The Bottle
Posted: 28 Feb 2005, 23:15
Hi,
My first post here - so be gentle!
I've often thought I'd like to have a go at the full tube Challenge, but time is not usually on my side so I've never got round to it.
However, today I had a few free hours this afternoon and decided to have a go at the Circle Line bottle - i.e. every station on and inside the Circle.
I began my trip 5 seconds before 2 o'clock (just happened to be the time pulled out at my starting station) and finished 2 hours 17 minutes and 40 seconds later, which by my reckoning, is the second fastest recorded time.
There were a few places where I lost time - I sat in the Piccadilly line tunnel for a couple of minutes waiting to enter Kings Cross at about the half way stage, then it took 10 minutes to get from the Piccadilly onto a Circle Line train to get me through Aldgate. Actually, this wasn't as bad as it sounds - as I started the challenge I heard announcements that there were no trains running between Kingsw Cross and Tower Hill, so to get a train at all was good going.
My route also took in Earls Court - the problems with the Circle line meant that trains going round the bottom left hand corner were few and far between.
I also got slightly confused at Edgware Road - getting from one station to the next was a little tricky as I lost my bearings.
I had some good changes as well. I ran from Queesnway to Bayswater (I once found out the hard way that they were only a couple of hundred yards apart).
As I arrived on the Bakerloo platform, a train pulled in. The same thing happened when I arrived on the Northern Line to get a train going to Goodge Street - that has never happened to me before, and I use that particular station regularly (a six or seven minute wait is not uncommon).
Anyway, there were enough delays on the route to make me think that beating 2 hours 13 minutes and 4 seconds is achievable using my route - provided I am luckier at Kings Cross in future. (I need to save 4.5 minutes).
Maybe one day I'll try one of the bigger challenges!
S
My first post here - so be gentle!
I've often thought I'd like to have a go at the full tube Challenge, but time is not usually on my side so I've never got round to it.
However, today I had a few free hours this afternoon and decided to have a go at the Circle Line bottle - i.e. every station on and inside the Circle.
I began my trip 5 seconds before 2 o'clock (just happened to be the time pulled out at my starting station) and finished 2 hours 17 minutes and 40 seconds later, which by my reckoning, is the second fastest recorded time.
There were a few places where I lost time - I sat in the Piccadilly line tunnel for a couple of minutes waiting to enter Kings Cross at about the half way stage, then it took 10 minutes to get from the Piccadilly onto a Circle Line train to get me through Aldgate. Actually, this wasn't as bad as it sounds - as I started the challenge I heard announcements that there were no trains running between Kingsw Cross and Tower Hill, so to get a train at all was good going.
My route also took in Earls Court - the problems with the Circle line meant that trains going round the bottom left hand corner were few and far between.
I also got slightly confused at Edgware Road - getting from one station to the next was a little tricky as I lost my bearings.
I had some good changes as well. I ran from Queesnway to Bayswater (I once found out the hard way that they were only a couple of hundred yards apart).
As I arrived on the Bakerloo platform, a train pulled in. The same thing happened when I arrived on the Northern Line to get a train going to Goodge Street - that has never happened to me before, and I use that particular station regularly (a six or seven minute wait is not uncommon).
Anyway, there were enough delays on the route to make me think that beating 2 hours 13 minutes and 4 seconds is achievable using my route - provided I am luckier at Kings Cross in future. (I need to save 4.5 minutes).
Maybe one day I'll try one of the bigger challenges!
S
I had quite a stroke of luck when I attempted this, in that a probably late running Circle turned up straight away, and circumnavigated the Circle unusually quickly (not even waiting for ages at Aldgate and Edgware Road!). The other changes were all fairly average, nothing special, but nothing too long.
) TFL productions: