A rather large update as I have recently completed the Tube Olympics and had a couple of attempts at other things with varying degrees of success
5th July
All Lines - Attempt 3
Start -
Farrringdon
Finish -
Leicester Square
What would become a regular feature in this year's Tube Olymipics, the Central Line was very much broken for most of the evening thanks to a faulty train. This meant a hold at the top of the escalators at Liverpool St followed by an 8 minute wait at the platform to give a pretty poor time. Attempted with
hopeful traveller
Time-
00:55:03
All Lines - Attempt 4
Start -
King's Cross
Finish -
ABANDONED
Attempt was going really well until we realised we had done the Northern Line twice. Idiots. Attempted with
hopeful traveller
Time-
N/A
All Lines - Attempt 5
Start -
King's Cross
Finish -
Green Park
Finally got a cleanish run in and even bumped into a few other challengers at Embankment. I made the Westminster connection but sadly hopeful traveller didn't so I finished this attempt by myself.
Time-
00:53:46
9th July
I was down in London this weekend so I had a few attempts at some more challenges.
South of the Thames - Attempt 1
ROUTE IS SECRET
Knew I had a really solid fast route so thought I would attempt the South of the Thames challenge. Was going really well until I caught the wrong train out of Morden which threw everything else out of the window.
Time-
N/A
All Lines - Attempt 6
Start -
Farringdon
Finish -
Leicester Square
Despite 5 previous attempts I had never got a really clean run at the All Lines challenge. As the network was behaving itself and middle of the day on a Saturday isn't too busy I thought I would give it another go. Got a couple of really sexy changes for the W&C Line and at Piccadilly Circus combined with watching 2 trains depart as I arrive at the platform at Oxford Circus and Embanment. Still, my best time to date by quite a margin.
Time-
00:44:33
South of the Thames - Attempt 2
ROUTE IS SECRET
Had just enough time in the day to attempt the SotT challenge once more. Didn't mess up at Morden this time and set a new record! Sure, it's not one of the big challenges but a record is still a record
Time-
01:45:53 NEW RECORD
13th July
Zone 1 - Attempt 1
Start -
Hyde Park Corner
Finish -
Regent's Park
Well what a disaster that was... although it was my first attempt at a Zone 1 challenge I couldn't catch a break if I tried...
Starting at Hyde Park Corner, did a double back to Knightsbridge and up to KXSP and down the Bank branch with Andi. We went our separate ways and I got off at Bank to do the Central Line. Arrived to find that, shock horror, the Central Line was experiencing problems due to a defective train so had a 6 minute wait for the next one. It crawled along through the City and got held for a good 3 minutes at Lancaster Gate before finally arriving at Queensway. Bumped into Richard where we both made our way to Bayswater to find out we had missed a Wimbleware down to Earl's Court. Another 3 minute wait for the next train, which was a Circle line down to HSK, where we discovered the rare beast that was an Olympia train! Arrived at Earl's Court to find all District line trains east were being held so I bailed onto the Piccadilly to South Kensington. This was also slow so actually just missed the District line train that was held at Earl's Court when I arrived
Got on another Circle line train which was crawling at snail's pace as the service was bunched up so I bailed at Victoria to do the Victoria Line down to Vauxhall so the service could even out.
Change at Vauxhall was great but got held AGAIN just outside of Victoria. Jumped on a District Line train to Westminster when I covered off London Bridge, Elephant & Castle and Charing Cross before a double back to Embankment. Back on the District line where, not for the first time today, I got held outside Mansion House. Arrived at Aldgate East and ran to Aldgate to watch a train leave as I arrived
. Waited another 3 mins for my 3rd Circle line train of the day round to Euston Square. Things started to go a little better from here with a good run and change at Euston, down to Goodge Street and the best Goodge Street-Great Portland Street run I have ever done. That was not to be rewarded however with a 7 minute wait for a train to Paddington (H&C). When I finally got to Paddington, ran through the station to the District line to find ANOTHER HELD TRAIN OUTSIDE THE STATION, WILL SOMEONE PLEASE GIVE ME SOME LUCK!!!!! 5 minute wait for that to arrive, headed towards Edgware Road and did the short run to Edgware Road (B). Got on the Bakerpoo line (God I hate the Bakerpoo line...) to finish at Regent's Park.
Time-
03:19:09
19th July
DLR - Attempt 2
ROUTE IS SECRET
On a very hot evening, Round 4 of the Tube Olympics, the DLR Challenge, took place. In short, another disaster from start to finish. Late trains, humans unable to properly function and 3 missed connections resulted in me aborting at Canning Town due to sheer frustration and being 30 mins down on schedule. Even more annoyingly, my runs felt really good despite the heat. Oh and despite having no influence on the challenge, the Central Line decided to break down again. One day DLR I will crack you, one day...
Time-
N/A
22nd July
FNC - Attempt 1
Start -
Chesham
Finish -
Heathrow Terminal 5
So, it's the big one. The Full Network Challenge. My aim was to simply finish all 270 stations as it was my first attempt. I have to give a huge thank you to tufnellpark who very kindly let me join him on his effort. It's not everyday you get an offer to team up with a former World Record Holder. He also sums up the attempt pretty well:-
"A very long day beginning in Chesham and finishing at Heathrow T5, accompanied by the xcooler. All went well apart from narrowly missing a couple of bus connections (meaning a couple of unscheduled runs) and a missing 307. I'm sure Tangy was to blame. After all he works at Enfield Garage. This meant the earlier Olympia train was out of the question but we hit the big O at 20:27 with 10 mins to spare for the 20:38 Kensington Olympia-Earls Court service.
Having been delayed by the Piccadilly line earlier in the day at Rayners Lane, when we reached Acton Town late evening we weren't surprised to see it in meltdown again. Long waits of 10mins at Acton Town and 14mins at Heathrow T123, combined with signalling problems on the District at Richmond added 20 mins to our expected time in the last hour. Final time was 17:26:05 and a leisurely train back to Central London. Slightly disappointed with the time but it was my third FNC completion and a good enough time for Olympic Gold."
He may have been disappointed with the time but I was very happy indeed. AND THE CENTRAL LINE WORKED!!!
Final thanks to Mrs B who brought us supplies twice during the day
Time-
17:26:05
23rd July
R15 - Attempt 1
Start -
Notting Hill Gate
Finish -
King's Cross
The final challenge of the Tube Olympics was the Random 15. Having never done a Random 15 before I was just looking to finish. As I was used to planning for challenges and also had limited knowledge of some areas in Zone 1 & 2, I had no idea how it was going to go. Starting at
Notting Hill Gate, the Central Line was back to being very broken so I learnt my lesson from previous challenges and chose to knock out most of that first and covered off
Lancaster Gate and
Bond Street. Change for the Jubilee line up to
Willesden Green and double-back to West Hampstead to catch the Overground (after an 8 minute wait) to Willesden Junction. Bakerloo Line was running a little late but covered
Kensal Green and rode down to Warwick Avenue to run to
Royal Oak. A good run meant a H&C train to Hammersmith and
Wood Lane and
Goldhawk Road were ticked off. Ran to Hammersmith (D&P) to watch both a District and a Piccadilly train pull out at the same time
Caught the next Piccadilly to tick off
Barons Court and to see if I could get a couple of trains ahead but that got held at Earl's Court so switched back to the District Line for
St James's Park. Then ticked off
Southwark before heading up to Bank where I got lucky with the Central Line and only waited 1 minute. Got to
St Paul's and ran to
Cannon Street for a District Line train to
Whitechapel. Arrived to find an Overground train just pulling in
Got to
Highbury and Islington and left on a Victoria Line train to KXSP to FINISH.
Arrived back at the pub to find out, much to my amazement, that I had won and beaten Peter in 2nd place by a measly 5 seconds! Not bad considering we finished at different locations. After a poor start to my Tube Olympics it ended on 2 pretty big highs
Time-
02:31:23