tubechallenge.com

As I've got a few days in London, I'm going to be having a go at my first attempt to get round all the stations on Thursday. It won't be a record attempt because I doubt I've got the optimum route but it was fun putting it together and will be no doubt hard work doing it, but I'll try and keep the forum updated if I can.

Good luck Chris, let us know how you get on and I hope you have better weather and service than in the last week or so.....

Going Underground wrote:Good luck Chris, let us know how you get on and I hope you have better weather and service than in the last week or so.....

well I managed to get the first train from upminster. it's amazingly busy. made first run of the day easily enough - not looking forward to russell square to chancery lane though.

Going Underground wrote:Good luck Chris, let us know how you get on and I hope you have better weather and service than in the last week or so.....

well I managed to get the first train from upminster. it's amazingly busy. made first run of the day easily enough - not looking forward to russell square to chancery lane though.

Good luck, Chris. No major delays reported in the Network yet!

PFW wrote:Good luck, Chris. No major delays reported in the Network yet!

there was a signal problem at wood green so slightly behind schedule. 89 stations done and mill hill coming up

Did the first train down from Upminster stop at all the District line stations?

PFW wrote:Good luck, Chris. No major delays reported in the Network yet!

Just reached station 200 at rayners lane 20 mins up on my schedule but still well behind GWR pace

KEEP GOING CHRIS im sure that u will finish if ur 20 mins ahead of schedule but behind GWR it doesnt matter just completing is good enough.

Starkey7 wrote:Did the first train down from Upminster stop at all the District line stations?

Why wouldn't it stop at all stations?

Well I heard that the first train from Upminster got to a few stations before they actually opened for the day, and therefore didn't stop at those places. It was on this forum a few months ago, I think.

Any news Chris did you make it round

Going Underground wrote:Any news Chris did you make it round

Hi

Yes I did make it round (and am knackered) in the not very impressive time of 20h15m. There were two disasters towards the end - one TfL's and one mine otherwise I would have broken 19h for sure. I think the route might have some potential. This is how the day went:

Arrived at Upminster about 430 and waited expectantly for the first train. I had it written down at 448 when in fact it's 458 so I could have had 10 mins longer in bed. The first District train does indeed stop at every stop and it would need to because it was standing room only by West Ham.

The first run from Aldgate East to Aldgate went well and I made the first Circle train from Aldgate with ease. I bottled out of the Russell Square-Chancery Lane run and instead doubled back and got an almost immediate connection. I'd planned to do the Hainault loop clockwise but the first train at Holborn was a Hainault train with a Woodford via Hainault behind it so I went anti-clockwise instead.

The first bus journey from Leyton to Walthamstow in the rush hour was a bit bad, but after that all the other bus journeys apart from Cockfosters to High Barnet went smoothly. I made a 384 at Cockfosters with seconds to spare and then spent the next 25 minutes meandering around Barnet housing estates with little old dears.

There was an almost instantaneous connection at Stanmore and I got back to central London feeling quite good and ahead of schedule. The DLR connection from Bank to Canning Town also worked quite well as did the Morden to Wimbledon bus, and the Vauxhall-Waterloo train journey (apart from being overtaken into Waterloo by a train which left later). Olympia was the usual pain in the butt and there was a spectacular thunderstorm as I was running from there to HSK. So I got to Bond Street just ahead of the rush hour for the journey to West Ruislip (which gave a bit of time for a kip), and even managed to find a U1 bus waiting outside the station which made the journey to Ickenham less exerting. The doubling back at Uxbridge was also instantaneous, but then things started to go wrong.

I got off the Metropolitan train at Rayners Lane to wait, and wait, and wait for a Piccadilly one. The wait was about 15 mins and in fact I would have had time to stay on the Met one and double back at West Harrow (which run almost killed me) as 3 Westbound Met trains went past as I was waiting. Then came the ominous announcements of delays on the Piccadilly and District lines. Nevertheless the journey to North Ealing was OK, as was the run to West Acton [some amazing houses]. At Ealing Broadway the District service had been suspended and there was only a shuttle running from there to Acton Town. This meant that I had to leave out Chiswick Park, where I'd planned to double back, and do a Gunnersbury-Chiswick Park run later. Acton Town station was heaving. I let one Piccadilly line train go past because it was announced at T123, but when the next was also announced I decide to get on it and got off at Hatton Cross to see what happened - fortunately the one after was a T4 train. The new Piccadilly timetable is a pain because if you get a T123 train you don't get to T4 and when T5 opens it'll add several minutes onto the journey. Also the signing is terrible - all the trains and maps still show the old arrangement, and all the trains still say T123 on their display boards. This left a lot of confused and disgruntled airline passengers needing to change at Hatton Cross where a man with a megaphone was trying to control it all.

The train at Feltham was caught with seconds to spare and I arrived at Richmond about 20 mins ahead to find the District line thankfully returning to some sort of normality. I didn't get on an earlier departing overground train as I wasn't sure if this was allowed and waited for the District one. The double back at West Kensington worked OK and I arrived at the Paddington Bakerloo platform about 30 mins up. Things now started to go bad as the first 3 trains indicated were all Queen's Park ones. Nevertheless I got on and off at Queen's Park. There was an overground all stations to H&W indicated in 15 minutes but again I was unsure about whether I could use this. Just before it arrived a Bakerloo train eventually turned up so I got on that and it then proceeded to crawl up the track behind the Overground one. The journey from Paddington to H&W which I'd scheduled for 30 mins took over an hour. Despite this I was still on time for my schedule so was confident that I'd make it.

The Preston Road to West Harrow stretch went OK (although at least 2 Watford trains passed as I was making my ever slower way from West to North Harrow) and I got to Watford on time and back to Moor Park in good time for the train to Chalfont and Latimer.

It was by this time past 2330 and I was getting tired and I made the lunatic mistake of seeing a Metropolitan train approaching Platform 3 at Moor Park (at the time the C&L one was due) and running through the underpass from Platform 1 to get on it and 10 minutes later horrified at finding myself back in Watford! Fortunately I was back in Moor Park in time to catch the 0008 and because of the vagaries on the timetable decide it was safer to do Amersham first and then Chesham. So I ended up in Chesham at just after 1 o'clock despite the fact that I should have ended in Amersham and had to get a taxi back.

Things I'd learnt

1. I need to be fitter
2. Never try changing from or to the Jubilee line at Waterloo.
3. Get on the first Piccadilly line train to Heathrow even if you have to change
4. Travel lighter - I had far too much stuff with me.
5. Avoid the 384 bus.

As it wasn't a record, I'll post my route for comments.

This is the route. Not sure how the formatting will work. I found the TfL timetable to be reasonably accurate at estimating journey times between stations. There a few places where this route doesn't work, e.g. Moorgate-Bank covered twice, King's Cross visited 3 times etc.

Depart dep Arrive Route Actual
Upminster 04:58 Aldgate East District 0
Aldgate East 05:38 Aldgate run
Aldgate 05:44 Gloucester Road Circle 0
Gloucester Road 06:11 Russell Square Piccadilly
Russell Square 06:27 Holborn Piccadilly
Holborn 06:40 Hainault Central
Hainault 07:28 Woodford Central
Woodford 07:41 Epping Central
Epping 08:02 Leyton Central
Leyton 08:25 Walthamstow Central bus
Walthamstow Central 08:52 King's Cross Victoria -6
King's Cross 09:13 Cockfosters Piccadilly -1
Cockfosters 09:50 High Barnet bus 0
High Barnet 10:17 Finchley Central Northern
Finchley Central 10:43 Mill Hill East Northern -11
Mill Hill East 10:48 Camden Town Northern
Camden Town 11:11 Edgware Northern -5
Edgware 11:39 Canons Park bus
Canons Park 12:00 Stanmore Jubilee -13
Stanmore 12:06 Baker Street Jubilee -14
Baker Street 12:39 Moorgate Circle/H&C -12
Moorgate 12:54 Bank Northern
Bank 13:00 Canning Town DLR
Canning Town 13:22 Waterloo Jubilee -13
Waterloo 13:43 Camden Town Northern -11
Camden Town 14:02 Elephant & Castle Northern -12
Elephant & Castle 14:25 Lambeth North Bakerloo
Lambeth North 14:30 Elephant & Castle Northern
Elephant & Castle 14:35 Stockwell Northern -14
Stockwell 14:47 Brixton Victoria
Brixton 14:51 Stockwell Victoria
Stockwell 14:56 Morden Northern -18
Morden 15:20 Wimbledon bus
Wimbledon 15:44 Earl's Court District -23
Earl's Court 16:08 Kensington Olympia District
Kensington Olympia 16:12 High Street Kensington run/bus
High Street Kensington 16:25 Edgware Road District/Circle
Edgware Road 16:34 Edgware Road run
Edgware Road 16:39 Oxford Circus Bakerloo
Oxford Circus 16:49 Vauxhall Victoria
Vauxhall 16:59 Waterloo rail -18
Waterloo 17:09 Bond Street Bakerloo
Bond Street 17:19 West Ruislip Central
West Ruislip 17:55 Ickenham run
Ickenham 18:09 Uxbridge Piccadilly -19
Uxbridge 18:17 Rayner's Lane Piccadilly -21
Rayner's Lane North Ealing
North Ealing 18:48 West Acton run
West Acton 18:58 Ealing Broadway Central
Ealing Broadway 19:07 Acton Town District -10
Acton Town Heathrow Terminal 4 Piccadilly
Heathrow Terminal 4 19:53 Hatton Cross Piccadilly
Hatton Cross 20:10 Richmond bus
Richmond 20:48 Gunnersbury District
Gunnersbury Chiswick Park run
Chiswick Park West Kensington District
West Kensington 21:10 Hammersmith District -20
Hammersmith 21:15 Hammersmith run
Hammersmith 21:23 Paddington H&C
Paddington 21:36 Paddington run
Paddington 21:41 Harrow & Wealdstone Bakerloo
Harrow & Wealdstone 22:14 Kenton Bakerloo -2
Kenton 22:19 Northwick Park run
Northwick Park 22:25 Preston Road Metropolitan -2
Preston Road 22:30 West Harrow Metropolitan
West Harrow 22:39 North Harrow run
North Harrow 22:53 Watford Metropolitan
Watford 23:18 Moor Park Metropolitan +1
Moor Park 23:38 Chalfont & Latimer Metropolitan +31
Chalfont & Latimer Amersham Metropolitan
Amersham Chalfont & Latimer Metropolitan
Chalfont & Latimer Chesham Metropolitan

Many congratulations Chris a fine effort especially as you did it on ur lonesome.Yes you can use the Overground the common ones are between Richmond to Gunnersbury and Queens Park to Harrow & whealdstone.I be interested to know what time you were around the Leyton area as there are sneaky ways around getting the bus if u time it right.