tubechallenge.com

Surely we should make it as easy as possible for people to attend; the last thing newcomers want is a penalty for lateness.

Dudey, Scrixirsixirsi, and Soupy, the chance of someone starting late with the same route as you beating your time by 5 minutes is exactly the same as the chance of your beating their route by 5 minutes. Of course there's still the possibility of their beating your time, but (unless they've worked out a miracle route using Journey Planner that can only start at 1:15pm) there's no unfairness involved.

Nevertheless, why should anyone be late anyway? Surely 97% of us will turn up for the draw, and only a complete retard would fail to make it from the place of the draw to the starting station, unless it was Aldgate East and they walked.

And I've got a brilliant route from Aldgate East, so I'm hoping for that one.

Starkey7 wrote:Nevertheless, why should anyone be late anyway? Surely 97% of us will turn up for the draw, and only a complete retard would fail to make it from the place of the draw to the starting station, unless it was Aldgate East and they walked.

And I've got a brilliant route from Aldgate East, so I'm hoping for that one.

Last year I woke up well late, phoned Matt who gave me the starting station, arrived at KXSP at 12:52 to find everyone had started 10 minutes early. I headed to the H&C platforms to find James and had to tag along his team as he was the only person left. Its possible!

Yeah come on, let's not start early this time!

You wont be allowed too im gonna to make sure all watches are exactly the same that take a couple of minutes to do.And i wont let u leave until 12.58pm to go to ur starting platform say an average 2 mins to get there..

With regards to the rules say u just missed the start say 1.03pm (joy 54 get ur alarm clock sorted) It be at organisers discretion allthough i think if u r really late say 1.15pm then a photograph of the clock if possible when u start would be evidence but still left to organisers decision.

Starkey7 wrote:Dr Who also got the record with me! Also, what if the first train doesn't come until 1:10pm? Then rocking up at 1:15pm would only make you five minutes late.

Anyway, I don't see how starting early OR late can be a benefit OR a hindrance! Statistically, assuming the usual randomish patterns of trains, it makes no difference when you start. So how is it unfair?!

Well the rules state u must take 1st train after 1pm if i dont let u leave for ur platform/s until 12.58pm then 1pm be about right u start when the doors close anyway.Anything else people turning up late is down to organisers discretion.

I dont see why we you should start changing rules that have worked perfectly fine for the past 5 years, and allowing for people to be late. If somebody cant turn up at the designated starting time then personally I say tough. Last year ended up a little bit chaotic because of the starting station which came out. We need to ensure this year that everyone who has turned up is at the starting point before we all head off to our respective starting platforms. It might be an easy station with just a couple of choices or it could be like last year with multiple options. If you send everyone down to their choosen platform at 12:55 this gives time to make sure everyone is together and all set of on the first train after 13:00. I agree that everyone should have their watches set to BST there is no excuse not to be accurate with timings as some competitors have been a little vague on timings in certain challenges in the past.

Its all hypothetical anyway Mr Soup Dragon.And ps borrow Dr Who time machine and get urself out of 1986.

Dr. Who wasn't even with us in 1986 was he?

Soup Dragon, I agree with everything that you say, apart from:

Soup Dragon wrote:If somebody cant turn up at the designated starting time then personally I say tough.

Well, as Andi said, it is hypothetical. However, if somebody was to turn up late, this is unecessarily harsh. The competition is supposed to be a bit of fun (competitive, but it should be enjoyable), and it is an annual event. A latecomer would have to come back next year. A year is a long time. It's not like this event takes place every week.

A penalty is not a big change to the rules. It is a far easier for an organiser to regulate a penalty than to make sure that all teams head down to their platforms at 12:55 pm. It allows those people who are late to take part, but effectively prevents them from coming first. If you want to penalise, do that, but please don't prevent anybody from taking part.

Personally, I agree with Starkey, in that taking a later train doesn't give you an advantage. I can see the other side of the argument, but statistically speaking, Starkey is correct. The penalty is a compromise. Personally, I wouldn't even have a penalty. In fact, I would scrap the rule of having to take the first train. From what I have read on these forums, it seems as though the first train rule is a recent addition, and not part of the original set. So the rules of 5 years ago are not the same ones followed today. I may be mistaken however.

Anyway, I very much doubt that anybody is going to be late. Even joy54, after oversleeping, still managed to show up just in time (although a lot of people started early!). At some point, somebody will turn up late. It could happen this year, or next year, or the year after, or in 100 years. Let's put some rule in place to deal with this so that everybody knows where they stand, and let's not disqualify people from a competition that is supposed to be enjoyable.

There's my penny's worth. Thank you for your attention. .

Perhaps we can just say that if someone turns up late they are not included in the official rankings. A similar situation arises if a station/section of track closes when you are out on your attempt. One year Vauxhall was difficult to get to as the Victoria Line was suspended about 2 hours into the challenge. It was tough that many challengers didn't finish and thus were placed at the bottom of the rankings. You could have estimated what time they finished and included them in the full rankings but it was deemed that they did not complete and thus they moved to the bottom. This is just tough. No one is stopping anyone taking part and in their head, if they get a really good time, they can be content with that but I don't think they should be included in the official rankings and have the possibility of over taking someone who arrived on time.

The advantage of not including persons who arrive late in the official rankings is that there is no arguing over penalties and how much help if any was gained by that person by starting late. Also I doubt anyone who arrived late is going to be that annoyed that they are not in the official rankings as its only a bit of fun for people.

Personally I think a ten minute penalty is too lenient. Anyone who arrives too late should be banned from travelling on London Transport for six months.

(Note: may not contain any trace of taking things seriously)

Hello there, a simple question from the rookies: is the GWR rule of "To `visit' a station, you must arrive and/or depart by an underground train in normal public service" going to be enforced?

Or to put it another way, is it permissible to do a "double run" i.e. to arrive at station 1 by train, run to station 2 and then run to station 3 and leave by train?

Thanks in anticipation,
Mr Mitchell and Mr Brown.

Mitchell&BrownLook wrote:Hello there, a simple question from the rookies: is the GWR rule of "To `visit' a station, you must arrive and/or depart by an underground train in normal public service" going to be enforced?

Or to put it another way, is it permissible to do a "double run" i.e. to arrive at station 1 by train, run to station 2 and then run to station 3 and leave by train?

Thanks in anticipation,
Mr Mitchell and Mr Brown.

Even i am a bit confused the way u have worded that normal GWR rules apply which means u must visit every station by a tube train.Ie.for example Earls Court to High Street Kensington Starting station Gloucester road

Gloucester Rd tube train to Earls Court

Now it is possible to run to High Street Kensington from earls court but u would have to leave High Street Kensington by tube train u would not be allowed to run back to earls court even though for me it probably be quicker and get rid of a difficult station.

You must either arrive or depart at all 64 Z1 stations by tube train, I hope this answers your question