Tube Challenge Advice

[Garion]

I'm planning to do the Tube Challenge in May half term for my girlfriends charity, Tenovus as two members of her family died from cancer. She told me she would be so proud of me if I did this challenge.

I'm just asking you for any advice about the Tube Challenge. What did you find easy? What did you find hard? What did you think of the challenge in general?

Any comments will be much appreciated.

Thanks.

[Starkey7]

• Don't do it in the height of Summer!
  Get someone to bring you water and food at nicely-spaced times through the day if you can.
  Make sure that you're going around the network with two, or ideally three or four people, because:
  A lot of disappointment hits one through the day. Having team mates helps with this.
  Take sandwiches and fruit and energy items, but above all, a wide variety of foodstuffs.
  Use the Journey Planner thingy on the TfL website to plan your route.
  Start at Amersham.
  Drag your girlfriend along with you.
  Wear fancy dress, but stuff which won't impede running (too much).
  If possible, get friends to go on ahead and check departure boards and train numbers for you.
  Don't carry too much paperwork with you, but remember the essentials like time sheets, bus maps (or photocopies of the essential bits of them).
  Consider using spiral staircases rather than waiting for lifts.
  Start warming up for the North Harrow run at Northwood Hills.

[zeibura]

Use the Journey Planner thingy on the TfL website to plan your route.

don't rely on journey planner. the times it gives for the first part of the route (until leaving H&W) will be accurate, but from there on they really are hit and miss. get those maps from the tfl website that have the travel times between stations, use them but be realistic about delays and connection times! (does anyone have an active link to the old full tube map with the times between stations geoff did? that's super useful)

if you're planning on using a service which is less frequent and has a repetitive timetable (e.g. upminster to west ham on c2c), get the times and carry them with you in your paperwork. that way you can make decisions such as "would it be quicker to get the district line out and the c2c back, or vice versa" on the spot. that's a really important thing btw - be prepared to make changes to your plans!

good luck with it

[hwolge]

There are two possible goals for a full (275) challenge:

1) The highly coveted Guinness World Record TM (GWR).
It takes a LOT of planning to get a route together that would even have a chance - and probably you'll fail anyway...

2) Just manage all 275 (or possibly 274) stations just to prove you could do it in one day (but staill according to GWR basic rules)!
Not quite as hard to plan a route, and you can plan a finish somewhere where the tube runs very late (e.g. Upminster). This way you can spend up to 20 hours and still make it! And if you choose to ignore Shoreditch it's at least 15-20 minutes easier...

Notes to keep in mind if you go for the GWR:
* Cannon Street closes early. A pass through after closing hour does not count!
* Temorarily closed stations (e.g Regent's Park) must be passed through.
* You must arrive or depart (or both) on a train that uses the tube rails and stops at the station to count it. I.e. National Rail can be used between Richmond and Gunnersbury and still yield these and Kew Gardens.
* You don't have tu use all track in the system. E.g. you don't need to use W&C line (but of course you can).
* These stations count as two each:
Edgware Road
Paddington
Shepherd´s Bush
Hammersmith
and have to be visited separatety
* Shoreditch must be visited by the replacement bus...

And of course, if you really aim for the GWR, don't forget all the paperwork necessary in advance and all the documentation/witness requirements...

Good Luck!

[Garion]

Thanks for all that. I should have an answer by Sunday when I ask my mum if I can do it.....

[editorsfoot]

Get hold of a way out tube map so you know which carriage to be for each change, if not you will lose valuable time getting along the platforms and through the other passengers.

[PFW]

Rather than re-inventing the wheel, why do you not have a look at the old Tube Relief site: (http://www.tuberelief.co.uk/). This has lots of tips for beginers, not only on how to plan your journey but tips of food and survival.

[tubeguru]

Try not to beat 18 hours 35 minutes and 43 seconds.

It's bad enough having a couple of students and some foreigners beat that time ...

[Garion]

Well sorry to disappoint you Niel, my route is 18h 14m! I could 'try' not to go below 18h 35m but the chances of that sre slim! I'll keep you informed on the day though if I do do it. I would love to see your face if i do finish below that time!

[hwolge]

Our record breaking route was 17h10m - in theory!
But, of course, we tried not to insult Neil too much so we settled for 18h25m03s...

[Sam]

Yeah, me and steve also thought it would be kinder just to beat it by 5 seconds as opposed to smash it....

[Garion]

LOL ok so in order to keep Neil happy, how about I have a target time of 18h 35m and 42 seconds?

[tubeguru]

Target times mean nothing until you actually go out there ... you will very rarely get anywhere near your theory time on any given day.

[Soup Dragon]

Target times mean nothing until you actually go out there ... you will very rarely get anywhere near your theory time on any given day.

I totally agree with Neil, of all the challenges I've done I can only recall finishing close to the theory time once, and that was only on a Bottle challenge
As an average I would say you need to add between 5-10% to your theory time to give a realistic target time.

[Garion]

Fair enough. There have been times where the journey planner has been like 10 minutes out on occasion.