Tube Challenge questions

[Muzer]

Hi all,

A friend and I from Southampton are planning on attempting the Tube Challenge some time during next week. We're not trying to break any records, but just to complete it and have a bit of fun in the process. We were planning on going up the previous day, staying somewhere on the North West end of the Met, then starting bright and early on the next day, and hopefully manage to get back home on the last train of the day. He will actually be staying somewhere else during this week (High Wycombe) so he has to be able to get back earlier than I will - I'm not sure whether or not it's possible that he could go back to Southampton. We're going to do detailed planning later (we already had a failed planning session of trying to do it all in a day from Waterloo!), but we have a few questions first:

* When exactly are the trains TO Kensington (Olympia)? We thought there weren't any, because you couldn't seem to download a timetable (only trains FROM Kensington (Olympia) of which there are a few), but on the journey planner we chanced upon one.

* Is there a cheap place to stay in Amersham? We're students so we don't have an amazing budget. We found an affordable Travelodge (IIRC) in Watford, but Amersham (or possibly Chesham?) would be vastly superior.

* What should we do for ticketing? Our original plan (when we were trying to do it all in one day) was to have an off-peak zone 1-9 travelcard (purchased through National Rail and collected from our respective local ticket machines), as well as the anytime Southampton to Zone 1-6 travelcard. Obviously this would no longer be appropriate starting in Zone 7 (at least), so what would you suggest?

 

[yorkie]

1) There have been some threads on this recently. There are helpful knowledgeable people who work for LU who can assist (and I would take what they say as more likely to be correct than non-staff). If you can say what days you are considering then they can look at the timetables for you. It depends on events at Olympia.

2) Probably not! I know of a forum member from Chesham, I'll ask if he can help

3) Depending on your plan, possibly use Oyster PAYG for the peak part, but you will need to ensure the maximum journey times are not exceeded, and generally speaking Oyster PAYG is not suitable for Challenges or 'line bashing' purposes.

You can't purchase from the National Rail website, but most booking engines will issue Travelcards including Zones 7-9. Buy from a station such as, for example, Bushey. The "destination" will be Zones 1-6 but the route will be "AAA: Zones 7-9" (AAA stands for "also available at").

 

[Palkanetoijala]

Hi

it is actually possible to do it in a day and get last train back to Southampton
If I can do it to Poole then you can also regarding Ken o unless it is an event day in August next one you will have to rely on evening trains if starting up nw corner if not do my own kind of starting strategy

If you need help feel free to pm me

 

[Muzer]

Sorry, to clarify, did you mean you started in Poole on that morning, or just that you managed to get back there on the same day? If the latter, that's what we're aiming for; if the former, wow, impressive! I believe the time of the first train from High Wycombe is, I believe, the limiting factor for starting early for us. I'd be fine from Southampton

yorkie: Thanks for the responses. I found the Kenny O services on the WTT. Useful things, FOI requests



Yeah, I'd figured out the thing about the AAA travelcards - they seem to be the same price as the LUL-purchased ones, with the additional advantage of less hassle

 

[londonboi198o5]

If your doing it during a week day and starting before 0930 then it would be a peak time travel card if after 0930am then a off peak travel card

If your gonna be racing around the network then avoid oyster as you need to ensure you touch in touch out before the max journey time exceeds so I would stick to good old paper tickets.

Last train midweek from waterloo to southampton central departs at 0105am if that helps

As for olympia trains I will check that for you tomo. You can get the london overground from west brompton to olympia if that helps I will check timetable for the district from earls curt tomo my friend works in the control room at earls court will call her from work tomo

 

[Palkanetoijala]

Hi

it is actually possible to do it in a day and get last train back to Southampton
If I can do it to Poole then you can also regarding Ken o unless it is an event day in August next one you will have to rely on evening trains if starting up nw corner if not do my own kind of starting strategy

If you need help feel free to pm me

to clarify what i meant i used to get 03:30 coach into heathrow t5 start the challenge and manage to get back on the 01:05 coach to poole same day extremely easily even at slow pace than the record time

if u starting up at chesham or amersham with a stay up near the start you should easily make a train towards southampton i think or even back towards where u started via a bus from heathrow to harrow on hill last train from ricky towards aylesbury direction is just after midnight

olympia trains are 5 in morning 05:50 til 06:32 from ken o 2 evening trains going out and 2 in of course you can cheat and not take district in of course.

 

[Buttsy]

If you start from Chesham and get the first train to Watford and consider ending at Amersham on a fast from Baker Street, you may find that that works better for you as the Met seems to run much later than the other lines. Handier if you've a car in the area admittedly.

I planned a go at this once and found this quite useful: http://www.tfl.gov.uk/gettingaround/1129.aspx
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
Also remember that stations such as Ruislip and West Ruislip, Stanmore & Edgware are only a short walk away from each other and so can save you time by not having to go into central London and out again or jump on a C2C at Upminster to get you back in to central London quicker. I understand that the official 'rules' allow you to use public transport (not taxis) and walking bewteen station, but you must arrive or leave by tube train.

 

[Dstock7080]

The M-F scheduled trains to Olympia are:

19:41 HSt KEN pfm.3
19:45 ECt pfm.4
19:48 Olympia.

21:21 HSt KEN pfm.3
21:25 ECt pfm.4
21:28 Olympia.

There will be no trains to/from Olympia 15-20 June inclusive.

 

[Muzer]

to clarify what i meant i used to get 03:30 coach into heathrow t5 start the challenge and manage to get back on the 01:05 coach to poole same day extremely easily even at slow pace than the record time

I had completely not considered coaches. I'm too rail-obsessed . I don't think this would work for my friend from High Wycombe, though.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

Also remember that stations such as Ruislip and West Ruislip, Stanmore & Edgware are only a short walk away from each other and so can save you time by not having to go into central London and out again or jump on a C2C at Upminster to get you back in to central London quicker. I understand that the official 'rules' allow you to use public transport (not taxis) and walking bewteen station, but you must arrive or leave by tube train.

Thanks - we already have a significant number of these in our preliminary route

We went through a route in a couple of hours yesterday, and we plan to add timings to it on Friday, to work out when we need to break off for Kenny O, whether we'll have time to do Cannon Street, etc.

We have one remaining thing that really doesn't look optimal to me - when doing the subsurface stations on the bank of the Thames, we have to break off at Embankment and go to Charing Cross and back. We couldn't find an optimisation that "looked" nicer than that given the rest of our route. What would be the best way to do this? Walk to Charing Cross and back on the tube; tube to Charing Cross and walk back, or tube both ways? Which lines are a better bet in each case, considering we're coming from subsurface and going to subsurface?



And thanks for the Olympia times, very helpful as it widens our window somewhat for being in that area.

 

[Palkanetoijala]

given the layout of the station if changing from embankment to charing cross i always tube it there and run back seeing as its downhill on way back that probably be quicker than tube there and tube back.

never heard of route that had that double back in it though so extremely interesting.

 

[Muzer]

Hmm. Perhaps we've gone for a really bad route, I don't know. We reverse at Goodge Street on the Northern and Regent's Park on the Bakerloo much earlier in the day. We do Oxford Circus and Tottenham Court Road on the Central, and Piccadilly Circus on the Piccadilly. We also do Waterloo on the Jubilee and then go to Elephant & Castle on the Bakerloo, then go to Borough and double back to Morden. This leaves Charing Cross, which we decided to do later when on the District Line - so we get off at Embankment, go to Charing Cross, go back, then continue from where we left off at Embankment.

I'm still not sure if our chosen route is even possible - I still have to finish timing it. If it's not, we'll have to come up with a new one again over the weekend...

 

[tractakid]

Glad to hear you are attempting the Tube Challenge.

I live in Milton Keynes and have benefitted from hugely generous parents, dropping me off and picking me up. One one occasion, however, I did get the train back after completing the whole thing in 18:10:00. I had Mr Palkanetoijala helping me that day!

Feel free to post on tubeforum.co.uk/forum/, people on there are familiar with the challenge and usually willing to offer newcomers to the challenge advice.

I am organising a day in August (on one of the next set of dates where there are trains to Olympia all day), looking likely to be on the 13th or 14th, if you are interested.

Feel free to PM me too, I am very willing to answer any questions you may have.

 

[Muzer]

Gah, I'm now pulling my hair out - this route is pretty much not going to work. Damn Terminal 4 services finishing too early.

It doesn't help that we're starting in Watford which has a slightly awkward morning service on the Met. Perhaps we're going about it the wrong way - I wonder if we'd be better off trying to start on the Bakerloo?

There must also be some other optimisations that we're missing. We're going to have another look over it soon.

 

[tractakid]

Gah, I'm now pulling my hair out - this route is pretty much not going to work. Damn Terminal 4 services finishing too early.

It doesn't help that we're starting in Watford which has a slightly awkward morning service on the Met. Perhaps we're going about it the wrong way - I wonder if we'd be better off trying to start on the Bakerloo?

There must also be some other optimisations that we're missing. We're going to have another look over it soon.

You should probably try to start at Chesham. It's a huge double back to take on if you don't start there, which is all wasted time.

If you can get to Rickmansworth, there is a 05:30 departure to Chesham, which is a good train to start on once you leave Chesham again.

 

[Muzer]

You should probably try to start at Chesham. It's a huge double back to take on if you don't start there, which is all wasted time.

If you can get to Rickmansworth, there is a 05:30 departure to Chesham, which is a good train to start on once you leave Chesham again.

A taxi to Chesham might be a very good idea (we're already booked in the Travelodge at Watford). I wonder how expensive they'd be at 4 or 5 in the morning, though

I've still not been confirmed by an admin on the forum. After the captcha, email validation and two anti-spam questions, do they really need manual validation as well? It's just stupid and overkill IMHO. If they're still getting spam, they need a better captcha.

 

[tractakid]

When did you sign up? The most regularly visiting admin is probably sleeping right now.

 

[Muzer]

Ah, fair enough. It was a few hours ago, probably around 10pm.