tubechallenge.com

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

You were three stations short then - Kensington (Olympia) MUST be visited on the District Line, which is why it is so early on in the route.

The "lazy" route is simply the easiest route. A good route (one which will get you through the stations at around 17 hours) has a lot more running. I'd suggest try to avoid so much redoing in Zone 1!!

1) Regarding the first T4 train, it has been known to happen. Your best option (if you are 20 minutes down in this way) is probably to run hell-for-leather from Barons Court to Kensington (Olympia) to try and make the 06:32.
2) Regarding Leytonstone to Walthamstow Central, there are several ways to do it:
- Leytonstone High Road and Walthamstow Queens Road by LO is very good
- A bus is generally not the best option, but as this was a "lazy" route it was put on there
3) Regarding the Harrow and Wealdstone to Preston Road transfer, generally people run from Northwick Park to Kenton, or Preston Road to South Kenton.
4) 307 from Oakwood is the way to do it, not the 384

The train from T4 should arrive at T123 at about 5:08, and I think the T5 train leaves a few mins after, so it sounds like one got missed out

I've done that early Heathrow train a coulple of times this year and it ran to time. The T4 train arrives at T123 at 0508 with the T5 train departing at 0511. If you read 'Carwyn's attempt' he was unlucky with a slightly late running T4 train so yes, a couple of chances to lose time first thing. That 0543 T5 gets to Barons Court at 0622 which gives you around 11 mins for a 1.1Km run to Kensington Olympia for the 0633 which is quite a fast pace (for me) and trying to cross the A4 even at that time of day could cost you a couple of minutes. West Harrow/North Harrow is another 1.1Km run this time through residential streets and worth considering.

Good luck with your next attempt.