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I'm considering giving an R15 a try over here in Berlin to kill a few hours and give me something fun to do... my main query is what you guys would consider to be a suitable area to cover.

You can see the network map here (PDF download)

Would you agree that the most sensible one would be just to include Zone A (inside the Ringbahn), as Zones A+B would make it stupidly big and anywhere in between would make drawing a dividing line most difficult!

Cheers

James

The Ringbahn is the natural boundary, I agree. It makes it easier than a London attempt to link the extremities, however!

How are you planning on drawing/generating the stations and are there likely to be other competitors taking part in a "race" like the London R15's

Going Underground wrote:How are you planning on drawing/generating the stations and are there likely to be other competitors taking part in a "race" like the London R15's

Well... that's the interesting thing, you see!

I was hoping that one of you kind folks here on the board could randomly pick 15 stations and send them to me in a PM (with the starting station as the subject perhaps), which I could then read for the first time on my phone about 5mins before leaving said start station.

The interesting bit is that I was thinking of turning it in to a bit of an experiment regarding local knowledge and the advantage you can get from it; i.e. have a couple of people on here think up a route based on what knowledge they have and then compare their "ideal" time for their routes with the "warts-n-all" time I end up with with my route... think of it as a bit of a mental workout!

uefacup81 wrote:I was hoping that one of you kind folks here on the board could randomly pick 15 stations and send them to me in a PM (with the starting station as the subject perhaps), which I could then read for the first time on my phone about 5mins before leaving said start station.

If you could provide a list of all the stations to choose from, I'd be happy to generate some random sets.

So... Ollie (Root) was kind enough to knock me up a list and today I gave it a try. The stations were:

Sonnenallee (Start)
Westkreuz
Kochstrasse
Jannowitzbrücke
Schönhauser Allee
Humboldthain
Zoologischer Garten
Stadtmitte
Gneisenaustrasse
Wedding
Rathaus Neuköln
Prinzenstrasse
Klosterstrasse
Bülowstrasse
Oranienburger Tor

I shan't tell you all my time just yet, but instead I'd like to open it up as a bit of a challenge...

Give it a go yourself using the journey planner at www.bvg.de (it's available in English!) and post your time here; let's see who wins: the experienced planners amongst you, or the chap who knows the system!

What was your starting time? If we know that it will help keep things equal! I've already got a route in mind, just need to run it through the planner.

I can't remember precisely, but it was somewhere between 1100 and 1130.

All the headways are the same at that time of day so there shouldn't be any inequalities!

Well it took me about 10 minutes just to find the stations on the map plus there appears to be some engineering work going on today but my route came out at 2:31.

greatkingrat wrote:Well it took me about 10 minutes just to find the stations on the map plus there appears to be some engineering work going on today but my route came out at 2:31.

That's not too bad a time. I'll give you one small pointer though... it should be possible to do it without encountering the engineering works

Al, I see you put a reply on here but have taken it down again since.

The time you posted was actually very close to mine - I ended up managing 1:56:51. My route was:

Sonnenallee S41
Neukoln U7
Wilmersdorfer Strasse Run
Charlottenburg S75
Westkreuz S5
Zoologischer Garten U2
Alexanderplatz U8
Kottbusser Tor U1
Hallesches Tor U6
Oranienburger Tor M1 (Tram)
Oranienburger Strasse S2
Gesundbrunnen S42
Wedding S41
Schonhauser Allee

The interesting thing is that when I put this route through the journey planner it gave me a time around the 2:30 mark; so I imagine you must have had an exceptional route, Al!

Greatkingrat, what route did you come up with?

It was exceptional because I was doing my own unique R14, missing out Oranienburger Str. Adding this in put on 10 mins so my route came out as 2h13m.

I did:

Sonnenallee S41
Neukolln U7 (via Rathaus Neukolln and Gneisenaustr.)
Mehringdamm U6
Hallesches Tor U1 (via Prinzenstr.)
Kottbusser Tor U1 (only because of Engineering Work)
Hallesches Tor U6 (via Kochstr.)
Stadtmitte U2
Klosterstr. then run
Jannowitzbrucke U8
Alexanderplatz U2
Senfelderplatz (enforced change onto bus due to more Engineering Work)
Schonhauser Allee S42
Gesundbrunnen S1/S25 (via Humboldthain)
Oranienburger Str. then run
Oranienburger Tor U6
Wedding S42
Westkreuz S3/S7
Zoologischer Garten U2
Bulowstr.

My route was

Sonnenallee
Neukolln
Mehringdamm
Hallesches Tor
Kottbusser Tor (it seems WB trains don't stop at Prinzenstrasse)
Hallesches Tor
Wedding
Gesundbrunnen
Humboldthain
Gesundbrunnen
Schonhauser Allee (U2 line is closed)
Gesundbrunnen
Jannowitzbrucke
Alexanderplatz
Zoologischer Garten
Westkreuz

al wrote:It was exceptional because I was doing my own unique R14, missing out Oranienburger Str. Adding this in put on 10 mins so my route came out as 2h13m.

I think you were right the first time! Oranienburger Str was not one of the stations, however Oranienburger Tor was.

greatkingrat wrote:

al wrote:It was exceptional because I was doing my own unique R14, missing out Oranienburger Str. Adding this in put on 10 mins so my route came out as 2h13m.

I think you were right the first time! Oranienburger Str was not one of the stations, however Oranienburger Tor was.

Good point At least I still visited it in my new route!