Fastest/shortest way around London, outside London

[Fermiboson]

What is the best way to complete a loop around London that stays entirely out of London, using primarily railway as much as possible (some local bus connections or walkable distances are allowed)?

By "out of London", there may be several alternative meanings:
(1) All stations and routes involved must be outside of the Greater London area.
(2) London Underground, Overground, other TfL services, National Rail commuter trains staying entirely within any of (1), (3) (4) or (5) and London National Rail terminals may not be used.
(3) The stations and routes used must be outside of the TfL zonal system (i.e. Oyster invalid).
(4) The stations and routes used must be outside of TfL pricing zone entirely (i.e. contactless invalid, with possible exception of the Liz Line b/t Reading and Slough).
(5) Stations and routes stay outside of the M25.

And by a loop, it means starting/stopping at any two stations which satisfy whichever single or combination of above definition of "out of London" you choose, as close as possible to the opposite of the Thames downstream of London. For example, Gravesend and Tilbury satisfy this definition under all five conditions. Purfleet-on-Thames, Essex and Dartfort, Kent satisfy (1), (2) (neither are served by any service which doesn't go on further in the Southend/Chatham/etc direction), but do not satisfy (3), (4) (Dartford is zone 8) or (5) (both conurbations are just inside of M25).

As an example of the kind of route I'm thinking of, here's an example using Gravesend as the starting point and Tilbury as the end point, using condition (1), which seems the least restrictive:

From Gravesend, we start with the 0518 Thameslink service to Strood (0529);
We take the 0533 Southeastern service to Paddock Wood (0620);
0628 Southeastern to Tonbridge (0636);
0716 Southern to Redhill (0748);
0812 GWR to Reading (0930);
0948 GWR to Oxford (1015);
1019 Chiltern to Princes Risborough (1057);
1132 Chiltern to Aylesbury (1148);
1218 Chiltern to Rickmansworth (1253); (note this step would disqualify the route under all other conditions)
1303 Met Line to Moor Park (1307);
1315 Met Line to Watford (1322);
Walk to Watford Junction (1352);

At this point, it becomes extremely difficult to get across and over MML and ECML. The best I could come up with is:

1445 WMR to St Albans Abbey (1502);
1509 Arriva H&E 724 Greenline bus to Hatfield (1548); (This is of course the most questionable step of this route. But otherwise we would have had to go via Leicester.)
1552 Great Northern to Cambridge (1653);
1746 Greater Anglia to Ipswich (1902);
1910 Greater Anglia to Colchester (1929);
1933 Greater Anglia to Shenfield (2007);
2019 Greater Anglia to Southend Victoria (2055);
Walk to Southend Central (2110);
2112 c2c to Tilbury Town (2144) hence completing our trip.

A slight modification to this route which makes it satisfy (5), but is also a bit questionable, is going instead from Aylesbury on the X4 stagecoach to Leighton Buzzard, up via Bletchley to Bedford, then down to St Albans.

What is the least possible amount of time you can spend on buses or walking doing this without it being unreasonable (i.e. going via Leicester or Birmingham)? Is it possible to do it without Shenfield?

 

[DelW]

For your route, you may need to clarify condition (3), as "outside the TFL zonal system" isn't the same as "Oyster invalid". The latter would rule out Tonbridge > Redhill > Guildford, as Oyster is valid to Gatwick. Avoiding that would push you down to St Leonards and the Coastway lines.

 

[telstarbox]

Bus X80 goes from Greenhithe station to Chafford Hundred station if that helps.

 

[Magdalia]

At this point, it becomes extremely difficult to get across and over MML and ECML.

Although Thameslink run to/from St Pancras on both these routes, the first railway line that links the two is Leicester-Peterborough.

But, if you can walk about 10 miles, then most of Bedford-Sandy can be done on the old trackbed.

One day you may again be able to get a train from Oxford to Cambridge!

 

[Fermiboson]

For your route, you may need to clarify condition (3), as "outside the TFL zonal system" isn't the same as "Oyster invalid". The latter would rule out Tonbridge > Redhill > Guildford, as Oyster is valid to Gatwick. Avoiding that would push you down to St Leonards and the Coastway lines.

Oyster isn't valid on either of those routes though, even if it crosses an Oyster-valid route.

 

[Fermiboson]

Although Thameslink run to/from St Pancras on both these routes, the first railway line that links the two is Leicester-Peterborough.

But, if you can walk about 10 miles, then most of Bedford-Sandy can be done on the old trackbed.

One day you may again be able to get a train from Oxford to Cambridge!

Of course. I'm looking more for the shortest possible points between each mainline (which is what I have tried to do here with Watford - Watford Jct, St Albans, or Aylesbury - Tring/Leighton Buzzard). Other points that could be utilised depending on restriction such as Hertford N/E, but that runs into the big gap between Stansted and Braintree so one has to go via Cambridge anyways. The St Albans - Hatfield bus seems sketchy to me because it is in many ways "intercity" (intertown?), even though the distance is borderline local. EWR makes the solution pretty obvious, yes.

 

[Fermiboson]

Bus X80 goes from Greenhithe station to Chafford Hundred station if that helps.

That is the "short way round" and kind of against the point of this (self-imposed) challenge.

 

[Fermiboson]

What is the best way to complete a loop around London that stays entirely out of London, using primarily railway as much as possible (some local bus connections or walkable distances are allowed)?

By "out of London", there may be several alternative meanings:
(1) All stations and routes involved must be outside of the Greater London area.
(2) London Underground, Overground, other TfL services, National Rail commuter trains staying entirely within any of (1), (3) (4) or (5) and London National Rail terminals may not be used.
(3) The stations and routes used must be outside of the TfL zonal system (i.e. Oyster invalid).
(4) The stations and routes used must be outside of TfL pricing zone entirely (i.e. contactless invalid, with possible exception of the Liz Line b/t Reading and Slough).
(5) Stations and routes stay outside of the M25.

And by a loop, it means starting/stopping at any two stations which satisfy whichever single or combination of above definition of "out of London" you choose, as close as possible to the opposite of the Thames downstream of London. For example, Gravesend and Tilbury satisfy this definition under all five conditions. Purfleet-on-Thames, Essex and Dartfort, Kent satisfy (1), (2) (neither are served by any service which doesn't go on further in the Southend/Chatham/etc direction), but do not satisfy (3), (4) (Dartford is zone 8) or (5) (both conurbations are just inside of M25).

As an example of the kind of route I'm thinking of, here's an example using Gravesend as the starting point and Tilbury as the end point, using condition (1), which seems the least restrictive:

From Gravesend, we start with the 0518 Thameslink service to Strood (0529);
We take the 0533 Southeastern service to Paddock Wood (0620);
0628 Southeastern to Tonbridge (0636);
0716 Southern to Redhill (0748);
0812 GWR to Reading (0930);
0948 GWR to Oxford (1015);
1019 Chiltern to Princes Risborough (1057);
1132 Chiltern to Aylesbury (1148);
1218 Chiltern to Rickmansworth (1253); (note this step would disqualify the route under all other conditions)
1303 Met Line to Moor Park (1307);
1315 Met Line to Watford (1322);
Walk to Watford Junction (1352);

At this point, it becomes extremely difficult to get across and over MML and ECML. The best I could come up with is:

1445 WMR to St Albans Abbey (1502);
1509 Arriva H&E 724 Greenline bus to Hatfield (1548); (This is of course the most questionable step of this route. But otherwise we would have had to go via Leicester.)
1552 Great Northern to Cambridge (1653);
1746 Greater Anglia to Ipswich (1902);
1910 Greater Anglia to Colchester (1929);
1933 Greater Anglia to Shenfield (2007);
2019 Greater Anglia to Southend Victoria (2055);
Walk to Southend Central (2110);
2112 c2c to Tilbury Town (2144) hence completing our trip.

A slight modification to this route which makes it satisfy (5), but is also a bit questionable, is going instead from Aylesbury on the X4 stagecoach to Leighton Buzzard, up via Bletchley to Bedford, then down to St Albans.

What is the least possible amount of time you can spend on buses or walking doing this without it being unreasonable (i.e. going via Leicester or Birmingham)? Is it possible to do it without Shenfield?

The other issue, of course, is cost. Trying to buy the tickets that will cover this entire route is undoubtedly a much more expensive endeavour than it really needs to be, considering the weird switching routes that need to be taken. Is there a way to plan this such as to minimise the cost?