Race The Tube - High Speed 1 vs The Underground 

I think Geoff spent more time walking than he did on the train.

Loved that announcement: "Platform 12 for the 12 12..." if only the journey took 12 minutes...

I live right by Stratford International and the HS1 is the next best thing to teleportation

"We'll meet at the totem pole with the roundels". A true transport rendevous.

Yes it's basically 4 Javelin trains per hour from St Pancras to Stratford off-peak, the variations in the departure times are to dovetail with Eurostars arriving and departing. The Javelins fit in around the Eurostars, rather than vice-versa.

I live in Folkestone right by folkestone central. I can be in st Pancras in less than an hour. Virtually always on time. Brilliant train

We need Cable Car vs Jubilee/DLR

Great Britain might be the only place in Europe where stations are called "International".

That secret entrance at Stratford International is handy sometimes. I was going somewhere once and the DLR to Stratford Intl was closed so I got the Jubilee Line and then walked from Stratford and got to that entrance. If it wasn't there, it would've been a longer walk for me

Please try the buses to see how stupidly long it would take

I love these race videos; they remind me of the old top gear ones! Keep up these series!

"Trains leaving this station can be very busy. Especially during rush hour" I don't know what's stupider, the comment about rush hour, or the fact some people need to be told this.

Platform 12 for the 12:12 Southeastern service to Faversham.Calling at Stratford Intl,Ebbsfleet Intl,Gravesend,Strood,Rochester,Chatham,Gillingham,Rainham,Sittingbourne and Faversham.This train is formed of 12 coaches

Thanks thanks Jeff tec and Andy team love seeing you run around the London and seeing places on the underground that I've never seen

That lesser known entrance at Stratford international is used when West Ham play as an entrance for people travelling to Kent after the game. It’s a good locations for the Westfields food court for people that are brave enough to want to eat down there.

The coolest thing about Stratford International is the track that runs to the Eurostar depot over the platforms. It's really something coming down the escalator with a Eurostar trainset only a few feet away from you. Enjoyed this video, I used the high speed when I was moving into my flat in an area near Stratford. It was much nicer taking the HS and a bus!

This is actually quite a useful video! I'm going to London in a month and might want to visit here to see the Eurostars at high speed, and this helps with knowing prices and fastest route there

5:32 “you know still the cheapest, but it’s more expensive” -amazing- speech Geoff 👏

Excellent as always, Geoff.

Definitely worth the extra £ for not having to change at bank/Liverpool street

Another great video Geoff, thank you. I believe that the South Eastern HS trains travel up to 140mph through the tunnels between Stratford and St Pancras.

You guys don't know how lucky you are actually having even one choice, let alone four or more ;) Loved both videos.

I travelled a lot between Kings Cross (from Cambridge) and Stratford last year, and I did experiment HS1 vs change at LST (to central or TFLRail or GA) vs change at Highbury&Islington a couple of times each. I believe your result is absolutely spot on. HS1 is clearly the fastest way by a lot (though, it is the most expensive), change at LST comes second, and victoria+overground route comes a quite remote third.

When I saw the title I was like I better hope the High Spead 1 is faster than the tube.

i do love these types of vidoes from you

I take the 12:12 from Platform 12 (to Canterbury West) regularly...so satisfying!

This is the greatest travel hack I found out in London. I was meeting my friend in Westfield coming from Paddington, Friday 5.30pm rush hour. Was there by 6pm taking the high speed train :)

That way in and out of SFA is used frequently by me, at least, as it is one of my local stations, and very convenient if I need to get to St Pancras or King's Cross, either to do something in the area or to get a train to Derby or Leeds.

St James's Park to Paddington is a similarly interesting route. I believe the tfl planner will give the following route options depending on what's best at that time: 1. Circle to Paddington 2. District to Earl's Court, district to Paddington 3. Circle/District to Victoria, victoria to Oxford Circus, Bakerloo to Paddington 4. Circle/District to Westminster, Jubilee to Baker street, Bakerloo to Paddington 5. Circle/District to Embankment, Bakerloo to Paddington 6. Bus (when service is winding down) It may have suggested a 7th, but I'm not sure now 7 Circle/District to Victoria, victoria to Green Park, jubilee to Baker Street, Bakerloo to Paddington

Great video mate 😊

Great video Geoff

I stayed in a hotel by Stratford international a few months back - always took high speed service as it’s way easier than doing all the changes on the underground (especially as I was travelling to Euston way places

I always wondered that too. Now I get to find out finally.

Love your video

happy 10 years for the high speed

it would have been 45 mins slower with a wheelchair so the High Speed is definitely the superstar

Are they ever going to tune that sodding piano? Love the scarf btw, very district line!

Fun fact: we did almost the same, going to and back from Margate two months ago: the challenge was to find the fastest way btw Stratford Int'l and Clapham Junction... !!!

Goodness. Never the HS1 was so young. The first time I took it was to Canterbury in 2014. I have never heard of Stratford international since that journey

I would love to see a James Bond movie with you starring in it. Perfect match

Interesting trips. I don’t think you used the shorted walking route from International to Stratford Station. I recall when I last did it, if you turn tight at the over bridge there are some steps upto a centre entrance to the shopping centre then turn left and follow directions.

As an Australian, it's always weird to hear UK and American people refer to Westfield. I don't think of it as an export.

3:26. Why in the heck is that platform announcement so satisfying.

One major obstacle in making it a fair challenge is that the different modes of transport in London arrive at different times, even if you leave at 12:05. which can give a significantly unfair advantage/disadvantage to the other competing party.

I wish I had a taskforce like you assembled here as I have a 5-way dilemma to commute to work, and citymapper had suggested 5 routes that are within 2 minutes of each other: I live near the home office (Westminster) and work near Finsbury Square (Moorgate) and this was the solution: 1. Walk to St James Park, take the circle line till it loops around back to moorgate 2. Walk to St James Park, take anything eastbound and walk from cannon street (13 minutes) 3. Walk to Pimlico, talk Victoria line down to stockwell and take the northern line up to moorgate 4. Walk to Pimlico, take Victoria line up to Euston and take the northern line down to moorgate 5. Walk to St James Park, take anything to monument, change at bank and take the northern line up to moorgate I generally stick with 1 or 2 as there's only one train breakdown to worry about. I've tried 3 and was a complete disaster due to the northern line branching at stockwell. 4 sounds like a rush hour nightmare, though I haven't attempted it. 5 involves the safety hazard of changing at bank and monument

1:47 So, the Totem Pole shows from bottom to top: - TfL Rail (RER-style Commuter rail services) - Overground (S-Bahn type services) - DLR (Light Railway, Docklands supplement to the Underground) - National Rail (Commuter and Inter-city rail services) - Underground (Metro-style service) That is highly mixed up, if not messed up. My 'recommendation' for a renewal of this pole (necessary latest once the #PurpleTrain is officially up and running) - bottom to top: - DLR* - Underground* - Overground - Cross/Elizabeth Link/Rail/Express - National Rail * can be exchanged

Wish I'd known about this when I used to use this route!

Super video

Nice One!

Nice video

5:55 -- that is the exact same announcement jingle as used on the Stockholm Tunnelbana and SL trains, and I believe as well on some of the trains in and around Copenhagen.

@Geoff Marshal Hi. May is ask what sort of camera's do you use?

Im curious as to how fast H and C to mile end then central would be. Since the H and C would be very slow but with the possibility of instant change over to the central if the timings are right as both westbound lines share a platform at mile end.

Me and my Wife did a race from Stratford International DLR to Ealing Broadway... She went DLR one stop to Stratford, then Central line to Ealing Broadway. I took HS1 to King's Cross, ran to Circle/H&C line to get a tube to Paddington, then a TFL rail to Ealing Broadway... I won because I caught a 1 min late running HS1 train at Stratford Int & had 5 min at Pad for connection... Won by 8 min but one bad connection and she would have won...

Dear Friend: I am a fervent admirer of the railways and next year I will visit England for 12 days, the cities of London, York, Liverpool and Manchester. I am interested in knowing some station around London to observe the trains at speed. Which would you recommend for filming train passes at good speed? Many thanks and warm regards from Argentina, Fausto.-

Andy is back!

Welcome back Andy! It’s been a while Sents you left for a bit

Thanks for the cost chart because I was really wondering how expensive it would be to get from the airport to the inner city and I think both have an okay price. I would probably take the tube with less lugage (so when arriving) and the train with more lugage. Depends of course als on where you stay but as a tourist I found that really helpful to decide whether that would be something I would invest a bit more money in or go all cheap :D And also good to know that oyster is now possible because it wasn't when I was there in 2014 with my school.

such a geoff video lmao on a time crunch but stopping for some fast (slow) facts

Can you race HS1 from St Pancras to Stratford Intl? [Javelin vs Geoff running]

I genuinely thought it would say "Platform twelve, for the 12:12, twelve service to, twelve"

First time I payed London a visit, it took me a worryingly large amount of time to comprehend that when they say "...the 1212 service" they actually mean the departing time and not the train number. Because in continental Europe train numbers are often used the same way as flight numbers on seat reservations and such. I was always waiting for the voice to say "will depart 12 past 12 from plattform n"

So do you have any information about the saddle tank locomotive which is shown when you are together at Stratford?

so tube fare is either paper ticket or oyster/contactless but the first price listing is for the supposed hi speed one through oyster/contactless, right?

Was that a little Andrew Barclay or an Avonside loco on the plinth behind you four??

You’ll have to do it again once Cross-Elizabeth-Purple-Rail opens

Does the high speed train charge if you have a zones 1-2 travelcard if you stay within those zones?

I'm a West Ham fan and I live in Camden Town so I use southeastern high speed pretty much every match day I can go to. It gets really busy on match days

I enjoyed watching that although I had a forgone conclusion which would be fastest! Why don't you do "Westfield Stratford to Westfield White City", that would be interesting!

I'm binge watching your videos while preparing vegetables tonight, have you ever been to matlock bath on the train?

loved using the Javelins during the Olympics

@geoff you didn’t mention the saddle tank loco in the background

Congratulations, this is the first time the UK was right on the ‘high speed’ term. They love to call everything ‘high speed’ even tho in many cases it doesn’t even go above 200km/h - 125mph.

Is there a discount for those with Oyster ZIPs on the Oyster Fare?

Hi Geoff, what's the industrial locomotive behind you on the closing shot?

Never knew there was an Oyster fare between STP and Stratford Int, it's cheaper than I was expecting actually! I doubt I'd go to Stratford that way, but use the Javelins all the time to go to Kent

A challenge for next year; catch a 01:01 (am or pm) on the 01/01 from platform 1 (any station). Catch a 02:02 on the 02/02 from platform 2. and so on.....12 nice episodes.

It was mentioned that only in 2015 Oyster Cards were usable on the high speed line between St Pancras International and Stratford. I was a games maker at the Paralympics in 2012 and I was given a complementary Oyster card. I was allowed to use the card to travel from Stratford to St Pancras International, but perhaps this was something special because of the Olympics?

You took the 12:12 train at platform 12 and the video is 12 minutes 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂 woow spot on

The gaps are probably to allow for the Eurostar schedule?

I use that entrance all the time :)

They're back!

You could use Oyster for High Speed in 2012. I was working at the Olympics and I had a LOCOG issued Oyster card with a travelcard on it and I remember going to St Pancras, going up to a ticket office and asking if I could use it for High Speed and they said yes. So I did take it to Stratford.

well done guys keep up the good work

Nice 👍

Would love to use HS1 at some point (after this situation is over either between St Pancras or Stratford to Ashford in Kent

When I did this I went Thameslink to Blackfriars then district to Tower Hill then DLR to Canning Town then DLR to Stratford, took about 45 mins but was fun!

Oyster cards are not valid on South Eastern High speed trains that H.S 1 St pancas to Stratford International?

I wonder if you can use a freedom pass between King's cross and Stratford international?

Like watching you guys work together. Do a time rase from London liverpool street to cheshunt 1 of you use Greater Anglia and the other get the overground service to cheshunt.?

could you do London To Birmingham race via the west coast mainline or the chiltern main line or the London To Southend

Great Game (!!)

The teams back!

In 1983-84, fiancée, now wife, lived by Earls Court Station, I lived by East Ham. Faster on bicycle than District Line - and I stopped for pedestrians crossing roads. Exhilarating

You should do a video to show how tourists/airport workers can get to Heathrow on a 7 day zone 1-3 Travelcard by taking 1/2 buses from a zone 3 tube station.

I think an All The Stations suffixed 'International' is due. Ebbsfleet, Stratford,Ashford, Birmingham, Harwich is overdue.

All the twelves, all of them

If I were in a hurry and was going from Kinky Spankers to Stratford I wouldn't go by any of those routes!! I would get the H&C/Circle to Liverpool Street (positioning myself at the back of the train) and then head left and "downstairs" to the Central line to Stratford. It is seldom that you need to wait for more than two or three minutes for the underground at either Kinky Spankers or at Liverpool Street and I would expect it to take about 20 minutes. I've done the journey countless times and I find that at Liverpool Street the time it takes to get out of the underground station and cross the concourse to the TFL/Greater Anglia platforms (which are at the other end of the concourse) more than cancels out the slightly longer time it takes for The Central Line to get to Stratford stopping at Bethnal Green and Mile End. The HST is a great alternative but unfortunately it isn't covered by my Freedom Pass. I did spend a fiver to take it once, shortly after it opened. As a novelty it was great (yippee I've just been on The HST etc. etc. etc.) but financially it isn't a viable alternative for me.

Geoff mentions using his railcard to get discounts on the tube - which railcard is he referring to? I have read that neither the Network railcard nor the Two Together railcard can be added to an Oyster card for a discount.

Am I right thinking HS1 has ETCS? (the blue sign with the yellow triangle gives me ETCS vibes)