I haven’t posted much on this forum before but have always had a keen interest in the Tube Challenge and last year found that a friend of mine was also eager to complete. Being the sporty type, his motivation for taking part was the running, the endurance, and the possibility of a world record. For me (a mild-to-moderate tube nerd) it was about the trains, the timetables, and the endless spreadsheets to try and find the best route!
Anyway, it felt like a good team, and we made a first attempt last September, which ultimately ended with us rather frustratingly missing the last train to T4 and ending 271 stations and a time of close to 19 hours. Keen to try again, we set a date for Saturday 10th August 2024, this being the only Saturday which we could both commit to and had no planned engineering works anywhere on the network (very rare for a weekend). The weather was also not too hot with some cloud cover and a nice breeze. I’d read about Guinness disallowing Saturday attempts in the past, but I checked their rules very carefully and the only condition I could see was that all stations must be open (which they were). If we get disallowed, then so be it – an unofficial record is great too!
We started at Chesham and finished at Heathrow Terminal 5 for a time of 17:46:48. I did consider starting at Heathrow but was keen to get the Met line out the way early with its infrequent service. After many fun hours of spreadsheet bashing, I had come up with a theoretical time of 16 hours 40 minutes. Setbacks on the day meant we were an hour slower than this – but I do think a time close to 16 hours would be possible with a lucky run. I won’t share the whole route as there are a few unique bits which I’m keeping close to my chest for if I ever tried this again…! But for those who are interested, below are some of the highlights and lowlights, in no particular order.
Our first connection at Amersham went very smoothly and we were in good spirits until we reached Moor Park. I’d been checking the departure boards on my phone and couldn’t see any sign of our Watford train but had been hoping this was an error in the data. Sadly, the data was right and in fact two successive Watford trains had been cancelled (no reason given as to why). This was a very frustrating set back so early on and meant after Watford we were 30 mins down for a theoretical time of 17:10. Of course the Met line was showing ‘Good Service’ throughout!
One bit of luck did come later at Victoria, where minor delays on the Victoria line had produced a 9-minute gap between trains southbound. Luckily, we arrived just after this gap. Even better, they turned our train round in under a minute at Brixton giving a perfect double back there! Our double back at Battersea Power Station also worked like a charm, with the departing train ready and waiting on the other platform. At Morden we had our third perfect double back, arriving at South Wimbledon in good time allowing us to catch a bus to Wimbledon rather than run (saving some precious energy for later). At Wimbledon a member of our support crew was waiting with 2 pizzas which we happily devoured on our way to Earl’s Court!
The big advantage of a Saturday run is the regular Olympia service, and luckily it was running. I’d monitored a few previous weekends and several times the Olympia service had been suspended all day, so luck was on our side here too!
Another positive was the section around Upminster, where both C2C and the District were running on time. The toilet on the C2C train was also very welcome! However, good things must come to an end and this time our nemesis was the Jubilee line at West Ham. ‘Minor Delays’ amounted to a large gap in the service, and we ended up waiting 6 minutes for a train, which then got further delayed on our journey to Southwark. In all, this lost us another 10 minutes, taking our theoretical to 17:20.
The Piccadilly line had its fair share of problems throughout the day, and at Cockfosters several trains in the timetable were missing. We hopped on the first train we could, but it seemed to have the slowest driver in the world! To make matters worse, at Arnos Grove, another train left in front of us, despite no indication on the platform that this would be the case. Another 10 minutes lost, theoretical now 17:30.
The Hainault loop went surprisingly well! But our arrival time at Leytonstone meant that whichever way we did the loop, we would end up with an 11-minute wait for the Hainault-Woodford shuttle. We pressed on regardless, wanting to get it done, but this extra wait for the shuttle meant the section was 10 minutes slower than planned. 17:40 now our best shot.
With the current GWR sitting at just over 18 hours, we were getting quite nervous towards the end of the day, knowing that anything else major would surely put us out of reach. We were aiming for a risky double back at Richmond, with both our arriving and departing trains timetabled for 21.34. Thankfully, despite some delays approaching Richmond, we were put into Platform 7 which blocked the other District line train from departing – a quick sprint across the platform and we just managed to squeeze through the doors before they closed!
The end now very much in sight, we started to relax as it dawned on us that we really might get the record. We were still on pace for 17:40 but our final train to T5 was a bit late, giving an actual finish time of 17:46:48. After a truly exhausting day we were over the moon to have achieved not just a completion but a new fastest time!
