Nigel's Tube 6 25/8/12

[Nigel]

Unfortunately due to variety of social and domestic commitments I don't think I can make most of the Tube Olympics (except possibly the DLR date), and definitely can't make the full network on 26 July.

After thinking my challenge last month may have been my last ever full network, I enjoyed it so much that I wondered if I should have one more go, but this time aim for a fast time. However, as documented on other threads the problem of Olympia remains.

So my next attempt will be on a Saturday, on a day when all lines and all stations will be open (including Cannon Street, which is normally closed on a Saturday). The chosen date is between the Olympics and Paralympics, so a normal Saturday service is scheduled to run (but with no additional trains as will happen during the actual Games). As mentioned on the Olympia thread, I contacted Guinness a little while ago to clarify the position of an attempt on such a date, but have received no response so far.

After learning from my recent attempt and some careful thought applied route planning (including avoiding the football crowds at the relevant times), I think I now have a route which is very competitive on paper. So, if things go well and certain key connections work, I will be aiming to pull out all the stops towards the end. Of course, I'm also realistic enough to know that it could all go horribly wrong at any stage. Additionally, to succeed I will need to break my jinx of only completing on my odd numbered full network challenges.

[Nigel]

Just to confirm that my first Saturday attempt goes ahead tomorrow. I hope I have better luck than greatkingrat last weekend, although after he abandoned things got even worse with the Jubilee, Met & Picc all suspended for a chunk of the afternoon.

As usual, I'll try to provide periodic updates via Twitter (@whitenigel). Tomorrow there is the added bonus of trying to spot Random 15 competitors - I'll be looking out for you.

I will try to complete if I possibly can - if I do, I will have broken my string of every alternate attempt ending in failure.

[Going Underground]

Good luck willl keep a look at as well. We could be anywhere/all over the place with Z1-Z4 being included

[nozzacook]

did you remember challenge cup final at wembley tomorrow Kick off 2pm

[greatkingrat]

No I did not know that. Who do you think I am, a northerner?

Appears to be Warrington - Leeds, so I imagine when we start the R15 tomorrow we might see quite a few fans arriving at Euston and walking to Euston Square to get the Met to Wembley.

Also Tottenham are at home at 3pm, as well as Chelsea kicking off at 5.30.

[Nigel]

did you remember challenge cup final at wembley tomorrow Kick off 2pm

I'd carefully arranged a route to avoid the football, but had overlooked the Rugby League. Thankfully, if all goes to plan, I should avoid that as well!

[tractakid]

good luck, I hope it goes all right!

[kateyay]

We got caught up in the Met/Jub problem last weekend, not whilst challenging!

Fingers crossed all goes well for you today and nothing breaks! Best of luck!

[MylesHSG]

Jubilee suspended between Wembley Park and Stanmore already¬

[tractakid]

Seems to say 'good service' now, so there should be at least 1TPH running.

[greatkingrat]

I hope nigel doesn't have any long runs planned at the moment as it is absolutely pouring currently

[tractakid]

I assume any passthroughs at flooded stations will count?

[Nigel]

Well yesterday was a very interesting day! For those who do not yet know, I completed in a time of 16h 43m 36s.

The service was not without its problems. Those I recall hearing about included:
- Jubilee Line suspended and severe delays in the morning due to a signal failure at Wembley Park and vandalism at Canons Park in the morning;
- Central Line delays in the afternoon and early evening due to signal failure at White City
- Waterloo & City Line suspended in the afternoon until its normal Saturday close due to a fire alert;
- District Line severe delays in the evening due to a passenger ill at Bromley-by-Bow.

All but one of these line problems caused me some problems to a greater or lesser extent during the day (and no prizes for guessing which one didn’t). And yet I still managed to post an amazing time.

My route yesterday was another early start in the North West corner, with a Heathrow finish, the same as my previous mid-week attempt in June, although with some differences in between. This start has the disadvantage of a 15 minute wait at the second change, but I had noticed that the Saturday timetable then sets up a potentially slick sequence of changes about an hour or so later in an area in which it is easy to lose time, which does not work on the weekday timetable. This paid dividends yesterday with all these early changes working like a dream, and I rapidly gained 30 minutes on my June attempt.

With just 17 stations remaining and again the same finishing sequence as in June, I was exactly one hour ahead of my time then. Given I posted 17h 23m in June, this offered the prospect of a 16h 23m completion. My June finish required a little bit of luck, just catching a train running a couple of minutes late, but even with very comfortable changes I should have achieved a 16h 33m completion. However, at my 254th station, the train I was hoping to catch arrived 7 minutes late due to one of the line problems mentioned above, which meant at my next change I just saw the train I wanted to catch departing as I pulled in. (Gallingly, if the train before the one I caught at the 254th station had also been even a few minutes late, I would have caught it.)

The story of the day was of numerous slippages from a perfect schedule only to claw the time back later either through a bit of luck with late running connections or really pulling out all the stops on some of my runs. Problems included:
- Just failing to set up an optimal Olympia connection due to the service but one before running about four minutes late. This meant I ended up hanging around at Earl’s Court for 12 minutes rather than risk going to Olympia and just missing it.
- Waiting for nine minutes stuck just outside Hainault on a through Loop train waiting for an out of sequence Hainault terminator (due to the signal failure mentioned above) to clear the platform. This inevitably cost me my onward connection.
- Two consecutive slow running Northern Line trains losing a total of 15 minutes compared to the schedule on paper (despite on a previous challenge having made up time with these same two trains).

On two of my runs in the afternoon I got completely soaked in torrential downpours. One turned out to be completely unnecessary, as on coming out of the station I spotted the rear of what I thought was a useful bus heading down the road, so a chased after it hoping I would catch it up after the traffic lights, which I did. However, I had forgotten that on this stretch of road buses to both ends of this route travel in the same direction and the bus I chased after was not the one I needed.

As some of you know, I’m a bit of a technophobe and don’t have a smartphone (I send tweets as texts). However, I did use the bus countdown service a couple of times:
- For one, which I reckon the stop is a comfortable 10 -12 minute run from the station it said that the bus was due in 7 minutes when I left. So I did the run in seven minutes only to wait another three when I got to the stop.
- The countdown service also confirmed that I had just missed a U1 I had been hoping to catch, so I really buried myself on a run instead, so that I did not lose any time by missing it.

I’ve already been asked when I will try again. I’m not sure – yesterday’s route only really works on Saturdays, and I don’t think I will have another opportunity of a Saturday without engineering works. The one I used in June loses too much time early on to be really competitive. I may have a look to see I can find anything better for the next time there is an exhibition service (though my commitments this autumn may not let me try). I do know that yesterday was the hardest challenge physically, as because I was always on a good time but kept slipping away, so as the day wore on I was putting more and more into my runs. I am rather stiff and sore today; I’ll see how long I take to recover.

The early stages of yesterday reminded me of my first challenge (and Marc Gawley’s record) last year on Maundy Thursday, as there were few people about and it seemed easier to make connections. However, by the afternoon the system seemed as busy as ever, and a noticeable reduction in frequency in the evening peak. The roads seemed quieter throughout the day and I didn’t lose any time waiting to cross busy roads as often happens.

What yesterday has confirmed is that with perfect conditions, or a little bit of luck, then I still think it is possible to make inroads into the current record. Although, it was almost in my grasp yesterday, part of me is glad I didn’t break it because of the controversy it would have caused. As I knew GWR wouldn’t recognise it, although I was doing full logging, I wasn’t bothering with any of the other documentary evidence required. As usual, the only support I received was a visit from my wife and son at Woodford station with a clean shirt and replacement water. However, I do not doubt that advance information (from a support person or a smartphone) may have been useful on a few occasions.

Finally two incidents to report:
- As I was parking my car just before 5am in my usual quiet side street I noticed a police van driving slowly down the road towards me. As I got out, I saw it turn round at the top of the road and start coming back towards me. I envisaged being stopped and being asked about what I was doing, which I thought may take some explaining. Fortunately, after eyeing me up and down they just drove on, so perhaps I don’t look that disreputable after all.
- On a crowded train, I noticed a middle-aged man staring intently at the screen of a hand held computing device, which had covers positioned so that the people either side of him couldn’t see what he was looking at. However, if you do want to watch gay porn on the train it is probably advisable not to sit in the transverse seats so that anyone standing behind you can see what you are up to!

[Nigel]

I thought it might be instructive to go through my log book from last weekend's effort to calculate exactly how much time is spent on a tube challenge actually riding on a Underground train acquiring new stations and how much on something else. To keep things simple, I rounded everything to the nearest minute. The 16h 43m (1003 minutes) broke down as follows:

- 59% (9h 49m) travelling on an Underground train to a station which had not yet been visited on the challenge;

- 19% (3h 8m) waiting for services (i.e time from arriving at a station to departing on a different train, this figure includes within station transfer times since I can't distinguish this element from my log);

- 8% (1h 18m) travelling on an Underground train to a station which has already been visited on the challenge (i.e. the usual double-backs and stations you can't help but go through more than once);

- 6% (1h 2m) on runs between stations;

- 4% (43m) on non-Underground public transport (e.g. National Rail, buses)

- 4% (43m) being held stationary by delays of more than one minute while on an Underground train (e.g. the usual holding at stations 'to regulate the service' and excessive delays at signals).

So at face value, there is lots of 'unproductive' time to try to find ways of eliminating. I would suspect that with a slower overall time this unproductive proportion would be even greater.

[The Raven]

Does this mean that with the powers of transportation, perfect schedule and no delays a time of 9h49m would be possible?