NSEFAN
Established Member
Muzer, a fellow member of RailUK, and I decided to attempt the tube challenge on the 20th December. We chose this date because it was a weekday (with good service and no engineering works) but the Kensington Olympia shuttle was also running all day (which doesn't normally happen on weekdays except in the peaks).
Our intended strategy was to try and cover alternating parts of London by travelling in a zig-zag fashion accross the tube map. The idea was to allow us to cover the stations within zones 1 & 2 whilst heading between opposite ends of zones 5 & 6. We also used some bus links between stations on the ends of the lines.
We started in Chesham at 0515, heading to Amersham via Chalfont & Latimer, then Watford via the Watford North Jnc - Watford East Jnc curve, which only sees a couple of services per day. We then went to North Harrow, walking to West Harrow before heading to Preston Road. We then doubled back to Northwick Park and walked to the Bakerloo line at Kenton.
We were expecting a train in a couple of minutes from Kenton to Harrow & Wealdstone, but our train was delayed, causing us to just miss the next one at Harrow & Wealdstone. We then ended up catching the same train to Elephant & Castle, being further delayed en-route by a faulty door interlock.
By the time we got to Elephant & Castle, we were 20 minutes late compared to how we had orignally planned. We headed up to Borough, then to Stockwell to cover Brixton, Vauxhall and Pimlico on the Victoria line. We then went down to Morden on the Northern line, doubling-back up to South Wimbledon and walked to Wimbledon station, which took longer than expected.
By this point we were still around 20 minutes late or so. We decided to stick to our planned route, and catch the next Olympia shuttle once we arrived at Earls Court, which was running every 30 minutes all day. Upon arrival at Olympia, we walked to High Street Kensington and caught a Circle line train to Edgware Road, then a Hammersmith & City train to Hammersmith.
Next, we had a long trip on the District line to Upminster and return trip to West Ham using a C2C service. We then caught the Jubilee line to Stanmore, doubling back to Canons Park and catching a bus to Edgware. We then went down to Moorgate to cover Aldgate and then Great Portland Street. We then walked to Warren Street, catching the Northern Line to Goodge Street, then heading up High Barnet, alighting at Finchley Central to cover the Mill Hill East branch.
From High Barnet, we caught a bus to Cockfosters and travelled all the way down to Acton Town, changing onto a District line service to Ealing Broadway. We then caught the Central to West Acton, walking to North Ealing and heading up to Uxbridge, reversing to Ickenham and walking to West Ruislip.
From West Ruislip, we travelled all the way accross to Epping, changing at Woodford on our way back to connect with a Hainault loop service. We changed at Leytonstone onto a bus to Walthamstow Central and went to Victoria on the Victoria line. We then went to Richmond on the District line and reversed to Turnham Green.
The original plan had been to head to Acton Town on a District line service (covering Chiswick Park), but we were running 30 minutes late and would have missed the last trains to Heathrow. At this time, Piccadilly line services were calling at Turnham Green, so we caught what we believed was the last service to Heathrow Terminal 4, with the intention of covering Chiswick Park later on.
Sadly, on our journey down to Heathrow, we realised that there were no more services from Heathrow to take us back towards Acton Town, meaning we couldn't complete the challenge. We alighted at Northfields where we would be staying overnight. It was frustrating, but we think we have learned a lot for next time we attempt the tube challenge, such as possible optimisations to make the route more resilient to the delays which occured during our journey.
Our intended strategy was to try and cover alternating parts of London by travelling in a zig-zag fashion accross the tube map. The idea was to allow us to cover the stations within zones 1 & 2 whilst heading between opposite ends of zones 5 & 6. We also used some bus links between stations on the ends of the lines.
We started in Chesham at 0515, heading to Amersham via Chalfont & Latimer, then Watford via the Watford North Jnc - Watford East Jnc curve, which only sees a couple of services per day. We then went to North Harrow, walking to West Harrow before heading to Preston Road. We then doubled back to Northwick Park and walked to the Bakerloo line at Kenton.
We were expecting a train in a couple of minutes from Kenton to Harrow & Wealdstone, but our train was delayed, causing us to just miss the next one at Harrow & Wealdstone. We then ended up catching the same train to Elephant & Castle, being further delayed en-route by a faulty door interlock.
By the time we got to Elephant & Castle, we were 20 minutes late compared to how we had orignally planned. We headed up to Borough, then to Stockwell to cover Brixton, Vauxhall and Pimlico on the Victoria line. We then went down to Morden on the Northern line, doubling-back up to South Wimbledon and walked to Wimbledon station, which took longer than expected.
By this point we were still around 20 minutes late or so. We decided to stick to our planned route, and catch the next Olympia shuttle once we arrived at Earls Court, which was running every 30 minutes all day. Upon arrival at Olympia, we walked to High Street Kensington and caught a Circle line train to Edgware Road, then a Hammersmith & City train to Hammersmith.
Next, we had a long trip on the District line to Upminster and return trip to West Ham using a C2C service. We then caught the Jubilee line to Stanmore, doubling back to Canons Park and catching a bus to Edgware. We then went down to Moorgate to cover Aldgate and then Great Portland Street. We then walked to Warren Street, catching the Northern Line to Goodge Street, then heading up High Barnet, alighting at Finchley Central to cover the Mill Hill East branch.
From High Barnet, we caught a bus to Cockfosters and travelled all the way down to Acton Town, changing onto a District line service to Ealing Broadway. We then caught the Central to West Acton, walking to North Ealing and heading up to Uxbridge, reversing to Ickenham and walking to West Ruislip.
From West Ruislip, we travelled all the way accross to Epping, changing at Woodford on our way back to connect with a Hainault loop service. We changed at Leytonstone onto a bus to Walthamstow Central and went to Victoria on the Victoria line. We then went to Richmond on the District line and reversed to Turnham Green.
The original plan had been to head to Acton Town on a District line service (covering Chiswick Park), but we were running 30 minutes late and would have missed the last trains to Heathrow. At this time, Piccadilly line services were calling at Turnham Green, so we caught what we believed was the last service to Heathrow Terminal 4, with the intention of covering Chiswick Park later on.
Sadly, on our journey down to Heathrow, we realised that there were no more services from Heathrow to take us back towards Acton Town, meaning we couldn't complete the challenge. We alighted at Northfields where we would be staying overnight. It was frustrating, but we think we have learned a lot for next time we attempt the tube challenge, such as possible optimisations to make the route more resilient to the delays which occured during our journey.
