tubechallenge.com

"The Snake"?

tubeguru wrote:"The Snake"?

You just read my mind

Was looking at Gasman's map and the snake leapt of the page and bit me

So Hakan's desktop challenge has know become reality

As the route is fixed, there's nothing you can do to accommodate delays once you've started, so everything will depend on getting a "good sevice" on the day.

Any thoughts on which way round to do it?

Well, if you can get to Hainault before 8pm, then Harrow to Epping is better.

If you can't, you'll have to do it Epping to Harrow, although according to G Force in another thread, Woodford to Hainault will soon be open until midnight, so doing it Harrow to Epping would work on any day.

My guess is that it will take around 7 hours to finish. This is based on the following:

Each stop should be around 2.5 minutes on the average. Change/wait should add up to some 4 minutes per change. There are 24 changes in all. This should add up to the order of (128*2.5 + 4*24) or 416 minutes (6h56m).

It assumes and indicates that it could be done during high train frequency. Let's say around 9am-4pm.

When Heathrow T4 reopens, there will be plenty of different (129-)routes to choose between. I haven't analyzed them yet, but all have Epping (via Mile End - West Ham - Canada Water - Whitechapel) in the one end. All of them also use the Notting Hill Gate - Ealing Broadway -Ealing Common - Rayner's lane - Baker Street. But there are a quite few combinations through central London though.

Does that mean they start at HT4 or finish at HT1,2,3?

Either - it wouldn't make a difference.

Name for the challenge

I'd suggest

"Visiting the maximum number of unique stations (currently 129) in the shortest possible time!"
or for short
"The 129 challenge"

BTW, it is unique down to the possible exchange of Barbican/Farringdon for Angel/Old Street.

However with T4 back we'll have 26 [edited] routes (instead of 2) to choose from!

Just call it "129" regardless of how many you can actually get.

Makes it kind of enigmatic then.

According to JPL 6h04m
                                     Arrive Depart
Epping                            09:07
Woodford                         09:22 09:31
Hainault                         09:41 09:45
Mile End                         10:09 10:10
West Ham                    10:16 10:19
Canada Water                10:30 10:36
Whitechapel      10:42 10:46
Liverpool Street           10:52 10:53
Aldgate                    10:55 10:59
Westminster                   11:11 11:13
London Bridge             11:19 11:20
Stockwell                    11:31 11:32
Victoria                         11:38 11:43
South Kensington          11:47 11:49
Piccadilly Circus          11:57 11:59
Charing Cross                12:00 12:03
Leicester Square          12:05 12:07
Holborn                            12:10 12:11
Bank                            12:16 12:18
Euston                            12:28 12:30
Tottenham Court Road 12:35 12:38
Notting Hill Gate          12:47 12:54
Gloucester Road          13:02 13:05
Earl's Court                   13:06 13:07
Acton Town (via Chiswick Park) 13:21 13:29
Rayners Lane                   13:48 13:54
Wembley Park                   14:06 14:13
Baker Street (via Neasden) 14:32 14:37
Harrow & Wealdstone          15:11

Myself and Dr Who will be attempting this in a few weeks time, although probably a later start from Epping as we will go off peak.....and we need to get there from Hatton Cross....

Will post our time and findings once completed

Would it be possible to adjust the timing of the run to reduce waiting times in stations, for example, there's a 9 minute wait at Woodford for the Hainault train, so depite the route being there, planning is very much key for a good time!

I think the different wait times will pretty much even out as long as we do it during high frequency service.

As far as I could tell from a quick glance, the Woodford-Hainault (and on to Mile End) service is the one to look out for when chosing your exact start time...

Here's a good one for residents of Hatton Cross:

                                     Arrive Depart
Epping                            11:36
Woodford                         11:51 11:54
Hainault                         12:03 12:05
Mile End                         12:29 12:31
West Ham                    12:37 12:38
Canada Water                12:49 12:50
Whitechapel          12:56 13:02
Liverpool Street        13:08 13:11
Aldgate                    13:14 13:15
Westminster                   13:27 13:28
London Bridge             13:34 13:35
Stockwell                    13:46 13:47
Victoria                         13:53 13:55
South Kensington          13:59 14:00
Piccadilly Circus          14:08 14:09
Charing Cross                14:10 14:11
Leicester Square          14:12 14:15
Holborn                            14:18 14:20
Bank                            14:25 14:26
Euston                            14:36 14:38
Tottenham Court Road 14:42 14:43
Notting Hill Gate          14:53 14:54
Gloucester Road          15:02 15:05
Earl's Court                   15:06 15:07
Acton Town (via Chiswick Park) 15:21 15:29
Rayners Lane                   15:48 15:54
Wembley Park                   16:07 16:10
Baker Street (via Neasden) 16:29 16:36
Harrow & Wealdstone          17:12