Why the Tube Challenge might never be beaten again! 

Someone has pointed out that I failed to say that you have to do a run between Hammersmith on the Circle and H&C lines and Hammersmith on the District and Piccadilly lines. While I didn't feel it was necessary to include that because it's less than 100m, and only takes one minute to walk, I probably should have at least mentioned it. (5:17)

I believe the actual reason the record can't be broken is because GWR claim that even though there are two new stations since 2015, the time must still be less than the previous record...

The Record has been reset since Nine Elms and Battersea Power Station had opened since the last record was broken. Whoever does the tube challenge now and completed 272 stations will set a new record to beat.

This is the first time I've found a route for the challenge anywhere. Much appreciated

I'm freaked out because I actually do live in Aberdeen so now I feel like you addressed this video specifically at me 😂

This is extremely well edited. Thank you for an informative video!

for me the maddest thing would be to go through all that effort and then have to run from high barnet to cockfosters, that 2.3 mile stretch might end the whole challenge

We need the (unofficial) ‘private’ tube challenge, where you have to drive or take cabs or use any sort of private transport to visit each station (no public transport allowed)

It should be noted that this is not the only possible route for the Tube Challenge, nor even the most efficient one. This is the classic 'Labyrinth' route, which is documented in artwork at Tube stations. It uses features that no longer exist (the Woodford via Hainault service on the Central line, for one) and could do with some tweaks (such as running from Aldgate East to Aldgate instead of doubling back from Tower Hill and taking a local train instead of the District line from West Ham to Upminster). The amount of running required is potentially less than indicated in this otherwise clear and thorough presentation, since it is allowed to use any other form of public transport, and even if you have to wait a bit for a bus, it is still quicker e.g. from High Barnet to Cockfosters or Morden to Wimbledon, and good luck will bring along a bus on shorter running connections such as Ruislip to Ickenham.

I’ve actually completed the full Tube Challenge a few months ago (all 272), though I only aimed for completion and not to break the record. I started at South Harrow and ended at Heathrow T5, though it took me 18h+ and in spite of a line side fire at Southfields (almost) royally screwing me over.

It’s a solid route, but there’s a few clear timesavers - C2C between West Ham and Upminster, bus between Morden and Wimbledon, potentially manouvering via the overground in Walthamstow etc

I mean im not planning to do this anytime soon, but learning exits, entries, interchanges and carriage door exits are very handy

Time could easily be saved at Upminster, by going back to Fenchurch Street (For Tower Hill) on the much faster C2C train.

A few things regarding Kensington Olympia 1: You would have to change at Earl’s Court or run from there and to save time perhaps get an overground or southern train to Shepherd’s Bush instead

Just recently completed a tube challenge (my first with the NLE open) and its significantly harder (but it is good fun from a non world record standpoint)

GJ on the editing btw

Just seen this. Excellent video and extremely informative. I’m about to commence a project to visit every station on the TfL journey planner, including NR, Croydon tram, Overground and DLR, in alphabetical order. This is a post retirement/new Freedom pass project.

woah this is so informative and amazing

A former record holder Marc Gawley theorised that a possible lower limit on the 270 station network was 15 hours 18 minutes. But that was based on summing how much time you had to spend on each line and at each extremity of the network. When actually planning a route, it was discussed that the possible limit of the 270 station record was 15 hours 37 minutes, done using the same route as the current record but not getting held at Heathrow T4 for 8 minutes

Really good editing on the video, good job, and even though I would love to do the tube challenge I wouldn't wanna do it for the record but for the completion but i don't think i will do it all in one run, i would rather tick off multiple tube stations over multiple days because that one run would be exhausting, just like @fmp364 did

There are several different suggestions and plans for new extensions (and lines) for the Underground around. Are there any that would make the Tube Challenge easier?

After the hassle that the Record Holders had from Guinness about verification of that record (it took months), the people who were highly competitive and making multiple attempts a year (with the WR changing hands much more often than wikipedia lists) all stopped bothering as Guinness' new requirements were a final straw after a couple of years of being mucked about with what verification is needed. A 272 record has not been set (the bar is 16h15 to count) as the people who are capable of doing it got fed up of dealing with Guinness. There is a new batch doing it, and they are a bit too green at the moment (and have over 2 hours to shave off before Guinness would be interested) - respectable times, but not "I'm on my 55th attempt and have held the WR 5 times before" time that the sub 16-hour time is.

4:19 As a runner I'd prefer to run 0.7 miles from Stockwell to nine elms to save a change, but would have to see how long it takes to travel up to, and then back down from surface

Your route does need a lot of refinement - C2C from West Ham to Upminster (in the outbound direction) for example...

It has been reset but a very very slow time its up for grabs at 20h 04m but until you lot get anywhere near 16h 30m the tube king myself wont worry.

A few comments on the route. First of all a few of the runs arent necesary; edgware to stanmore and high barnet to oakwood can be done by bus. Mordern to wimbledon can be done by either a tram or a bus and olympia to sheperds bush can be done on london overground (if the wait for one is short). c2c from west ham to upminster saves a lot of time and finally I think that if you go on a bus from vauxhall to battersea or nine elms and then doing kennington, stockwell, brixton, stockwell, mordern that saves time over doubling back. Thanks for the video

Oddly enough, I've just changed my mind on a comment I made about a week ago. I said it was probably better to get off at Nine Elms and run to Vauxhall, but since then I'm starting to think it might actually be better to stay on the train.

i wonder if taking the overground now is more effective on parts instead of running or the tube (e.g. elizabeth in heathrow or national rail service from richmond to feltham(heathrow)

5:20 don't you have to run about 0.1 miles from Hammersmith: Hammersmith and city station (on Beadon Road) to Hammersmith: District & Piccadilly station (in the middle of the Hammersmith one way system)?

If everything ran to time and there was a train at every platform going the right way, what is the fastest *achievable* time? Can Crossrail be utilised for a different route?

Running from Morden to Wimbledon is brave. Used to take me 45 mins just to walk it

I think a run between Nine Elms and Vauxhall is probably better than doubling back from Battersea to Kennington. Also, I don't think running between Morden and Wimbledon is a good idea: instead get a bus from South Wimbledon to Wimbledon or a tram from Morden Road to Wimbledon. Edit: I've changed my mind about Nine Elms and Vauxhall. It may be better to double back after all.

That's a lot of running. If I may ask, what are the time limits for these runs?

There is one more change: Turnham Green to Acton Town, then the Piccadilly Line, otherwise you will miss out Chiswick Park.

if i do it on daylight savings and the time goes back an hour does that count?

I predict that this plan will fail at Mill Hill East. Edit : I've really been getting into this, and another thing I notice about this route -- perhaps unavoidable, but it bears emphasis -- is that the total amount of running involved barely sneaks in under the TEN MILE threshold. (9.7 to be exact.) Most of us, I think, would have utterly no chance of breaking the record in a day during which we also had to run ten miles. I remember running a 5K for Thanksgiving once and I don't remember my time but it was a healthy fraction of an hour -- something like 48 minutes, IIRC. And we'd be running *three* of those. So if we assume the same pace, which might even be generous, then we're already looking at almost 150 minutes, just taken up by running. Seems unlikely that the record could be broken, with that as one of the critical ingredients.

I had no idea how much running 🏃🏽‍♂️ is involved in the tube station record! What’s the total mileage you have to run on this attempt?

Would anyone had thought of changing at Rickmansworth for Watford instead of Moor Park (5:16 Chesham-5:24/5:27 Chalfont and Latimer-5:30/5:47 Amersham-5:58/6:08 Rickmansworth-6:16/6:20 Watford (if you went via Moor Park you'd arrive from Amersham at 6:02, hop the 6:15 to Watford arriving at 6:23, and then you'd have to leave at 6:28)), which would save you 8 minutes?

surely at west ham yiu should get the much faster c2c to upminster, where you then change for the district anyway to tick off the stations in between, right?

How many batteries and storage is twenty hours?

I think the route that Geoff did on his fourth attempt in May 2003 that started at Heathrow and ended at Amersham is the best one!

Right now it seems like the only way it will get faster is with the CBTC on the sub surface lines. Not to mention the expansions to me mean the record shouldn't be counted anymore.

Dont see mr "A-Trainspotter-From-Berkshire" gettnig chatty on this video, seems he has learnt a lesson or two.

Atleast if your making an outside change in London, you can get a lime bike or any rental bike to each station.

is the elizabeth line a tube line?

When you say Kensington, do you mean High Street Kensington or Kensington Olympia?

No DLR, tramlink, overground, cable car or purple line? And maybe add thameslink/ c2c for the real ultra ahaha and extra points for raw dogging (no earphones) I can imagine battersea park overground being a pinch.

Last November I went through all stations of the Athens metro it took 3:40 or 4:40 hours I think

What about the Elizabeth Line stations?

I did actually try and do this last October, while I did unfortunately fail, I did learn enough to know where I went wrong The first thing you should know is Piccadilly line trains at Rayners Lane aren't very frequent in the early morning. It's possible you will need to take a Metropolitan line train instead. If this is the case a slight modification to the route is necessary 1. Metropolitan to Preston Road 2. Metropolitan to Northwick Park 3. Run to Kent on 4. Bakerloo to Harrow and Wealdstone 5. Bakerloo to Elephant & Castle 6. Northern to Southwark 7. Jubilee to London Bridge 8. Jubilee to West Ham 9. District to Upminster 10. c2c to West Ham 11. District to Aldgate East 12. Run to Aldgate 13. Circle to Sloane Square 14. Circle to Victoria 15. Victoria to Brixton 16. Victoria to Vauxhall 17. 344 or 156 or 436 bus to BPS 18. Northern to Kennington 19. Northern to Morden 20. 93 bus to Wimbledon Then either District to West Brompton OR Earls Court. If West Brompton change to Overground to go to Kensington (Olympia) then take a District to High Street Kensington If Earls Court, District to Kensington (Olympia) then run to High Street Kensington. Then continue as follows 21. District/Circle to Edgware Road 22. Circle/Hammersmith & City to Hammersmith 23. Piccadilly to Uxbridge 24. Piccadilly/Metropolitan to Ickenham 25 Run to West Ruislip 26. Central to North Acton 27. Central to Ealing Broadway The Labryinth route then continues as in your video, the only difference being now is when you come into town on the Piccadilly line you simply change onto the District line at South Kensington without needing to do the Hammersmith loop You can also when you finish the top end of the Central Line get off at Leytonstone, run to Leytonstone High Road get the Overground to Walthamstow Queens Road then run to Walthamstow Central - which is what I did My other final point, you will notice I mentioned a c2c train at Point number 10. The reason is because using just the District line train for the journey to Upminster and back takes 80 minutes. The c2c is much faster as it only stops at one other station before West Ham One final point, there is a GWR for 272 stations set by Adham Fisher in about 20 hours or so. However it isn't the fastest time as a few other people have attempted it the current record is about 18 hours

I believe you missed one very important detail: Kensington Olympia needs to be done. As a result, you can only do it in a weekend or on an event day, unless you include some of the very infrequent weekday services.

I wonder if bike hires are allowed because that’ll make Morden to Wimbledon a lot less deadly

You’d save a bit of time getting off at Aldgate East and going to Aldgate on foot instead of doubling back from Tower Hill.

4:01 you'd almost definitely use a fast c2c service between Upminster and Fenchurch St instead of get the District back?

I'm planning to do this September 15th, comment below if you're interested.

Surely since the 2 new stations of Nine elms and battersea power station station.... the record resets, so someone must have it since 2015

Is this the Labyrinth route?

What about Kensington Olympia?

Good video! But, and I don't mean to be rude or anything, but the route you presented is kind of...really bad. It's very sub-optimal and will lose a lot of time. There is no way you'll even come close to beating the world record with this, and even if you're just trying to beat the tube challenge casually the route will almost certainly fail because of one very specific station. Here's a few improvements you can make: 2:54 Okay, if you're trying to go for WR, then you're correct here, Chesham is absolutely the most optimal start point. But if you're doing a casual run and just want to visit all the tube stations in 1 day then Heathrow Terminal 4 is a much better start point (ending the run at Chesham/Amersham instead) for reasons that will become clear later. Also, for a WR run you don't want to start on the 1st train of the day, you'd rather start on the 3rd or 4th one at like half six/7 o'clock instead. The reason for this is that the timings on the interchanges in this early section line up much better with a later start and you lose far less time waiting around for the next train when doing all of the double-backs on the Met. 3:11 Yes, doubling back at Moor Park is what you'd do on almost any tube challenge route, including the WR one. But if you really did start out on the first train of the day out of Chesham then it would be faster to get off at Rickmansworth (after doubling-back out of Amersham of course), then from there take a Metropolitan Line train direct to Watford over the North Curve. Yeah, you can literally use the Watford North Curve on this route lol. 3:15 Ok, so here you have a choice of either doing North Harrow->Rayners Lane then south on the Piccadilly, or North Harrow->West Harrow then east on the Met. It's debatable which is faster. You're route isn't wrong per-se, but it's not the only way. There are also buses from North Harrow to Rayners Lane, but running might be faster if you'd have to wait too long for a bus. 3:24 No, don't do this. It's probably faster to get off the Picadilly at North Ealing, run to West Acton, take the Central to Ealing Broadway, then head south on the District and do the Richmond leg before heading east out of there. You can pick up White City and the other stations when you do West Ruislip, which should be done directly coming out of or going into Epping, since this lets you do the whole of the Central Line without changing trains. 3:34 There are buses from West Ruislip to Ickenham, you don't have to run. There are also buses from West Ruislip direct to Uxbridge, but these are not very frequent and can't be relied on. 3:57 No, don't change to the District, change to a c2c train service which will take you directly to Upminster without stopping, then take the District on the way back. You're wasting so much time here! The c2c train is also a great opportunity for a bathroom break! 4:02 There's no need to double-back at Tower Hill here. Get off the Dirtrict one stop earlier at Aldgate East, then walk to Aldgate. Those two stations are literally right next to each other, and you'll be picking up Tower Hill on the Circle Line anyway. 4:14 WHAT THE HECK IS THAT UNGODLY ABOMINATION LMAO. Once you've reached Brixton, head back to Vauxhall-not Stockwell-then from there take a bus (or run) to Battersea Power Station. Then do Kennington->Morden. All of that back-and-forth on the Northern Line is just wasting time with how often you have to wait around. 4:27 You don't need to run all the way to Wimbledon. Instead you can run to Morden Road tram stop, then take a tram from there to Wimbledon. Alternatively, you could run to South Merton station, then take a Thameslink train to Wimbledon instead. But that's a riskier gambit as the Thameslink service is less frequent. It can help to do this section in reverse (i.e. start by heading INTO Wimbledon on the District), since then you can choose your method of reaching Morden depending on what's available to you then and there. 4:32 Okay, this is the big one, this is where your route completely breaks apart. Firstly, the station isn't called Kensington, it's called Kensington (Olympia), or just Olympia for short. Secondly, you can't go direct from Wimbledon to Olympia, you'd have to change at Earl's Court. And finally, you (probably) can't even do it from Earl's Court either. You see, Olympia is weird and only gets a few trains early in the morning (at around 6 to 7 am), then a few in the late evening (at around 7 to 8 pm). So if you don't get the timings down exactly, you're pretty much screwed. I'm not 100% sure, but just going off a hunch I think your route would get into Earl's Court at around maybe 4 to 5 pm, so you'd have to be waiting for an Olympia train for literal hours. This is why the casual route should start at Heathrow, since you can easily get Olympia done at around 6 in the morning and not have to worry about it. Olympia DOES get an all-day service during the weekends, but there's always some part of the tube closed on weekends for engineering work so you can never do a tube challenge then. Yay. 4:34 The only reason your heading to Shepherd's Bush now is because of the weird way you did White City earlier. A more optimized route would have you run from Olympia to West Kensington instead. You could also take an Overground train from Olympia to Shepherd's Bush instead of running if you are doing it that way round. 4:43 You could also take the Central Line back to Woodford from Snaresbrook, then a bus from there to Walthamstow. Though if you're in very good shape running from Snaresbrook may be faster. 4:55 Once again, there's no need to run this bit. There are frequent buses from Edgware to Canons Park. 5:07 It's possible to run from Mill Hill East to West Finchley instead of doubling-back at Finchley Central. Though this may not save any time even if you're in good shape. 5:09 Don't run this bit lol, it's way too long. Take a bus from High Barnet towards Oakwood, then get off at Cockfosters Road and run from there towards Cockfosters tube station. There are also buses from High Barnet directly to Cockfosters tube, but they take a really long windy route through all the suburbs and are probably slower overall. 5:21 Instead of going back to Turnham Green, you can get off at Gunnersbury and run to Chiswick Park from there. That might save you some time. You'd also do Turnham Green->Acton Town on the District, then change to the Piccadilly there to do the last leg down to Heathrow. Otherwise you end up missing Chiswick Park completely. So there you go. Most of your mistakes were just minor time losses here and there, but then Olympia comes along and ruins everything. Olympia is the bane of any tube challenge runner's existence because of how limited its weekday service is-you need to be in exactly the right place at exactly the right time or it's all over. It's too bad that weekend engineering works make doing any kind run on Saturday/Sunday impossible.

is there a chellenge for every railway station on tfl

here before dirk dastardly has 1 million subs😱😱

You've left out Kensington Olympia.

Run from Snaresbrook to Walthamstow Central?!?!

Would you know how much you put on your Oyster card if you consider doing this

Tube Challenge

One of the main problems today is that you're required to film the entire day, whereas previously you just needed photos or even just a log book. Terrible how nobody trusts anyone these days. In the 1960s and 1970s they just took your word for it and assumed you were truthful.

Why does this map look vaguely like the US? :P

2 mile runs are crazy, just take the bus

Has anyone tried doing this with a Brompton in tow? \m/

errrr, Olympia?

Metro Speedrun xD

OH I SEE, It's an " anti strike " video with bs wrapped