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All The Buses

Posted: 07 Jul 2017, 19:10
by The Orange One
I've been planning this one since November, so please leave your comparisons by the door. In fact, I've been unofficially planning this for a good 5 years, so throw your comparisons in the bin.

On Thursday 27th July, myself and four other tube challengers are hitting London to complete a transport network. But not any transport network. Over the 24 hour period from midnight to midnight, we hope to between us ride on a bit of all 543 normal bus routes, plus all 50 night routes (a total of 593).

Have we planned it? Barely.
Can we do it? Who knows.
Will we do it? Of course we will.

We're starting at Victoria, Trafalgar Square, Waterloo, London Bridge and Tottenham Court Road. We're finishing - oh, who knows where, we certainly don't. And yes, we're doing the 603 and the X68.

There will be no second attempt, organising the first was stressful enough. It's 593 or bust. There will be pressure. There will be running. There will be trusting of Southern, Southeastern and South West Trains. And maybe, just maybe, there will be buns for tea.

Oh, and, if you'd like to join our support team - because if you thought keeping track of one tube challenger and the status of eleven tube lines was hard, keeping track of what five bus challengers over 24 hours and the status of every single bus route in London makes tube support look as easy as the proverbial pie - send me a PM. The more the merrier, and more importantly the more the easier.

Any questions?

Re: All The Buses

Posted: 07 Jul 2017, 19:35
by dstock17
is this the same as what Adham did? good luck

Re: All The Buses

Posted: 07 Jul 2017, 19:40
by The Orange One
dstock17 wrote: 07 Jul 2017, 19:35 is this the same as what Adham did? good luck
Similar - in fact it was discussion with Adham that's gotten this off the ground (he's one of our five). Adham was aiming for 270 though, we're trying to get the lot.

Re: All The Buses

Posted: 30 Aug 2017, 00:17
by The Orange One
We're back!! Whole new attempt on the 7th September, riding off the back of a Time Out article. Give us a follow at @allthebuses - and remember we're still looking for support team!!

https://www.timeout.com/london/blog/mee ... urs-082917

Re: All The Buses

Posted: 30 Aug 2017, 10:48
by DrainBrain
The Orange One wrote: 07 Jul 2017, 19:10 ...
There will be no second attempt, organising the first was stressful enough. It's 593 or bust.
...
Never say never again, I suppose.

Regardless, good luck for this new attempt.

Re: All The Buses

Posted: 30 Aug 2017, 19:03
by The Orange One
DrainBrain wrote: 30 Aug 2017, 10:48
The Orange One wrote: 07 Jul 2017, 19:10 ...
There will be no second attempt, organising the first was stressful enough. It's 593 or bust.
...
Never say never again, I suppose.

Regardless, good luck for this new attempt.
I got roped into the second attempt under the caveat that I'm not doing the organising this time, it's been fobbed off on Josh and David (who are doing a fantastic job of it).

Re: All The Buses

Posted: 10 Sep 2017, 12:54
by The Orange One
In case anyone is curious, we completed the course this time - with 35 minutes to spare! Quick summary as follows:

- the first bus taken (by myself) was the 1 (I'm not kidding, it was); with the 13, 390 and 42 following shortly afterwards as the first buses of David, Josh and Adham. Tangy's first bus we believe to have been the 8 - but as he was texting his through at intervals rather than as he caught them
- the night buses were done by 4:10am, with the N83 being the last of the lot
- Josh was the first to finish his programme by around 8pm, with David being second at around 9pm. I was able to finish my own at 9:30pm, with Tangy and Adham finishing at around 11:20pm.
- the final bus was the 298, taken (by Adham) from the wonderfully named Ye Olde Cherry Tree bus stop near Southgate. Other final buses were the H10 (Tangy), the 382 (myself) and the 67 (Josh). As for David, his final bus was the 341, but he was on backup duty for the last 40 minutes in case of disaster.

For more details, look at our Twitter (@allthebuses) - or if you'd like to look at the raw data it's here.

We've realised, after running through the challenges twice, that we quite like the team dynamic - especially how it allows one to complete much longer challenges than a single person could ever complete (due to sleep deprivation difficulties). With this in mind, we have a few ideas for follow-ups (but we don't think it'll be London Buses since we've done them)...

Re: All The Buses

Posted: 10 Sep 2017, 14:16
by greatkingrat
All LU, NR, DLR, Tram stations in London in 24 hours? I think that could definitely be done by 4 people, maybe even 3 might be enough/

Re: All The Buses

Posted: 10 Sep 2017, 16:39
by xcooler123
greatkingrat wrote: 10 Sep 2017, 14:16 All LU, NR, DLR, Tram stations in London in 24 hours? I think that could definitely be done by 4 people, maybe even 3 might be enough/
It's almost as if you read our minds...

Re: All The Buses

Posted: 10 Sep 2017, 17:59
by RJSRdg
greatkingrat wrote: 10 Sep 2017, 14:16 All LU, NR, DLR, Tram stations in London in 24 hours? I think that could definitely be done by 4 people, maybe even 3 might be enough/
Might as well throw the Dangleway in for good measure...

Re: All The Buses

Posted: 10 Sep 2017, 19:00
by The Orange One
RJSRdg wrote: 10 Sep 2017, 17:59
greatkingrat wrote: 10 Sep 2017, 14:16 All LU, NR, DLR, Tram stations in London in 24 hours? I think that could definitely be done by 4 people, maybe even 3 might be enough/
Might as well throw the Dangleway in for good measure...
He can also read minds...

Re: All The Buses

Posted: 10 Sep 2017, 20:46
by roblo97
Funnily enough, I had the same idea a few days ago although I was only able to look into the number of stations today once I was back and had my London Connections map to hand. I counted 651 stations including the Dangleway.

Re: All The Buses

Posted: 10 Sep 2017, 20:50
by al
What definition of London would be used? Zones 1-6? Zones 1-9? London Boroughs?

Re: All The Buses

Posted: 11 Sep 2017, 09:31
by xcooler123
Everything inside the Oyster Zone or "Pay as you go area", as per the London Rail and Tube map which can be seen here.

Re: All The Buses

Posted: 07 Oct 2017, 11:13
by A Challenge
xcooler123 wrote: 11 Sep 2017, 09:31 Everything inside the Oyster Zone or "Pay as you go area", as per the London Rail and Tube map which can be seen here.
With or without Gatwick?