Even more alternative challenge ideas

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DrainBrain
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Even more alternative challenge ideas

Post by DrainBrain »

The Alternative Alphabet Challenge
LU stations only. Start at a station with a letter A in its name, visit a station with a letter B in its name, then C... and so on through to Z. You must use 26 distinct stations for the letters.

You're going to end up at Belsize Park, but where are you going to start? Could be done as a Cannon Street challenge.

All Modes Challenge
Surely someone has suggested this before. Travel between two stations/stops by all the following modes:
All 11 Underground lines, Overground, DLR, National Rail, Bus, Tram, out-of-system on-foot transfer. The on-foot transfer cannot be the first or last leg of your journey. Optional (because of extra cost): also include a river trip and the Emirates Air Line.

The Thames Crossing Challenge
LU, LO, DLR. Travel on a service along each of the 15 Thames crossings as depicted on the standard Tube map. Usual GWR rules apply for journeys between the crossings. Same rails rules apply between Gunnersbury and Kew Gardens, so you may use either LU or LO there. The fact that several separate tunnels may exist in reality is ignored; you only need to make a single crossing for each line shown on the map. Emirates Air Line is ignored (or is an optional extra).

The Punctuation Challenge
Visit all 18 LU stations whose name includes a character that is not a letter, number or space:
Bromley-by-Bow, Chalfont & Latimer, Earl's Court, Elephant & Castle, Harrow & Wealdstone, Harrow-on-the-Hill, Heathrow Terminals 1, 2, 3, Highbury & Islington, Kensington (Olympia), King's Cross St. Pancras, Queen's Park, Regent's Park, Shepherd's Bush, Shepherd's Bush Market, St. James's Park, St. John's Wood, St. Paul's, Totteridge & Whetstone.

Some obvious outliers for start and end points, then KenO and a nice smattering of zone 1 and 2 stations with plenty of route options.
(Technically, the & sign isn't punctuation, but whatever.)
Royal Oak to Bethnal Green in 333 days
Heathrow Terminal 4 to Amersham in 17 hours, 42 minutes and 22 seconds
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The Orange One
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Re: Even more alternative challenge ideas

Post by The Orange One »

The Raven came up with your All Modes challenge:
http://www.tubeforum.co.uk/forum/index. ... =viewtopic

I came up with a variation, with a time limit of 4 hours and a points based system. In this version I have separated the National Rail TOCs. I might add "1 point for use of Heathrow Pod, 1 point for use of car, 1 point for use of bike, all maximum of 1" for the sake of it.
http://www.tubeforum.co.uk/forum/index. ... =viewtopic

As regards to Alternative Alphabet, here's the Pangram Challenge:
http://www.tubeforum.co.uk/forum/index. ... =viewtopic

As regards the Thames Crossing:
http://www.tubeforum.co.uk/forum/index. ... =viewtopic

I'm currently trying to cover all Thames Crossing methods (barring electrical service tunnels and the Northern Line from King William Street) up to and including the western side of the M25 (was going to be inside the M25 but then I saw I only had Gravesend-Tilbury to cover east of it). It's hard (especially the SW London ferries). Still trying to work out whether I have to run the entire length of Blackfriars station.
All London buses: 23 hours 25 minutes (with Adham, David, Josh and Tangy)
Holds some alternative challenge records. Not sure which ones.
20½ Random 15 challenges: 01:58:48 best
That guy who runs those Twitter polls about tube stations and London Boroughs.
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The Orange One
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Re: Even more alternative challenge ideas

Post by The Orange One »

With regards to the Alternative Alphabet, Oxford Circus would be almost certainly used, I can see St James's Park being popular and I have a benchmark route of 28 minutes.
All London buses: 23 hours 25 minutes (with Adham, David, Josh and Tangy)
Holds some alternative challenge records. Not sure which ones.
20½ Random 15 challenges: 01:58:48 best
That guy who runs those Twitter polls about tube stations and London Boroughs.
A2
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Re: Even more alternative challenge ideas

Post by A2 »

The Orange One wrote:With regards to the Alternative Alphabet, Oxford Circus would be almost certainly used, I can see St James's Park being popular and I have a benchmark route of 28 minutes.
28 minutes to visit 26 stations?
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The Orange One
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Re: Even more alternative challenge ideas

Post by The Orange One »

Oh, sorry! I was thinking of the Pangram Challenge. The Alternative Alphabet would take a lot longer.
All London buses: 23 hours 25 minutes (with Adham, David, Josh and Tangy)
Holds some alternative challenge records. Not sure which ones.
20½ Random 15 challenges: 01:58:48 best
That guy who runs those Twitter polls about tube stations and London Boroughs.
nozzacook
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Re: Even more alternative challenge ideas

Post by nozzacook »

A2 wrote:
The Orange One wrote:With regards to the Alternative Alphabet, Oxford Circus would be almost certainly used, I can see St James's Park being popular and I have a benchmark route of 28 minutes.
28 minutes to visit 26 stations?
Takes 20+ mins just to do v - z in order. So 28 mins for 26 stations including changes is very impressive.
26 miles 385yards in 4h 14m 40s.
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The Orange One
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Re: Even more alternative challenge ideas

Post by The Orange One »

That was the Pangram Challenge!! Where you have to visit a sequence of stations containing the letters A-Z.

My benchmark time for the Alternative Alphabet is a very leisurely 1 hour 59 minutes. Leisurely because I have left myself 5 minutes to change at Green Park and 3 minutes for a cross platform Bakerloo.
All London buses: 23 hours 25 minutes (with Adham, David, Josh and Tangy)
Holds some alternative challenge records. Not sure which ones.
20½ Random 15 challenges: 01:58:48 best
That guy who runs those Twitter polls about tube stations and London Boroughs.
DrainBrain
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Joined: 04 Jun 2013, 10:42
Location: South of the Thames

Re: Even more alternative challenge ideas

Post by DrainBrain »

Pangram Challenge can be done with a single change, though that wouldn't be the quickest route.

I have a rough route of 2 hours 2 minutes for the Alternative Alphabet challenge. I reckon well under 2 hours would be doable.
Royal Oak to Bethnal Green in 333 days
Heathrow Terminal 4 to Amersham in 17 hours, 42 minutes and 22 seconds
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The Orange One
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Re: Even more alternative challenge ideas

Post by The Orange One »

RE Punctuation Challenge:
Three obvious outliers for start and end points. These are C&L, HT123 and T-t-totteridge and Whetstone (hereafter termed T&W).

T&W: 27 minute return journey into Zone 1, although there is a clever move you could pull off around the Whetstone area...
HT123: 15 minute return journey into Zone 1 via HEx (which could make the double back as small as 40 minutes)
C&L: 35 minute return journey into Zone 1 via Chiltern, although there is the lovely, but overpriced, Green Line 724 to HT123. Which would mean a T&W start. But, on the plus side, no HEx fare.
All London buses: 23 hours 25 minutes (with Adham, David, Josh and Tangy)
Holds some alternative challenge records. Not sure which ones.
20½ Random 15 challenges: 01:58:48 best
That guy who runs those Twitter polls about tube stations and London Boroughs.
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