My Plan - help please?

[snudge27]

Hi all,
as stated in a previous post, I'm planning to do an all-stations attempt at some point in the next year-and-a-bit. I have no intention of breaking the record, and am simply doing it for charity I've started planning already and have come up with this so far...

0528 Amersham – Chalfont & Latimer 0532
0539 Chalfont & Latimer – Chesham 0548
0558 Chesham – Moor Park 0620
0622 Moor Park – Watford 0630
0633 Watford – North Harrow 0650
0650 North Harrow – West Harrow 0700
0706 West Harrow – Preston Road 0716
0718 Preston Road – Northwick Park 0720
0720 Preston Road – Kenton 0726
0729 Kenton – Harrow & Wealdstone 0732
0743 Harrow & Wealdstone – Lambeth North 0829
0830 Lambeth North – Waterloo 0832
0835 Waterloo – Stratford 0900
0905 Stratford – Epping 0931
0936 Epping – Woodford 0951
0953 Woodford – Leytonstone 1021
1021 Leytonstone – Leytonstone High Road 1032
1048 Leytonstone High Road – Walthamstow Queens Road 1053
1053 Walthamstow Queens Road – Walthamstow Central 1104
1106 Walthamstow Central – King’s Cross 1123
1128 King’s Cross – Stockwell 1149
1153 Stockwell – Brixton 1156
1157 Brixton – Pimlico 1203
1204 Pimlico – Stockwell 1208
1210 Stockwell – Morden 1229
1230 Morden – South Wimbledon 1232
1234 South Wimbledon – Wimbledon 1257
1305 Wimbledon – Earls Court 1324
1333 Earls Court – Edgware Road 1344
1348 Edgware Road – Hammersmith 1402
1408 Hammersmith – West Kensington 1411
1415 West Kensington – Richmond 1432
1436 Richmond – Feltham 1446
1452 Feltham – Hatton Cross 1505
1512 Hatton Cross – Heathrow 123 1516
1519 Heathrow 123 – Acton Town 1544
1551 Acton Town – Chiswick Park 1553
1559 Chiswick Park – Ealing Broadway 1606
1611 Ealing Broadway – West Acton 1613
1613 West Acton – North Ealing 1625
1635 North Ealing – Uxbridge 1709
1715 Uxbridge – Ickenham 1720
1720 Ickenham – West Ruislip 1735
1737 West Riuslip – Mile End 1830
1834 Mile End – Whitechapel 1839
1841 Whitechapel - Shoreditch 1843
1852 Shoreditch – New Cross 1906
1906 New Cross – New Cross Gate 1914
1917 New Cross Gate – Whitechapel 1929
1932 Whitechapel – Earls Court 2002
2008 Earls Court – Olympia 2011
2019 Olympia – Earls Court 2024
2030 Earls Court – Cockfosters 2118
2120 Cockfosters – Arnos Grove 2129
2132 Arnos Grove – High Barnet 2148
2150 High Barnet – Finchley Central 2200
2207 Finchley Central – Mill Hill East 2209
2215 Mill Hill East – Camden Town 2234
2238 Camden Town – Goodge Street 2245
2254 Goodge Street – Edgware 2324
2330 Edgware – Canons Park 2342
2343 Canons Park – Stanmore 2348
2354 Stanmore – Baker Street 0024
0030 Baker Street – Kings Cross 0035
0035 Kings Cross – Liverpool Street 0043

As you can see, I get to liverpool street on the last train of the night and can't make my finish at Upminster. Would anyone be kind enough to lend me a hand in the planning stages? Please? As I said earlier, this is definitely not going to be a WR attempt, simply an attempt to raise as much money for charity as possible. Any help would be most gratefully received!
James

[greatkingrat]

Well I noticed you have allowed 31 minutes between arriving at South Wimbledon and leaving Wimbledon, this takes 15 minutes max even if you walk.

Also I would avoid the GOBLIN because it is infrequent and unreliable. There are buses between Leyton and Walthamstow that will probably work out quicker.

[tubeguru]

I would not even consider linking Walthamstow and Leytonstone together - never have done and probably never will.

You may want to consider moving the entire northern section forward in the day (Edgware, Stanmore, High Barnet, Cockfosters).

[Beary]

IMHO the problem is that you're (almost) only relying on tube connections.

[tubeguru]

Not entirely true - he's got some good stuff in there.

How are you getting from Morden to Wimbledon (or the other way round)?

[tubeguru]

Pimlico is interesting ...

[A2]

As far as I can see you've missed out Heathrow T4. (bus link until the train route reopens)

Shoreditch closes permanently in June, so unless you're doing it before then, you can cut that out entirely.

Have you read http://www.tuberelief.co.uk/howtodoit.htm ?

[zeibura]

meh, i always found doing the southern section of the northern & victoria line quicker that way (stockwell - pimlico - brixton - stockwell), rather than changing at victoria.

i'd consider replanning the way you do the hammersmith, edgware road & richmond part. it's a bit sloppy. also, imho the feltham - hatton cross bus thing is a waste of time. it works if you get great connections, at richmond and feltham, but otherwise going in and out of heathrow is quicker.

[zeibura]

also it helps to be able to do north to west harrow in 6 minutes. it's perfectly possible

[TheFatBuoy]

also it helps to be able to do north to west harrow in 6 minutes. it's perfectly possible

If you're fit. I'm not. All my plans involve a complete lack of running, and walking based on a 3mph average walking speed, and I've managed to get it down to arriving at Upminster at 0017, which is 18 hours 49 minutes, I think (are the first trains still 0528? - ISTR someone mentioning them changing).

If I could pull that off, I'd be dead chuffed, despite not having broken the world record.

Mind you, that doesn't include T4, but even so, including doing the T4 + back bus link I should still comfortably achieve it in a reasonable time.

That's *if* things go to plan, of course.....

And doing the North to West Harrow run also involves not spilling the contents of your rucksack all over the platform. I was just lucky that there were lots of people around at such an early time of the day, to pick them all up for me!

[tangy]

The GOBLIN- now that is an interesting way to link Walthamstow and Leytonstone and although reliability is now up into the 93-94% mark, it is still every 30 minutes so you will have to time it well. Trains leave LHR for Gospel Oak at 17 and 47 past, which your plan does (trains arrive at WQR at 23 and 53 past).

Although the running between Leytonstone LUL and Leytonstone HR and from WQR- W'stow Central is what takes the time. The latter takes about 6 minutes to run, I do that almost every day, as I live virtaully 30 seconds from WQR and I also use the GOBLIN regulary so I disagree about the age-old comments of the GOBLIN being unreliable, it is certainly improving year by year (ever tried getting on the 0808 off Barking?!)

If you don't fancy the GOBLIN, I have always found the second best way from L'stone to W'stow for Tube Challenge purposes is to double back to Leyton and take buses 69 or 97. I would never use route 257 as it stops at every blooming bus stop to Walthamstow Central and routes W15/W19 go a long way round via Whipps Cross Hospital.

[CrunchySaviour]

Adham and I took the bus on our attempt - and it was agonisingly slow. I think it was the one via the hospital.

The plan will, inevitably, see you miss a train or catch anearlier one here and there, and you probably won't get to LHR at 17 or 47 past!

[standclearofthedoors]

Is there any mileage in doing Hounslow BR- Richmond as your Heathrow turnaround?

[greatkingrat]

It is about 3/4 mile from Hounslow BR to Hounslow Central plus there are only 2tph Richmond-Hounslow so it probably isn't worth doing.

[Root]

The Goblin can work if you arrive at Leytonstone at a good time. It shouldn't take you 11 minutes to get to the High Road, so you probably would be better off getting a bus. 6-8 minutes, if you're fit, is probably the only timeframe for which it is worth using Rail rather than Bus.

I agree with the Harrow run comments - you are giving yourself 10 minutes, but if you could do it in 6 you will be saving 19 minutes by the time you get to Lambeth North.

If the first train out of West Ken is to Ealing Broadway, it'll be worth 6 minutes taking that to Chiswick Park and running to Gunnersbury, unless you know that the Richmond train is only a few minutes behind you and you won't make it. The irregularity of the Richmond Branch would probably have you waiting those 6 minutes for a train. Actually, when you get to Hammersmith, why not try knocking Olympia out of the way then and there? You're waiting 6 minutes at Earl's Court and 8 minutes at Olympia doing it the way you are, but if you could run/bus it to Olympia from Hammersmith you could save all of that time (with a bit of luck) AND avoid the need to double up West Ken and Baron's Court.

There, I've saved you three-quarters of an hour already .

Just a word of advice: If you're using Journeyplanner, make sure you can find a route that gives you at least an hour margin to catch any "last train". You can be pretty sure you won't end up sticking to what JP thinks. Even if you manage to tweak your route and catch that last train, that's only theoretical. One major delay or a few minors and you're not getting home that night.