I’ve provided a comprehensive report here of our day on the Underground. It was more for my benefit to provide a record of what happened to look back on in the future, but it may also be helpful in some small way to anyone else hoping to take on the FNC for the first time. Apologies if it is too long, so if you don’t want to wade through it, I’ve provided a list of some of the key take-aways at the end. Also, I know others are quite protective of their routes, but I don’t think there are any top secrets here as many of the route segments are well known to others.
A bit about my chosen route. Firstly, our main objective was simply to complete the FNC in one day. We didn’t have any expectations of a stellar time, but equally being quite competitive I wanted a route that gave us the best chance of success. On that basis our route was mainly based on the labyrinth route, but with the necessary changes to accommodate an early morning visit to Kensington Olympia and adding in the Battersea Power Station extension. This resulted in a start at Heathrow T4, and a finish at Amersham, which looks like a fairly common combination. I did consider other finish points but as I live in Watford the Amersham finish meant we could get home by tube when/if we completed. I also know that end of the Metropolitan line well so I hoped that would provide an advantage. This forum also provided a whole wealth of useful information about optimum interchanges, and challenge logistics. For example, we used smartcards from Chiltern Railways loaded with day travel cards instead of Oyster cards or paper one-day tickets. This worked really well as it capped the cost at £22.60 and allowed us to execute quick tap ins and outs at the numerous gates. Confession time. We meant to switch to Oyster at North Harrow for the final part of the route, but 17+ hours into the challenge we completely forgot until it was too late. Sorry TFL!
Having been dropped off at Heathrow T4 at 04:30, we were faced with our first challenge – where on earth is the tube station! In hindsight I wished I’d research this a bit more in advance, but I naturally assumed it would be obvious (it wasn’t!). We followed the signs to the Elizabeth Line thinking it would also take us to the Piccadilly line, only to then find out they were at opposite ends of the terminal. Not a great start but getting there 30 mins ahead of the first train meant we had time in hand for this little hiccup.
The 05:02 to T2/3 departed on time at 05:02:47 and the stopwatch was started. The next couple of Piccadilly line trains ran nicely on time getting us to Hammersmith at 05:56. It is amazing how busy these trains were at this time of the morning. We saw a District Line train pull in alongside us, so a quick – but right – decision to change here rather than at Barons Court got us to West Kensington at 06:00, one train ahead of plan. A quick exit and we were into our first run of the day to Kensington Olympia with 2 minutes in the bank. This was the only run I was worried about as I was determined we must catch the 06:10, but we cruised at 9 min/mile pace and as we turned the corner at Kensington High Street, we saw the required District Line train waiting for us. A slight panic as we heard its air brakes sound caused us to up our pace, but we needn’t have worried as we made the train with a couple of minutes to spare.
We then headed up to Edgware Road and round to Hammersmith arriving at 06:50, a couple of minutes ahead of plan, despite a bit of delay at enroute. So far so good. We had a quick transfer across the road to the other Hammersmith station only to see the dot matrix board showing an Ealing Broadway train rather than the desired Richmond. Knowing the golden rule of “always catch the first train”, we caught that and alighted at Turnham Green. The Richmond train arrived after a 6-minute wait, which seemed like an eternity as it was the first time we had to wait for a train. We hoped this wasn’t a sign of things to come. After arriving at Richmond, we had a perfect out-and-back change – the Holy Grail of the tube challenger. We then had our first interaction with a fellow passenger asking what on earth we were up to. Funny how the thought of trying to visit 272 stations in one day comes across as completely crazy to most people.
We got out at Gunnersbury at 07:11 to run the 0.5 miles to Chiswick Park only to be faced with a 9 min wait for our train to Ealing Broadway. I suspect we had just missed one, but at least it gave us time to appreciate the wonderful architecture of this 1930s Charles Holden creation.
Our second ideal out-and-back at Ealing Common recovered the Chiswick Park delay and brought us back on track arriving at West Acton at 08:00, exactly on plan. A quick exit here and a 0.4 mile dash to North Ealing (a very leafy suburb of London) gave us time for our first toilet stop before catching a Piccadilly Line north, our 14th train of the day. A few words here about toilet stops. In some ways, this was one of the hardest challenges of the day. With 3 of us in our team, there was almost always a point during the day when one or more of us needed the toilet. The toilet map from TFL is a must-have for anyone undertaking the Tube Challenge, but even then, there are not that many stations where (a) toilets are on the platform level, and (b) you are happy to miss a train to go to the toilet. Our strategy was to try to limit our liquid intake, but given the amount of running we were doing, combined with the 28-degree temperature, it meant that this was nearly impossible. Hence, large parts of the day were spent with the uncomfortable feeling of needing a pee. If anyone has a solution to this issue, I’d love to hear it.
Our Piccadilly Line north was heading to Uxbridge. I had a Plan B that if it was only going to Rayners Lane we would do a quick out-and-back to West Harrow, thereby saving a run later in the day, but we decided to keep going as getting off a train we needed didn’t make any sense.
At Uxbridge we had an okay out-and-back, but I feel we averted a major issue here. As we walked through the Met Line train to the exit door we needed (a bit about that shortly), my daughter noticed that one of the doors wasn’t fully closed. On closer inspection we saw that an acorn has become tapped in the door’s mechanism. A fellow passenger helped us dislodge it with his car keys and the door then shut properly. Had we not spotted that I’m sure the driver would have delayed our departure to investigate the issue.
On the issue of door position, we used the Station Master app to map out in advance each location we needed to be on every train during the day. We cannot praise this app highly enough and I’m sure it saved us a significant amount of time during the day, particularly during rush hour where passenger numbers hampered progress. It did occur to me that if you could plan a route that avoids Zone 1 during the rush hours this would be an optimum solution.
We exited at Ickenham to run the 0.7 miles to West Ruislip, arriving at 08:56, 3 mins ahead of schedule. This run was tough as it was mainly uphill, and the heat was starting to rise. However, being nearly 4 hours in, and 15 trains completed, and to still be on plan at this point was very pleasing, especially as we now had the long ride all the way to the other end of the Central Line. This part of my plan worried me. It never felt optimal to travel from one end of London to the other on one train so I may look at that aspect next time. Anyway, the first train was Epping bound but we caught it anyway aiming to change later down the line to a Hainault train as I knew trains came out of the depot at West Acton. Sure enough, we swapped to a Hainault train at Leytonstone which was only 2 minutes behind our train. This is where the Gods of TFL Issues first decided to mess with us. The TFL app was showing minor delays on the Hainault loop due to train cancellations. If there’s one area of the network you don’t want to see issues, it’s here as the trains are so infrequent. Sure enough, once we reached Hainault 4 minutes late, we had a gap of 15 minutes for the shuttle meaning we arrived at Woodford 10 minutes behind schedule. It did give us some time to grab a coffee at the Shell petrol station outside Hainault station, but annoying to be behind schedule for the first time of the day. I did think afterwards whether it would have been better to stay on the Epping train and do that first given the delays being announced, but I figured we may not see another Hainault train for a while. I guess I’ll never know what the right answer was here.
Arriving at Woodford at 10:49, we had an okay interchange north to Epping (with sufficient time for our second toilet stop of the day), and then yet another super-quick turnaround at Epping which reduced our deficit to only 5 minutes. We then headed south to Leytonstone. The original plan was to run from Snaresbrook to Walthamstow Central, but we doubted our ability to run every interchange and as a reasonable transfer via the Overground at Leytonstone presented itself, we decided to do that instead. This was our first big mistake of the day. There was a 0.6 mile run from Leytonstone tube station to Leytonstone High Road overground. When we arrived at Leytonstone High Road overground station the train was pulling out – we had missed it by 10 seconds! The next train was in 20 minutes! Had I checked the timetable when on the train from Epping and known the overground was departing when it was, we would have run quicker as we were not flat out. This was a rookie mistake. At this point, quite disheartened, we contemplated running to Walthamstow Central rather than waiting but the maths showed it would take about the same time, so we decided to save our legs for later in the day. If I had my time again, I would have run the 2.3 miles from Snaresbrook to Walthamstow Central in the first place, even if it was at jogging pace. That way you know exactly how long it will take and you are not reliant upon timetables. Total transfer time was 37 minutes – we could have run in under 25 minutes, thereby saving 12 minutes.
Once at Walthamstow Central (12:03), we were now 16 minutes behind schedule. We took the Victoria Line south to Warren Street, an out-and-back to Goodge Street, we then headed north to Edgware arriving at 12:54, now 13 mins behind schedule. I was now determined to run to Stanmore and not mess with other less reliable options, but as we came out of the station we saw a 142 bus in front of us so it was a no-brainer to jump on that, even though the bus wasn’t the quickest in the world. When we arrived at Stanmore my wife was waiting for us with MacDonalds. This was a very welcome sight and helped lift our spirits enormously (not to mention our energy levels). It would be very challenging to carry all your food needs with you during the day, and equally it would slow you down having to stop to buy food on the route, so having a back-up crew is a welcome addition, if you have that option available.
After our third toilet stop at Stanmore, we took the Jubilee Line south to Baker Street (our 23rd train) we arrived at 13:46, now 14 mins behind schedule. It appeared that that we were stuck with a ~15-minute delay no matter what we did, but we were still hopeful that it could be recovered. It’s worth saying that we scanned the TFL app frequently during the day to be aware of any tube line issues. There were various minor delays flagged throughout the day, but so far other than the one on the Hainault loop we were unaffected. The big one that did worry us was the Bakerloo Line suspension between Elephant & Castle and Queens Park. This would be game-over if it continued, but we didn’t plan to visit this stretch of the network until much later in the day so we were hopeful it would be resolved by then.
A straightforward hop across to Moorgate then brought us to the next pinch-point of the day – could we get a good run to Mill Hill East. Unfortunately, it was not to be the case. We got a High Barnet train north then had to wait at Finchely Central for what seemed like ages for a MHE train. It was running 5 minutes behind schedule (gggrrrr!), but to be fair to the driver he turned it around in 4 minutes once we reached MHE, so we arrived at High Barnet at 15:30 still 16 minutes behind schedule. It showed us what a big difference it can make to your day if you have a few lucky breaks with connections. A slight annoyance was that we exited High Barnet at the wrong exit, higher up the hill than we needed to be, but it was no big deal. The timetable showed a 384 bus in 3 minutes so despite my scepticism we decided to wait for it rather than tackle the 2.3 mile run to Cockfosters. This was the second big mistake of the day (are you noticing a pattern?). When it arrived although the front of the bus said it was going to Cockfosters the driver informed us he was terminating at High Barnet High Street. While we were debating what to do, he closed the doors and was off. This eliminated our option of “taking the first train” and maybe then rethinking once we reached HB High Street. Anyway, a 307 bus was then due shortly, so we waited for that but annoyingly it arrived late and then didn’t go all the way to Cockfosters, so it still needed a 0.7 mile run (uphill!) to the station once we got off the bus. Buses are so damn unreliable! The whole transfer took 39 minutes. I think we could have run it in less than 25 minutes, so that’s 14 minutes lost.
We reached Cockfosters at 15:42, now 23 minutes behind ideal schedule. The train departed 2 mins later, getting us into Earl’s Court at 16:35. We got into the lift here as it was about to leave, only then realising that it was taking us to the exit rather than the District Line platform. Dave and I rushed out when the doors opened, not realising that Emily was still in the lift thinking we would go back down a floor. Luckily, she realised we were nowhere to be seen so rushed out after us just in time for us all to catch our Wimbledon train. So nice when you get a quick connection.
Once at Wimbledon we caught the tram to Morden Road and then ran the 0.6 miles to Morden, which thankfully was mostly downhill apart from the final stretch. Total transfer time of 19 minutes, and great for it to work for once.
As we approached Kennington the driver announced that the Northern Line was suspended to Battersea Power Station (BPS) due to an issue at Waterloo. As BPS was our next destination some quick on-your-feet thinking was required. Dave estimated that it would take at least 2 hours for the line to reopen, so we decided to leave BPS for now and come back to it later once we had visited Upminster. Whatever plan you have mapped out, I suspect most people who take on this challenge need to have a Plan B, or even a Plan C at some point as it’s rare to have a day that the tube network isn’t affected by some issue or other. The Bakerloo Line was still suspended at this point so it looked very much that we would not be able to complete the challenge today. Anyway, we pushed on and doubled-back at Kennington and headed back to Stockwell so we could tick off Brixton. All thoughts of a good time were now out of the question – simply completing was our priority.
At Brixton, we failed to dash across the platform quickly enough to catch the outgoing train, but only had to wait a few minutes to the head back north to Victoria. A quick double back at Sloane Square then had us on our way to Aldgate. This was now full-on rush hour on a Friday evening, so the train was packed. Taylor Swift was on at Wembley that evening so that contributed to the crowds.They must have regretted standing next to us as we must have stunk. Despite bringing some deodorant and a change of T-shirt, there’s only so much you can do.
Aldgate to Aldgate East was an easy straight-line dash and we managed to catch our Upminster train almost straight away. It was now 18:27 and we were mentally tired and physically flagging, but this part of the journey required some quick thinking. A check of the timetables showed that there was a c2c train departing West Ham at 18:40 and 18:43. We might catch the 18:40, but we definitely would catch the 18:44. It seemed at odds getting off a District line train going where we wanted to go, but we could not guarantee getting a c2c back from Upminster without a wait, so we risked the transfer at West Ham onto the c2c. We ran for the 18:40 but missed it by 10 seconds (a repeated theme), mainly due to the number of people on the platform. Perhaps we were being too polite and should have shouted/pushed past people more? Anyway, we got the 18:44 which got us into Upminster at 18:58. We then headed west on a District Line with only a 4 min turnaround time. Interestingly, we were now back on the ideal schedule, but of course we had missed out BPS and Nine Elms. Jokingly, we suggested we could just omit these two and keep it quiet, but we would only be cheating ourselves!!!
Once back at West Ham we jumped on the Jubilee Line and luckily (as predicted by Dave) the extension to BPS had now re-opened (but with minor delays), so we travelled to Waterloo, then a Northern Line to BPS, a 2 min turn around here (I think on turnarounds we were very lucky during the day), and back to Kennington. We then transferred to the Bank branch to tick off Borough, then back to Elephant & Castle to tackle the Bakerloo Line and what we considered the home stretch. Luckily by now the Bakerloo Line was running, but with minor delays. Now we had ticked off BPS and Nine Elms, we could cross-check against our plan, and amazingly it was showing that we were now only 13 minutes behind our ideal schedule. Given the various issues we suffered on the transfer, and the Northern Line closure this was a miracle, and so it massively lifted our spirits for the remaining 37 stations.
Due to the earlier issues, the Bakerloo Line was only running to Queens Park. We would need to take the Overground from Queens Park to Harrow & Wealdstone. I suspected this would happen, and frankly I was quite disappointed. I know taking this particular Overground is within the rules as it travels on the same track and stops at the same stations, but nevertheless, it still feels like a bit of a cheat not taking a tube train.
We doubled back at Harrow & Wealdstone (another very quick turnaround here) and got off at Kenton for our 0.3 mile run to Northwick Park. Once at Northwick Park, we were in good spirits but unfortunately, I got distracted here by tiredness and made us jump onto the incoming Uxbridge train. It wasn’t until we were pulling into Harrow-on-the-Hill that my daughter said “weren’t we supposed to go to Preston Road?”. Oh no, our (my) third big mistake of the day. After thanking my daughter profusely, we jumped out at Harrow and headed back to Preston Road. Lesson learned – check & double check your route as you go along, rather than rely upon your memory. This mistake moved us from 4 mins ahead of schedule (the first time we had been ahead of schedule since 10am), to 9 minutes behind schedule. Really annoying.
On our third Uxbridge train of the day, we got out at West Harrow (21:45) and bombed the 0.7 miles to North Harrow knowing it was our final run of the day. Surprisingly it was our quickest run of the day at 8.13 mins/mile pace. This put us only 5 mins behind schedule. We were clearly too conservative earlier in the day about our run abilities. We then caught the first westbound Metropolitan train (an Amersham) but with a target of Watford. We met our family and friends at Pinner who jumped on the train with us and handed us much needed cold drinks. It was great to see friendly faces so late into the day.
At Moor Park we said goodbye to our family & friends, and we changed onto a Watford-bound train after waiting a few minutes. As we pulled into Watford we saw another train on the opposite platform. As Watford was my home station, I knew we would have a couple of minutes to make the transfer across the island platform. However, for whatever reason, just as our doors were about to open, the doors on the train opposite closed. We had missed the departing train by less than 10 seconds!!! This was a real kick in then guts as I knew we would then have a long wait for the next train to depart. Right enough, we waited 15 minutes for our train to depart. Any hope of completing to schedule was now gone. I was confident we would complete, and a sub-19-hour time was possible, so that’s what we aimed for.
Back at Moor Park (22:58) we caught a Chesham train which arrived at 23:21. This same train (it’s a single line extension line like MHE) departed at 23:30 on time taking us to Chalfont and Latimer. We then caught our final, and 55th train to Amersham. As the train was pulling into the station the stopwatch was quickly counting down to 19 hours. Would we make it? As the doors opened, we finished with a time of 18:59:32 – just 28 seconds to spare! We had planned to complete in 18 hours and 21 minutes but given the various issues we faced during the day, and what, I think, is more than our fair share of bad luck, we were all really pleased with a sub-19-hour clocking.
Here are some of the key take-aways from the day:
- 1. Consider using a smartcard rather than an Oyster card or a paper ticket. If you want the official record, it’s unclear, but you may be forced to use Oyster. Maybe someone can confirm this point.
2. The Station Master app is invaluable in determining train positions for exits and transfers.
3. Have a toilet strategy planned as that’s a real restriction on the day.
4. Consider how much food you need to take with you. Also, a sugar boost was helpful for lifting spirits. There are a few options to top up your food supplies during the day, but you need to know where they are in advance and whether you can use them without missing connections.
5. Have alternative plans available as you are likely to suffer from line disruptions at some point. However, sometimes you just need to think on your feet.
6. It sounds obvious but have everything you need printed out. There’s no network coverage on quite a lot of the tube network so you can’t rely on your phone.
7. If you’re a runner, always take the more reliable running option between tube line transfers.
8. Even if you think you know your route well in your head, check and double-check before transfers, especially when you are tired and weary.
9. Enjoy your day – it’s an amazing experience that very few people get the chance to do.
Mark, Emily & Dave – 18:59:32.
