I must be mad...

[al]

And so it ends. Of the four days i've been out this week, today has been the most annoying as it has been mostly my own incompetence and bad decision making that has put me so far off schedule

I may write more later but that's it for now.

[Nigel]

Bad luck and brave to try.

By an amazing coincidence I encountered Al and the the other two challengers out today, shortly after both had given up this afternoon, while I was waiting for a train.

[The Raven]

Bad luck man!

Looking back at this week Al, do you feel there is merit on having a tube challenge week?

[Steeevooo]

As I think that some people have guessed, Andi and I were the other two challengers that Al and Nigel refer to. Things were going very well for us, with us being 10 minutes up on our schedule before trains then started not being where they were scheduled to be and started terminating in places where they shouldn't have. This (in conjunction with the Uxbridge area issues) forced us to reroute on the fly, whereby we correctly calculated a perfect Woodford via Hainault connection, only to get to Woodford to be greeted with:
1. Loughton 4 mins
2. Loughton 7 mins
3. Epping 10 mins

Upon finally arriving at Epping, we were then greeted with:
1. Loughton 8 mins
2. White City 17 mins

At which point, with my leg feeling a little dodgy we decided to abort and explore the town of Epping (discovering it is actually situated quite a distance from the station!). Having contacted Al, we discovered that he was on his way over to the Loop, and soon discovered that he had aborted at Hainault, so we decided to meet up at Woodford - where as Nigel mentions, by amazing co-incidence he was there waiting for a train himself! Good to know that your knee is feeling better now Nigel

[al]

Well, that's been an interesting week!

Unsurprisingly, doing four half attempts in the same week has been rather tiring, although not as much as I feared. I could still do a decent running speed (for me ) at the end of the week if I needed to, but I was using the technology available these days to pace myself on some runs according to when I believed the next train was actually coming, instead of pegging it all the time 'just in case'. The heat was an unwelcome sap of my energy, also.

My interest didn't diminish through the week, probably assisted (in a way I could of lived without) by not being on the same set of trains after the normal divergence point from the start on any of the three days I was on my own. I still learnt some new things, and in some cases re-learnt things

I don't regret doing it in the slightest, but equally I'm not in a rush to do a full week again. I'll put it down to an interesting experiment. Ultimately, the tube is still a frustrating network the majority of the time, but I'll still be annoyed with myself for the mistakes that I made yesterday. I think they're the only thing that has soured the week in any way for me.

Good luck to whoever is the next to break the record - you never know, it may still be me

[palkanetoijala31]

As I think that some people have guessed, Andi and I were the other two challengers that Al and Nigel refer to. Things were going very well for us, with us being 10 minutes up on our schedule before trains then started not being where they were scheduled to be and started terminating in places where they shouldn't have. This (in conjunction with the Uxbridge area issues) forced us to reroute on the fly, whereby we correctly calculated a perfect Woodford via Hainault connection, only to get to Woodford to be greeted with:
1. Loughton 4 mins
2. Loughton 7 mins
3. Epping 10 mins

Upon finally arriving at Epping, we were then greeted with:
1. Loughton 8 mins
2. White City 17 mins

At which point, with my leg feeling a little dodgy we decided to abort and explore the town of Epping (discovering it is actually situated quite a distance from the station!). Having contacted Al, we discovered that he was on his way over to the Loop, and soon discovered that he had aborted at Hainault, so we decided to meet up at Woodford - where as Nigel mentions, by amazing co-incidence he was there waiting for a train himself! Good to know that your knee is feeling better now Nigel

Who needs I pads and technology and spreadsheets when i figured it out in my head and correctly got us on a 1 min wait for what was suppossed to set up our next 3 hours of re routing on the fly i have never known such trouble getting to epping before

[The Raven]

From Epping terminating at Loughton?
From West Ruislip terminating at White City?

What's up with central line recently? I guess no one goes into central London!

[Nigel]

only to get to Woodford to be greeted with:
1. Loughton 4 mins
2. Loughton 7 mins
3. Epping 10 mins

Upon finally arriving at Epping, we were then greeted with:
1. Loughton 8 mins
2. White City 17 mins

The Central Line service has been dire for the past couple of weeks. On three (non-challenge) occasions recently when trying to get to or from Woodford, when a good service has been advertised, I've had to endure waits of over 15 minutes when it should have been no more than a 5- 7 minute service frequency.

Good to know that your knee is feeling better now Nigel

I'm afraid it's not really better. I had originally considered trying again next week and the week after, given this week's effort did not go well, but that's not going to be possible now. Perhaps just before the Olympia changes, I'll catch the first train of the day and aim to complete just walking all the changes.

[Nigel]

The Central Line service has been dire for the past couple of weeks.

Just noticed a post in http://aslefshrugged.blogspot.com/ that in his Central Line depot alone there were 15 shifts uncovered yesterday and loads of trains cancelled. We noticed. How can this still be described as a good service?

[Going Underground]

Talking of network problems, prior to the GWR coming down to around the 17 and half hours a couple of years ago EVERY attempt that I went out on was at least an hour inside GWR time on route planning... I juts assumed that the system has problems every day and it was a given acceptance that you would lose at least 45 mins somewhere on the network... Both of my records gained were way outside of the estimated planned journey and to that point neither were particularly satisfying......

[Nigel]

The Central Line service has been dire for the past couple of weeks.

Just noticed a post in http://aslefshrugged.blogspot.com/ that in his Central Line depot alone there were 15 shifts uncovered yesterday and loads of trains cancelled. We noticed. How can this still be described as a good service?

Someone must have been looking at what I've said. For the first time, this evening's Central Line staus on TfL's site is described as:
"Central line: Minor delays are occurring due to the non-availability of staff."

[geofftech]

Someone must have been looking at what I've said. For the first time, this evening's Central Line staus on TfL's site is described as:
"Central line: Minor delays are occurring due to the non-availability of staff."

Ah! Nige, you beat me to it. For the first time ever at West Acton yesterday, I saw that same message. Then my eastbound train advertised as a Woodford via Hainault got terminated at White City [came on on the middle platform, eastbound - a first!], as the driver announced he was being re-routed up to West Ruislip. And then coming back from central London, I noticed there was a 15 minute wait for the next West Ruislip, but lucklily only 6 for the next Ealing Broadway.

So fun & games on the central line at the moment then! Maybe all the nice weather has caused drivers to call in sick? Or maybe they just really are down on staff levels at the moment.