltern to aylesbury (as both are alternative services which replace london underground lines). so hopefully, they'll count the "east london line" as being CLOSED from that day, as it is.

and it'll be 268 btw, not 269. unless you're counting wood lane, in which case they shall have to reset the record anyway!

Unfortunately Guinness don't see the "logic" in the situation or consider the inconvenience to the tube challenger........
They would probably expect you to take a "replacement" bus if it was 1 or 100 stations that were closed, be it permanent or temporary...
If it is operated by LUL that seems to be the onlt criteria of consideration they take into account...

2 thoughts:

1)rather than anyone writing individually to Guinness asking them their judgement, like happened with Shoreditch, there may be more clout in writing a public letter, signed by current/former world record holders and people who have made attempts in the past, requesting that the ELL not be included when it's a full bus service.

2)is this the most appropriate thread for this discussion?

Topic moved to appropriate seciton.

Greetings from not so sunny Denamrk.

From looking at the posters on the ELL the other night it talks about buses, there is also no guarantee that one bus will cover the entire route, it could well be one to Shoreditch, one Whitechapel to Canada Water, and one Canada Water to New Cross and New Cross Gate, or somewhere in between the two.

So this would make doing an All Stations Challenge (apologies if there is another recognised term for it!) virtually impossible?

When the line closed in the 1990s for three years, two bus services were provided; one double deck route to get from the south into the City (it dropped you by Tower Hill/Tower Gateway), and another midibus which went through the (low headroom) Rotherhithe tunnel to the northern stations.

This would be very time consuming, especially adding on Shoreditch! A further complication is that Canada Water has since opened, so there are connections available there which may alter the bus service this time.

Nevertheless it's worth remembering that the ELL will close this year (assuming nothing changes, and I hope it will as I use this line every day!) and WILL NOT REOPEN. The lines will form part of the London Rail Overground service and the ELL will not be served by London Underground trains after December this year. However they probably would procure the bus service as with Shoreditch.

Oh, GOD. This is clearly going to prove an insurmountable hurdle if Guinness don't see sense.

I hope they realise, during their decision process, that there's no point in having a record if it's going to be IMPOSSIBLE to break for an unforeseeable number of years.

CrunchySaviour wrote:Oh, GOD. This is clearly going to prove an insurmountable hurdle if Guinness don't see sense.

I hope they realise, during their decision process, that there's no point in having a record if it's going to be IMPOSSIBLE to break for an unforeseeable number of years.

I feel a GWR planned attempt on Fri 21st Dec in that case

Not the best day given the weather and the Christmas shoppers, and that it's a Friday ...

Going Underground wrote:
I feel a GWR planned attempt on Fri 21st Dec in that case

Who's going to be on the last train for that matter? Sadly less convenient hours than Soreditch.

I understand from a good source that when the line closes it will be replaced by a 'permanent' bus service. It will NOT be a rail replacement bus service as Shoreditch is at the moment.

Unless there are late changes, expect to see the line change into a nationrail line under construction on the map with the Shoredich bus service finishing.