First attempt

[Starkey7]

Nice work Chris. If you're lucky to get the U1, my team mates think that it's better to stay on it all the way to Uxbridge...

[Chris A]

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.

I left Epping at 0757 which means I'd have got to Leyton at about 0820. I had to fight my way off it was so packed. I think it was a 97 which I caught which was very busy but didn't get stuck in traffic.

Off on a tangent I lost track of the number of times when I was told to report anything suspicious to a member of staff. I guess that running up escalators and getting off one northbound train and getting immediately on a southbound one, and carrying a rucksack, as well as turning up at Watford twice in half an hour could be viewed as suspicious. Has anyone ever had any problems?

[palkanetoijala31]

The only time i ever had a problem was running between New Cross Gate and New Cross on the South of the Thames challenge after 3 teams had done it the other way the Police out in force that night decided to stop me and ask what was i doing fortunately it didnt cost a connection.

[palkanetoijala31]

Chris A wrote
I left Epping at 0757 which means I'd have got to Leyton at about 0820. I had to fight my way off it was so packed. I think it was a 97 which I caught which was very busy but didn't get stuck in traffic.

if u had got off 1 stop earlier u could have probably walked to Leytonstone High Road the got off at Walthamstow Queens road and arrived at 8.35 it only a short walk or run to Walthamstow and probably have saved u some time.

[jbom1]

Well done Chris.

Yes, as Palkanetoijala31 says, you may use the London Overground on those sections where it shares the same track as the tube, the rules say "where a service is shared by underground and National Rail trains travelling over the same tracks it is permissible to use the National Rail trains."

[Chris A]

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.

Thanks. Given a fair wind from Paddington to H&W and if I'd previously done West Harrow from Rayners Lane I reckon I could just about have got to Amersham on the 2326 for an elapsed time of 18h28m. Improving on this route time though would be very difficult as the service at Moor Park is only approx 20 mins when you include the Chiltern trains.

[Chris A]

Chris A wrote
I left Epping at 0757 which means I'd have got to Leyton at about 0820. I had to fight my way off it was so packed. I think it was a 97 which I caught which was very busy but didn't get stuck in traffic.

if u had got off 1 stop earlier u could have probably walked to Leytonstone High Road the got off at Walthamstow Queens road and arrived at 8.35 it only a short walk or run to Walthamstow and probably have saved u some time.

Thanks it probably would as I left Walthamstow at 0846

[Soup Dragon]

Hi Chris, a good effort and a very interesting route. In your main summary I would agree with all your points 1 to 5 apart from number 2, at the right time of day the change at Waterloo to/from the Jubilee is not bad, we've done it in a couple of minutes before.

As for the U1 bus, you were very lucky to catch this. In seven attempts so far I've never had a single sniff of the fipping U1. As Starkey has pointed out if we did catch a U1 we would probably take it all the way to Uxbridge. Just looking at your timings is 17:55 your departure time from West Ruislip, if so it took 14 minutes (18:09) until you departed Ickenham, did you have a long wait there? Usually the run to Ickenham takes us around 6-7 minutes and we never normally have to wait more than a few minutes.

Finally, just for the official timings on Jonny's website, do you have your time down to the seconds?

[palkanetoijala31]

As Mr Soup Dragon says a U1 bus is like the yeti the only time i have ever seen it is when i got to uxbridge once i did the run to Ickenham and tube and he did the bus i was there over 10 mins before him if i recall.I think your route has some potential for improving especially the bus connections if you like any help for future please ask im more than happy to help.

[Chris A]

Hi Chris, a good effort and a very interesting route. In your main summary I would agree with all your points 1 to 5 apart from number 2, at the right time of day the change at Waterloo to/from the Jubilee is not bad, we've done it in a couple of minutes before.

As for the U1 bus, you were very lucky to catch this. In seven attempts so far I've never had a single sniff of the fipping U1. As Starkey has pointed out if we did catch a U1 we would probably take it all the way to Uxbridge. Just looking at your timings is 17:55 your departure time from West Ruislip, if so it took 14 minutes (18:09) until you departed Ickenham, did you have a long wait there? Usually the run to Ickenham takes us around 6-7 minutes and we never normally have to wait more than a few minutes.

Finally, just for the official timings on Jonny's website, do you have your time down to the seconds?

It was 20h15m11s

The times listed were my scheduled times. I actually left Ickenham at 175009 and then left Uxbridge at 175650 which as I said was an instantaneous change - in fact I only just got through the doors of the last carriage with two other old dears who were somewhat blocking the way! If I remember the wait wasn't very long at Ickenham. And yes after all I've read on here I was amazed too as I exited West Ruislip station just as a U1 was pulling up. I never thought of taking it all the way to Uxbridge though.

[Chris A]

Hi Chris, a good effort and a very interesting route. down to the seconds?

Not half as interesting as the one I came up with that ended at Holland Park! and involved a Watford-Watford Jct run And there was another which ended in Brixton but I didn't fancy being on a tube in Brixton past midnight.

Has anyone considered using the Heathrow Express which seems a very quick way of getting from an extremity back to Zone 1?

[jonny]

It depends how much you rate its value. It costs a lot of money, and might not even help you that much. I have considered it.

[joy54]

Chris A, how did Heathrow Terminal 4 go? Was your HT4 train on TFL Journey Planner times- leaving Hatton Cross at approx. every 10 mins on clockface times so 10, 20, 30, 40 etc, then taking 4/5 mins to HT4 waiting 7/8 minutes and then heading to HT123?

Very interesting route as well, not seen many big DLR journeys in it but it seems a nice idea going to Canning Town if you start or finish at Upminster.

[dudey]

very well done sir, some interesting stuff in there, and i did feel sorry for you when i saw some dismal service status' during the day.

also, out of interest, had the 777 done its belly-flop when you were running out of Hatton Cross across the A30? Or did you lose some hair from its low approach

(for those that maybe don't know, Hatton Cross is right underneath where that plane would have approached yesterday)

[Chris A]

Chris A, how did Heathrow Terminal 4 go? Was your HT4 train on TFL Journey Planner times- leaving Hatton Cross at approx. every 10 mins on clockface times so 10, 20, 30, 40 etc, then taking 4/5 mins to HT4 waiting 7/8 minutes and then heading to HT123?

Very interesting route as well, not seen many big DLR journeys in it but it seems a nice idea going to Canning Town if you start or finish at Upminster.

The new Heathrow timetable is going to add to the journey time. As I said I let the first Heathrow train go at Acton Town because it was advertised as T123, as was the second but I got on it anyway and got off at Hatton Cross. At present I'd reckon on getting on any Piccadilly train and sorting it out at Hatton Cross if necessary as staff elsewhere don't seem to have realised the Heathrow problem - for instance every train at Acton Town was being announced as "a Heathrow train" which is not much use if you want T4. The man on the platform directing T4 passengers to get off helpfully got train information on his radio saying that the next train was a T4 one. There wasn't a 10 minute wait at T4, but only a 4 min one sufficient for the driver to visit the loo (at least that's where I presume he went - the door was labelled Mess Room) and get back. We did wait for a bit at the junction before T123 (presumably for a returning T5 train) for about a minute. The departure from T123 back to town was practically instantaneous with only as much wait as you get at any tube stop.