The Victoria line challenge

[GuyBarry]

So, hmm, arriving at Victoria 1250 Friday, need to be somewhere near Walthamstow Central around five hours later, would like to complete some sort of challenge in the interim. Has the following ever been attempted?

Visit every station on the Victoria line without actually using the Victoria line. For these purposes a "visit" is an arrival or departure at the station by either tube or National Rail services. Obviously an exception would need to be made for Pimlico, but I could walk there (or get the bus).

How feasible would this be in the time available?

[GuyBarry]

Possible route (Victoria line stations in bold):
Start Pimlico, walk to Vauxhall
SWT to Clapham Junction, Overground to Clapham High Street
Walk to Clapham North, Northern via Stockwell to Elephant & Castle, Thameslink to Herne Hill
Southeastern via Brixton to Victoria
Circle/District to Westminster, Jubilee to Green Park
Piccadilly to Holborn, Central to Oxford Circus
Bakerloo to Baker Street, H&C/Met/Circle to Euston Square, walk to Warren Street
Northern to Euston, Northern via King's Cross St Pancras to Moorgate
Great Northern via Highbury and Islington to Finsbury Park
Piccadilly to Manor House, walk to Harringay Green Lanes, Overground to Blackhorse Road, then reverse to South Tottenham
Walk to Seven Sisters, Greater Anglia to Hackney Downs
Greater Anglia to Tottenham Hale, Greater Anglia to Clapton, Greater Anglia to Walthamstow Central

Still no idea about timings though. (Before someone points out that the stations aren't in the right order - they don't have to be.)

[The Orange One]

Right, this challenge was proposed years ago (I read it somewhere in the Alternative Challenge Section) as "Not The Victoria Line Challenge".

As you can see, I did do this very challenge! I suggest (in reverse, similar to what I did):

Pimlico Vauxhall by bus (360) Waterloo by SWT Clapham Common by Northern Brixton by bus Victoria by Southeastern Westminster by District Bond Street by Jubilee Holborn by Central Leicester Square by Piccadilly Euston by Northern King's Cross St. Pancras by Northern Finsbury Park by Piccadilly Highbury and Islington by Great Northern/Northern City Stratford by LO North London Line Tottenham Hale by Greater Anglia Bruce Grove by bus (123, W4) Seven Sisters by Greater Anglia South Tottenham on foot Walthamstow Queen's Road by LO GOBLIN Walthamstow Central by foot Wood Street by Greater Anglia (this satisfies 'visits Walthamstow QR by train') The Pub by W16 bus towards Leytonstone.

Or, alternatively, do your own Zone 1 - go to Vauxhall, make yourself a route, head round Zone 1 (if a good route, should easily take you <4 hours without running any of it - DrainBrain did a walking Zone 1 some time back which took him 3 and a bit hours, I think), then go to Walthamstow like the rest of us!

[GuyBarry]

Ah, I knew I wouldn't have been the first person to think of it! I hoped there wouldn't be a record to break I see your time was 03:14:32 - doubt whether I'd be able to do it that fast but I could certainly complete it within the time.

Or, as you say, I could do my own zone 1. I'll have a think about it.

[The Orange One]

I suggest you do your own Zone 1, but this is good fun as well.

Be aware that Tottenham Hale gets a couple of services from Hackney Downs, none at all from Clapton, but many from Liverpool Street and quite a few from Stratford, so I would travel to one of those to visit Tottenham Hale.

[DrainBrain]

DrainBrain did a walking Zone 1 some time back which took him 3 and a bit hours, I think

I certainly did: http://www.tubeforum.co.uk/phpBB3/viewt ... f=4&t=2712

This was actually quicker than my time on the 2014 Zone 1 day.

[GuyBarry]

Well, RobbieM and I completed this yesterday in 3 hours 42 minutes (can't remember the seconds but I'm sure he'll let me know). Given that it was my first ever challenge of any type, and I'd allowed four hours for it, I was quite pleased with myself. We mainly followed The Orange One's route with three changes:

Waterloo Stockwell by Northern Brixton by bus
Finsbury Park Moorgate by Great Northern/Northern City Liverpool Street by Metropolitan Tottenham Hale by Greater Anglia
South Tottenham Blackhorse Road by LO GOBLIN St James Street on foot Walthamstow Central by Greater Anglia (end)

Given all the difficulties that the zone 1 challengers were having I think I'm rather relieved I didn't attempt it myself! Good to meet everyone in the pub afterwards and sorry I had to dash off (unnecessarily as it turned out since my coach was delayed for nearly 40 minutes. Grrr...) Thanks enormously to RobbieM for leading the way, and to the Orange One for giving us the initial route. I'd love to find out who originally proposed this challenge as I think it's quite an enjoyable one.

I'll attempt a proper write-up later but I'm still rather disoriented!

[The Orange One]

http://www.tubeforum.co.uk/forum/index. ... =viewtopic

[GuyBarry]

Well that's interesting. The rules as originally proposed said:

Using the Victoria Line would not be forbidden - if it was this would take a seriously long time - the main thing is that every interchange station must be either arrived at or departed from using a non-tube train service.

(I presume he intended "non-Victoria line service" there - he corrects himself later in the thread.)

In that case we were operating to stricter rules than the original challenge, because we didn't allow use of the Victoria line at all. The way the rules were originally framed would apparently have allowed the use of the Victoria line for journeys from one stop to the next, which would have destroyed the point of the challenge in my opinion (and made it considerably easier).

At the pub last night there was talk of whether other similar challenges could be put together for other lines. Apart from the Waterloo and City (which is trivial), could it be done for the Bakerloo? There are only six stations that aren't either interchange stations or shared with the Watford DC line, and two of those (Edgware Road and Regent's Park) are very close to other tube stations. Much harder than the Victoria line version but maybe it could be attempted by a seasoned challenger.

[The Orange One]

The way the rules were originally framed would apparently have allowed the use of the Victoria line for journeys from one stop to the next, which would have destroyed the point of the challenge in my opinion (and made it considerably easier).

I thought so too! Routes would probably have gone something like:

Pimlico Vauxhall Waterloo Vauxhall Stockwell Clapham North Stockwell Brixton Herne Hill Victoria Sloane Square Victoria Green Park etc. etc. you get the idea!

My favourite bit when I did it was Southeastern from Victoria to Brixton - a lovely ride, and so empty!!

[GuyBarry]

My favourite bit when I did it was Southeastern from Victoria to Brixton - a lovely ride, and so empty!!

Very handy for the toilet as well! I'm gradually starting to learn all the tricks of the trade...

Another thing that was interesting was learning that a route that works well in one direction doesn't necessarily work so well in the other. Taking the bus from Tottenham Hale to Bruce Grove takes rather longer than it presumably does the other way, because of the one-way system. At first we thought we'd caught a bus in the wrong direction.

[Sam]

My favourite bit when I did it was Southeastern from Victoria to Brixton - a lovely ride, and so empty!!

Try doing it at rush hour during the week, not so empty then!

[tangy]

My favourite bit when I did it was Southeastern from Victoria to Brixton - a lovely ride, and so empty!!

Very handy for the toilet as well! I'm gradually starting to learn all the tricks of the trade...

Another thing that was interesting was learning that a route that works well in one direction doesn't necessarily work so well in the other. Taking the bus from Tottenham Hale to Bruce Grove takes rather longer than it presumably does the other way, because of the one-way system. At first we thought we'd caught a bus in the wrong direction.

The Tottenham Hale/Seven Sisters one-way system hasn't existed for at least 6 months (all roads are now two way for all vehicles). All bus routes to/from Tottenham Hale follow the same roads in both directions, I suspect you caught the W4 which operates the long way via Broad Lane as against the 123 which is direct via Monument Way.

[GuyBarry]

The Tottenham Hale/Seven Sisters one-way system hasn't existed for at least 6 months (all roads are now two way for all vehicles). All bus routes to/from Tottenham Hale follow the same roads in both directions, I suspect you caught the W4 which operates the long way via Broad Lane as against the 123 which is direct via Monument Way.

Ah, thanks for correcting me. We did indeed catch the W4 - I didn't realize they took different routes. Will remember for next time (if there is one!).

[GuyBarry]

Right, my first attempt at a write-up.

Things got off to a bad start before we started, because my coach was delayed coming into Victoria. I'd planned to meet RobbieM at the bus stop outside Pimlico station at 1330 but didn't get there until a couple of minutes later. I wasn't sure if I'd come out of the right exit and then realized he didn't know what I looked like! Fortunately he guessed who I was and we boarded the 360 bus to Vauxhall at 1334 (the start of the challenge for our purposes).

This was probably the worst part of the whole challenge. It took *ages* to cover the short distance across Vauxhall Bridge, and when we got to the other side it went to the stand in the bus station furthest from the railway station. So a quick trot back to the railway station was required (neither of us is a runner, but we can both walk pretty fast fortunately). I thought that the Vauxhall to Waterloo train might be suitable for an early toilet break, but one toilet was occupied and the other was out of order, so I found myself walking halfway down the train in the opposite direction to where I wanted to be, until Rob sensibly persuaded me to come back to the front.

The Orange One had given us a route involving the Northern line to Clapham Common, but on inspecting the A-Z Rob came to the sensible conclusion that it would be better to alight at Stockwell and either walk or catch a bus to Brixton. The plan was nearly foiled when we inadvertently set off in the wrong direction from the station! Fortunately we noticed the destinations on the buses and swiftly about-turned to get the Brixton bus (can't remember the route number, sorry).

At Brixton Rob was rather tempted by the market vendors, but sadly we had to ignore all that and head up to the platforms. The Southeastern service to Victoria provided the necessary toilet break, then we had a zig-zag journey around various tube lines as far as King's Cross, which Rob claimed as our team's entry in the Zone 1 challenge (14 stations out of 64!). The Piccadilly to Finsbury Park was much busier than I expected for that time of day.

Then the Northern City line. (I remarked at the time that this was once a tube line - are there any challengers here old enough to have been required to include it in a network challenge?) The Orange One's route had us getting off at Highbury & Islington for the North London line to Stratford, but in my one insightful contribution to the route, I noted that trains from Stratford to Tottenham Hale were only half-hourly whereas they were far more frequent from Liverpool Street. So we continued to Moorgate, then took the Met to Liverpool Street for the 1610 departure to Stansted Airport.

The ticket inspector shouted something at me as I hurried past the barrier with my Zones 1-6 Travelcard, but Rob assured me that the ticket was valid on the train. I got off the train at Tottenham Hale, made a dash for the ticket barriers and discovered to my horror that they wouldn't let me through. No idea why - the attendant let me out, but it was a worrying moment.

Then the W4 bus to Bruce Grove. As I mentioned earlier, this takes a rather indirect route and we were initially worried that we were going the wrong way - Rob even suggested getting off close to Seven Sisters and doing a reverse from there instead. Fortunately the bus sped up, but we had a small difficulty getting off the bus at Bruce Grove station because of a rather, um, helpful passenger. (I'll let Rob explain that bit!)

At Bruce Grove (or was it some other station?) we pressed the button when the train arrived and the carriage doors didn't open - much to the annoyance of not only us but several other passengers. We raced up to the next carriage and jumped in for the journey to Seven Sisters.

Rob inspected his A-Z and saw what appeared to be a cut-through to South Tottenham station, but when we got outside the station the sign was pointing in the wrong direction. My instinct was to follow the sign but Rob thought it had probably been turned around, so I trusted his judgement despite the fact that we had to rush down what looked like a dead end to me. (He was right, of course.)

While waiting for the GOBLIN train at South Tottenham, Rob showed me the route than he'd taken for his full network challenge. I was worried that we'd miss the train but he just made it! Then the final change from The Orange One's route - instead of continuing to Walthamstow Queen's Road, we had decided to get off at Blackhorse Road and walk (or bus) to St James Street. This turned out to be a good decision although we made the mistake of walking along the right-hand side of the road and missing at least one bus! I wasn't bothered at that stage - I'd judged that there was no chance of getting the next train and was planning to wait 15 minutes for the next one, which was due to get into Walthamstow Central at 1744 (exactly four hours after we'd started, quite good enough for me).

Rob had other ideas. As we approached the station he saw the train standing there and decided to run for it - probably the only actual run that we did in the whole challenge! We caught the train with seconds to spare and ran into tractakid, who was on his way to the pub. I was starting to feel like a "real" Tube Challenger at last!

We got off the train at 1726, completing the challenge in 3 hours 42 minutes - much quicker than I expected, though nowhere near The Orange One's time of 3 hours 14 minutes. As far as I know he's the only other one to have completed it, though, so at least I can claim the second fastest time!

Many thanks to Rob for a thoroughly enjoyable day.