Our first attempt- All the Actons Challenge

[GLBCrew]

Hello! My 8 year old son and I have just finished a short visit to England from the USA. He was very excited to try the "All the Actons challenge". We did it, but have a question about the rules for when to start our timer!

We started in Chiswick Park, and our time from when the doors closed at Chiswick Park til finally exiting to the platform at Acton Main Line was 1:13:49.

However, I wasn't sure if we were supposed to start from Chiswick Park, our "original train", or from when the doors closed at the first Acton station. If we measure from the time the first door closed at our first Acton station (Acton Town), it would be 1:10:50.

If you could help us to know which way is the correct way to measure, I would appreciate it!

Our route: June 11, 2024

• Chiswick Park
  District to Acton Town
  Bus to South Acton
  Overground to Acton Central
  Bus to East Acton
  Central to North Acton
  Central to West Acton
  Central to Ealing Broadway
  Elizabeth to Acton Main Line (1:43 pm)

My son would like us to be shown on the leader board on www.explorerticket.co.uk, if we have made it - how do we do that?

I hope we've done this right! Feedback/comments/questions welcome.

[Oggm]

Article 6 of the General Rules for the 'All the Actons Challenge' from the explorer ticket website:

Your time starts when the doors are locked closed ready for departure on the first train you board at the start station and the challenge ends when the first member of your team physically sets foot on the platform at your finishing station. The stopwatch must be continuously counting between your start and finish stations. Timings must be noted down in hours, minutes and seconds.

As the start station of the challenge was Acton Town (the first station which counts towards the criteria), the stopwatch must be started on the first train which you take departing from there.

Therefore, the time as measured from Acton Town (011050) would count as the final result.

[greatkingrat]

Don't think that is right. They didn't take a train departing from Acton Town at any point, so that can't be the start time. The start station is Chiswick Park and the start time is when the doors closed at Chiswick Park.

[RJSRdg]

Yes, that seems quite a strange query - when the OP refers to "When the doors closed at Acton Town" - does that mean after they got off?

I'm also slightly confused by catching a bus from AT to South Acton. Was that a 440 to Bollo Bridge Road then walk/run the rest of the way?

[GLBCrew]

I see you all are confused also, so I take it I'm asking a good question.

We weren't in Acton, so we had to take a train there. So, I was inclined to think like @greatkingrat says, our time has to start from the doors closing at Chiswick Park, and therefore the slightly longer time of 1:13:49, because of our particular route we had to ride a train in and alight at our first station, Acton Town.

The bus from Acton Town to South Acton was the 70 to Chiswick Business Park.

[Lunaticonthegrass]

I've just been through the rules and I agree that it's a little ambiguous. However, in line with what has been done on some previous challenges by others, I believe that the clock should start as the doors locked at Chiswick Park. (It's essentially a reverse of rule 7, where, if you arrive at your final station on foot, you have to keep the clock running until you depart that station by train AND arrive at the next station.)

[Oggm]

I've just been through the rules and I agree that it's a little ambiguous. However, in line with what has been done on some previous challenges by others, I believe that the clock should start as the doors locked at Chiswick Park. (It's essentially a reverse of rule 7, where, if you arrive at your final station on foot, you have to keep the clock running until you depart that station by train AND arrive at the next station.)

agreed, the technicality is confusing, I would now agree with the Chiswich Park time, however this may mean that I have found a catastrophic loophole in the rules which would let me set a sub 3 min time

It could perhaps imply that the starting station must be visited by departing on a LU train

[RJSRdg]

I see you all are confused also, so I take it I'm asking a good question.

We weren't in Acton, so we had to take a train there. So, I was inclined to think like @greatkingrat says, our time has to start from the doors closing at Chiswick Park, and therefore the slightly longer time of 1:13:49, because of our particular route we had to ride a train in and alight at our first station, Acton Town.

The bus from Acton Town to South Acton was the 70 to Chiswick Business Park.

Whilst it is a good question - in that it points out a potential area of ambiguity in the rules - it was the wording of the question about doors closing at Acton Town that confused me - thanks for the clarification.

It's very rare that this situation crops up - on most challenges the most natural way to start is by catching a train from the first station (although occasionally a Random 15 has a situation where competitors run from the first station and revisit it later).
However as others have said "all stations must be arrived at or departed from by train(*)", and this must be whilst the clock is running. So whilst not explicitly stated in the rules, if the first station on the list is arrived at by train but not departed from by train, the clock must start at the previous station.

(*) The only exception to this in Tube Challenging is if a station is closed for some reason, where either a pass-through (if the line is open) or a visit on foot or by bus to the exterior of the station (if the line is closed) are permitted.

[tangy]

I am the best one to answer this as I am the webmaster of Explorer Ticket and whose rules you are citing.

It is unusual for a challenge to be started in this way but you were correct in starting the stopwatch upon departure from Chiswick Park, in order to visit Acton Town correctly by arriving or departing each required station by train.

As other challengers have said, as you were departing Acton Town by bus/on foot you had to arrive at Acton Town by train, thus your starting station was Chiswick Park.

Hope this clarifies things.