Background
I’d always been annoyed with the change between Queensway and Bayswater. District line trains to Earls Court from Bayswater are every 10 mins and I always seem to arrive with at least two Circle lines going past. To try and alleviate this, I planned a route starting at Bayswater and finishing at Queensway.
Are you sitting comfortably?
I took the 07:26 from East Midlands Parkway to STP glided down to the capital arriving just after 9am where I took the Northern line to Tottenham Court Road to check the change from the Northern to the Central Line that I need later in the day. I remember last time it seemed to take forever to change here with a walk down an insanely long corridor, but a 3D map of the station showed there might be a quicker way … and there was. Getting off at the back of the Northern Line train led me up three sets of stairs onto the east bound Central Line platform where I could nip through to the west trains. Happy that I’d confirmed that I headed off to Queensway where I dropped off my backpack using the Stasher app; I love being able to drop my bag off to travel lighter for the day.
I arrived at Bayswater and whaddya know? For the first time ever a District was pulling in. Why couldn’t this have happened before?! The doors closed at 10:10 and I was off to Earls Court … but the train was held at HSK for 3 mins. A very quick change onto a Piccadilly train at 10:22 saw me leaving Holborn at 10:37 and my fastest ever double back at Russel Sq saw me leave Holborn again on a Central Line train at 10:43. I was very happy at this point as it was going so well but my first issue was at Liverpool St.
I moved as quickly as I could for an overweight (almost 56yr old) Grandad with a knackered ankle but I got the Metropolitan Line just as the Aldgate train was leaving. Nuts! The next was a H&C and I could have taken this to Aldgate East, then walked back to Aldgate to get a Circle … but the Circle train was the next one in … and I knew I wouldn’t have time to get off at East and get back to Aldgate to catch it … and they (like the District at Bayswater are every 10 mins). I opted to wait for the next Met train to Aldgate and the only good thing was I helped three families with tube directions, showing them where to go and which trains to catch. The Met came in and I changed at Aldgate, walked/wobbled up to Aldgate East and luckily the next train was a District but I didn’t leave here until 11:08; that’s about 18 mins since I arrived at Liverpool St which was disheartening. I stayed on the District to Sloan Sq where I quickly doubled back to Victoria and was leaving on a southbound Victoria in under 8 minutes. That wasn’t bad! I got off at Vauxhall and headed to stop E to catch a bus to Battersea … and as luck would have it, one was pulling in! It left Vauxhall at 11:40 which meant that I’d done 49% of the stations in 1.5 hours, which, even with the missed train at Liverpool St wasn’t that bad.
The bus was trundling along nicely and it dropped people off at Nine Elms but as we left the stop I heard the dreaded announcement “The next stop is closed”. What. The. Fluffity Flufsters?! Sure enough, as Battersea Power Station tube came into sight the bus stop was coned off and the bus stopped at the lights. “Please can I get off?!” I asked. “No mate, you’ll have to get off at the next stop.” The bus sailed past, got stuck at the next set of lights, then in traffic and finally dropped me off at the next stop. I had to retrace the bus route back to Battersea, down the escalators and onto a waiting train which left at 11:56. 16 mins from the bus leaving Vauxhall to catching the next train. Pants!
Up to Waterloo where I was praying the people mover was working but, you guessed it, the one I wanted was closed! Onto the Jubilee Line to London Bridge, Northern to E&C and then onto a waiting Bakerloo to take me up to Paddington which departed at 12:22. At Paddington (I hate this change), I made it onto a H&C leaving at 12:50 for the trip to Moorgate. A quick change here down onto the Northern Line saw me leaving on a Northern Line train at 13:08 and at Old St, I was 58 stations/85% of the route complete as the 3hr mark passed. Changed at Euston onto a Charing X train at 13:09 to TCR (remembering to alight at the back), rumbled (grumbled?!) up the stairs in TCR to get to the Central Line to leave at 13:25 for the last leg of the journey, finally arriving at Queensway at 13:33 in a time of 3h 22m 24s … two mins outside my previous time. Grrr!
I’m still happy with this route and I’m still glad I did it. Just (literally!) missing the Met train to Aldgate at Liverpool St was a pain, as was the bus stop being closed at Battersea. If this fat Grandad been 30 seconds faster to have caught the Met train and the bus stop at Battersea been open (or the bus driver let me off), maybe 10+ mins could have been shaved off my time. But whose to say I would have had to have waited for a District at Aldgate East, or 10 mins for a bus at Vauxhall? It’s not worth getting wound up about
5 days on and my right ankle is swollen, sore and making me limp. My girlfriend is annoyed with me as we’re flying to Tenerife this Saturday and “If you hadn’t gone to play on bloody tube trains you’d be OK” … so I’m in the doghouse!
But life is too short. We have a duty to do what makes us happy and I loved the planning the route, I loved doing it and I love the adrenaline ... not enjoying this limp though!
Bayswater - Earls Court - Russell Sq - Holborn - Liverpool St - Aldgate - Aldgate East - Sloane Sq - Victoria - Vauxhall - Bus - Battersea - Waterloo - London Bridge - Elephant & Caste - Paddington - Paddington - Moorgate - Euston - TCR - Queensway
