My first attempt 14/03/14
Posted: 25 Mar 2014, 13:31
Hi there,
I tried to do the "lazy" tube challenge set by theOrangeOne on this board earlier this month, from Heathrow T4 to Amersham.
Unfortunately, I was two stations short of the 270, missing Amersham and West Harrow.
The tube from 05:02 from Heathrow T4 seemed to leave on time to Heathrow T123. Despite arriving at T123 well before 05:11, I had a long wait for the next train to T5. I am sure the first train was cancelled. Does anyone know if this is a regular problem with the first train from 123?
Anyway, I eventually ended up leaving on the 05:43 train (I think) from Heathrow T5 back to Cockfosters.
Anyway, this put me right on the back foot, so I was not able to get a District Line train at Kensington (Olympia). So I got the Overground to West Brompton and back up to Earls Court. I think I lost around 10 minutes there.
Then on the train Earl's Court to Cockfosters, I reckon I lost a good 15 minutes as when the train came back up above ground in North London, there was thick fog, which meant the train ran at a snail's pace to its destination. I doubled back to Oakwood, and took the bus to Barnet from there. Thankfully, the fog had lifted by the time I got on the Northern Line.
I closed the gap to around 15 minutes by lunchtime, but then following an awful connection between Leytonstone and Walthamstow Central, this expanded back to 45 minutes.
In a panic right at the end, I mistakenly thought I had done every station on the Uxbridge branch of the Met earlier when I was on the Picc Line, so I inadvertently missed West Harrow. And at the end, there was no time to go to both Amersham and Chesham, so I was forced to make a choice. According to my original schedule, I was meant to finish at Amersham at 00:59. In fact, I touched out at Chesham at 01:15.
If everything ran on time, I think I might have had a chance. It's incredible that a couple of early morning delays can feck up the entire day, but there you go.
I'm going to try it again in early June on the same route, but with some alternatives to the road connections (I think I will use Leytonstone High Street overground, and Walthamstow Queen Street as opposed to a bus between the two stations for example), plus walking connections in some cases too.
I'd love to get people's feedback!
Cheers,
Nick
I tried to do the "lazy" tube challenge set by theOrangeOne on this board earlier this month, from Heathrow T4 to Amersham.
Unfortunately, I was two stations short of the 270, missing Amersham and West Harrow.
The tube from 05:02 from Heathrow T4 seemed to leave on time to Heathrow T123. Despite arriving at T123 well before 05:11, I had a long wait for the next train to T5. I am sure the first train was cancelled. Does anyone know if this is a regular problem with the first train from 123?
Anyway, I eventually ended up leaving on the 05:43 train (I think) from Heathrow T5 back to Cockfosters.
Anyway, this put me right on the back foot, so I was not able to get a District Line train at Kensington (Olympia). So I got the Overground to West Brompton and back up to Earls Court. I think I lost around 10 minutes there.
Then on the train Earl's Court to Cockfosters, I reckon I lost a good 15 minutes as when the train came back up above ground in North London, there was thick fog, which meant the train ran at a snail's pace to its destination. I doubled back to Oakwood, and took the bus to Barnet from there. Thankfully, the fog had lifted by the time I got on the Northern Line.
I closed the gap to around 15 minutes by lunchtime, but then following an awful connection between Leytonstone and Walthamstow Central, this expanded back to 45 minutes.
In a panic right at the end, I mistakenly thought I had done every station on the Uxbridge branch of the Met earlier when I was on the Picc Line, so I inadvertently missed West Harrow. And at the end, there was no time to go to both Amersham and Chesham, so I was forced to make a choice. According to my original schedule, I was meant to finish at Amersham at 00:59. In fact, I touched out at Chesham at 01:15.
If everything ran on time, I think I might have had a chance. It's incredible that a couple of early morning delays can feck up the entire day, but there you go.
I'm going to try it again in early June on the same route, but with some alternatives to the road connections (I think I will use Leytonstone High Street overground, and Walthamstow Queen Street as opposed to a bus between the two stations for example), plus walking connections in some cases too.
I'd love to get people's feedback!
Cheers,
Nick