47days - A project to visit every UK railway station in as short a time as possible

flitwickbeds · 25 Sep 2019

Has anyone else seen this?

www.trainclaimer.com/47days

What is 47days?
A project to visit every UK railway station (except Northern Ireland) in as little time as possible.

What were the rules when planning the route?
We worked on three main rules:

• There should be a minimum of 8 hours between finishing for one night and starting the next morning, except where this is impractical
• There must be at least 5 minutes connection time at stations, except at the ends of the line where the station only has one platform (and therefore the return trip would be on the same train anyway). At bigger stations, a 10 minute minimum connection time is generally used.
• Most of the trip is taken on the train network, but using ferries/buses/taxis is allowed where necessary. We did this a few times either out of necessity (ie to get to the Isle of Wight) or out of practicality (ie getting a taxi between the ends of the lines around Cardiff to speed up the time taken)

We also tried to build in some flexibility around the middle of each day to allow for late-running trains and to catch up on ourselves if necessary, or to have lunch if not!

Would it really take only 47 days?
Almost certainly not. On Day 1 we would have failed mid-afternoon when a train from Aberdeen was cancelled, meaning we wouldn't have made our connection to a station which is only served once a day. If we were doing this for real, we would have to have re-planned potentially our entire route to visit this difficult station on another day - thus extending the time taken.

It's a plan to visit every UK NR station (including the Isle of Wight) in as short a time as possible - 47 days is the plan - travelling over 12,500 miles on the network with occasional use of taxis and ferries.

Today is Day 10 and apart from a cancelled train on Day 1 between Aberdeen and Montrose meaning a missed connection to the twice-a-day Balmossie/Barry Links service, everything else has worked smoothly.

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Kite159 · 25 Sep 2019

Is it visit as in boarding or alighting or are they counting a visit as merely stopping (or the ability to stop for request stops) as a visit?

Either way good luck to them, although if they are doing it solidly they will get tired after the second week.

How much would this cost?
Based on current (2019) prices, and assuming we could do it in 48 days or less, it would cost £2,914 (3x 14-day and 1x 7-day All Line Rover tickets).

Excluding accommodation which could easily double that cost.

15 minutes taxi for Stratford to Marylebone seems highly doubtful

Far north 37 · 25 Sep 2019

Kite159 said:
Is it visit as in boarding or alighting or are they counting a visit as merely stopping (or the ability to stop for request stops) as a visit?

Either way good luck to them, although if they are doing it solidly they will get tired after the second week.

Excluding accommodation which could easily double that cost.

15 minutes taxi for Stratford to Marylebone seems highly doubtful

The schedule shows its a taxi from willesden junction to marylebone allowing 15 mins which from travelling that route daily i would say is impossible could take at least 40 minutes that time of day.
Surely taking the bakerloo line would be a far better option.

etr221 · 25 Sep 2019

My interpretation is that it is a National Rail (without going though it in detail, he doesn't seem to be including non-NR stations) equivalent to the Tube Challenge - to be on a train that stops/starts at each station (so he could step on to the platform, as a minimum. And at the moment he is - having planned out a route - giving it a test run by looking at Real Time Trains to see how it hangs together (and so far, one cancellation would have given him a headache, meaning missing a station with only one train per day). maybe doing it 'for real' next year

My own thought is that doing it theoretically would be an interesting planning challenge - which I would do using the Guinness World Record Tube Challenge rules, so no taxis, but yes to buses and ferries, and non-NR trains, and without such luxuries as overnight stays or meal breaks, to actually see what the record might be, and then trying it using RTT might be interesting. But doing it for real would too risky, time consuming, tiring, stressful and expensive to attempt (and not sufficiently interesting to outweigh these, either to me or others)

And I do wonder what such a record time might be - my guesstimate has long been about six weeks, wonder what difference might come out of changing ground rules, I suspect not that much.

Kite159 · 26 Sep 2019

Far north 37 said:
The schedule shows its a taxi from willesden junction to marylebone allowing 15 mins which from travelling that route daily i would say is impossible could take at least 40 minutes that time of day.
Surely taking the bakerloo line would be a far better option.

My bad, I say Stratford but didn't click further to see it was Willesden Junction. Would make sense jumping on a Bakerloo to Marylebone, but that takes ~ 18 minutes.

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I will take my hat off for the detailed planning, it must have taken a while to work it out based on some fixed links [i.e. those stations served once/twice a day]

Far north 37 · 26 Sep 2019

Kite159 said:
My bad, I say Stratford but didn't click further to see it was Willesden Junction. Would make sense jumping on a Bakerloo to Marylebone, but that takes ~ 18 minutes.

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I will take my hat off for the detailed planning, it must have taken a while to work it out based on some fixed links [i.e. those stations served once/twice a day]

I thought the same till i had a closer look i would take the bakerloo myself not going to hit any traffic if its running as normal be quicker than by road for sure.

mervyn72 · 26 Sep 2019

I wonder how many days it would take to board/alight at every station based upon the same rules?

Gathursty · 26 Sep 2019

This person must have sailed past me twice today as he cleared Heysham Branch. Yesterday I saw the Nuclear Waste train pass by too.

I know I'm not as interesting as Geoff Marshall but I make up for that in sleeping in peculiar places and being in exceptionally busy places usually at the crack of dawn or in the middle of the night whilst I explore the network.

Kite159 · 26 Sep 2019

Gathursty said:
This person must have sailed past me twice today as he cleared Heysham Branch. Yesterday I saw the Nuclear Waste train pass by too.

I know I'm not as interesting as Geoff Marshall but I make up for that in sleeping in peculiar places and being in exceptionally busy places usually at the crack of dawn or in the middle of the night whilst I explore the network.

I think at the moment it's theoretical.

I wonder how many days it would take to board/alight at every station based upon the same rules?

Probably a good 6 months going at it every day, and making use of taxis/buses/walking to board or alight, add an extra couple months for boarding & alighting. Although they would burn out quite fast.

E759 · 27 Sep 2019

Gathursty said:
..I know I'm not as interesting as Geoff Marshall but I make up for that in sleeping in peculiar places and being in exceptionally busy places usually at the crack of dawn or in the middle of the night whilst I explore the network.

Everyone has their own way of exploring the country by public transport and to be honest staying in a travel lodge at night is nowhere near as interesting as rough sleeping in shopping malls!

So respect to you Gathursty!

Bertie the bus · 27 Sep 2019

This seems like a fairly interesting theoretical exercise but too time consuming to bother trying to beat 47 days. I remember Modern Railways ran a competition a few years ago along the lines of the quickest way to travel by train to all of the county towns, or the nearest station if it didn't have one, which I was going to enter but decided it would get too involved and time consuming to bother with.

bhb · 27 Sep 2019

I think they also did a similar thing, but visiting every cathedral in the country.

PeterY · 27 Sep 2019

Interesting plan, that's all I can say and good luck to whoever he is and if he/she succeeds or even attempts it. 47 days continuous rail travel is not for me, however much I love railways .

It's taken me 61 years to cover about 95% of the UK. I may well finish it next year in my 62nd year .

FrodshamJnct · 27 Sep 2019

mervyn72 said:
I wonder how many days it would take to board/alight at every station based upon the same rules?

I think Geoff Marshall said it would realistically take 9 months plus to do that, which is why he didn’t.

flitwickbeds · 27 Sep 2019

Tom Maddox said:
I think Geoff Marshall said it would realistically take 9 months plus to do that, which is why he didn’t.

Well you'd be stuck for a week in Tees-side Airport (1 train a week on sundays), Reddish South (1 train a week on Saturdays), and Bordesley (ditto). So 3 weeks for just those three stations.

The there are stations like Barry Links which have 2 trains a day, but next to other stations on the same line which are also only served by the same trains. So a day in Balmossie, a day in Barry Links, etc.

It'd also probably take you at least a week just to do Nottingham to Skegness, the Scottish Highlands line, and the Welsh rural lines.

AndyHudds · 27 Sep 2019

Gathursty said:
This person must have sailed past me twice today as he cleared Heysham Branch. Yesterday I saw the Nuclear Waste train pass by too.

I know I'm not as interesting as Geoff Marshall but I make up for that in sleeping in peculiar places and being in exceptionally busy places usually at the crack of dawn or in the middle of the night whilst I explore the network.

Don't take it personally, the Geoff Marshall comment, on reflection he is able to make these things interesting and produce good videos as he is from that type of background and has resources at his disposal. All the best with your jaunt mate.

Gathursty · 29 Sep 2019

AndyHudds said:
Don't take it personally, the Geoff Marshall comment, on reflection he is able to make these things interesting and produce good videos as he is from that type of background and has resources at his disposal. All the best with your jaunt mate.

My phone forgot to include my tongue in cheek emoji. I visited every station in the UK 3 years before Geoff and Vicki but it was very much a personal project however I did frequently post on here my adventures.

All respect to everyone who wishes to video themselves on top of travelling. I'm fairly camera shy haha.

I will need to make occasional trips as and when new developments take place (Crossrail, Robroyston etc.. ) but I am already behind with Meriden Water near Tottenham so will have to have an adventure in London soon.

47days - A project to visit every UK railway station in as short a time as possible

flitwickbeds

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etr221

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