Tube Challenge

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The Tube Challenge is the accepted name for the Guinness World Record ('GWR') for visiting all London Underground stations in the shortest time possible, of which there are currently 270. Partakers who attempt to break the record are known as Tube Challengers.

GWR lay down numerous rules and conditions under which challenges must be completed in order to be eligible for consideration as a Guinness World Record. The main stipulation is that all stations must be visited by either arriving or leaving on a London Underground train (or a National Rail train which runs on the same tracks as the Underground, e.g. on the Richmond branch of the District Line) in normal public service ^[1]. It is permitted to travel between stations by other means (e.g. between two termini), but this can only be done on foot or by using public transport.

Generally, the length of time required to visit all stations on the network is around 17–18 hours, only slightly shorter than the daily operating hours of the system. Completing the challenge in a single day is therefore difficult, particularly considering some stations are not open at all times of day. Depending on the route used, there can be a fine margin between completing the challenge in a record time and failing to visit all stations (this contrasts with the New York Subway Challenge, where the Subway operates through the night, but the larger network takes around 24–25 hours to visit).

The current official Guinness World Record stands at 17 hours, 12 minutes and 43 seconds, as set on 24 July 2008 by Steven Karahan and Andi James.

Contents 1 The history of the challenge 1.1 The 1960s 1.2 1979 to 2000: The Bob Robinson era 1.3 2000 onwards 2 Route planning 3 Network changes 4 Tube Challenge in the media 5 Alternative challenges 6 References 7 External links

[edit] The history of the challenge

The first recorded instance of a World Record being set for the completion of the challenge dates back to 13 June 1959 when R.J. Lewis and D.R. Longley attempted the challenge. Unfortunately, no further information is available on this particular challenge, however, this attempt established what has become a fairly well-known and (particularly within circles of enthusiasts) well-respected challenge. Since then, there have been numerous recorded attempts at the record - a few successful, most unsuccessful - and doubtless many more unrecorded attempts. The list that follows is by no means exhaustive, but merely a record of those who have made notable efforts or who have even held the record themselves.

[edit] The 1960s

The first documented record was set on 3 December 1960 by K. and J. Branch, who completed the network of then 277 stations in a time of 20 hours and 27 minutes. Marshall^[2] has collated details of the progress of the record in the 1960s which, alongside the historical material at www.tubechallenge.com,^[3] form the source material for the following table.

Date	Record Holder(s)	Stations	Time (hr:min)
3 December 1960	K.Branch and J.Branch	277	20:27
1 June 1965	J.P.Chambers and M.P. Atkinson	273	18:45
12 July 1965	A.J.T Holmes and C.J.N Holmes	273	18:32
7 September 1965	Alan Jenkins	273	16:56

The regulations of the time defined "Class A" attempts, which allowed only public transport to be used and were most similar to the modern rules, and "Class B" attempts, where private transport was permitted between stations. Some recorded times which appear to be "Class B", together with incomplete attempts, have been omitted from the table. The network in 1960 was considerably different from the network that exists today - for more information, see "Network Changes".

[edit] 1979 to 2000: The Bob Robinson era

The most prolific Tube Challenger of all, Bob Robinson, made 51 attempts between 1979 and 2000, completing 46 and setting the record time on 8 occasions according to Geoff Marshall's website. He held (with Tom McLaughlin) the pre-Jubilee line extension record of 18 hours 18 minutes 9 seconds for 270 stations.

Date	Record Holder(s)	Stations	Time
18 October 1979	Peter Altman, Marilyn Nathan and Ralph Cramer	278	19:25
25 March 1980	Robert Robinson, David Herring, Paul Eddington & Finn Gleeson	278	18:22
20 May 1980	John Trafford and Stephen Trafford	278	18:03
23 June 1981	Robert Robinson and Finn Gleeson	278	17:57
16 September 1981	Jon Brown, Robert Anderson and Alex Chin-A-Fat	278	17:48
21 October 1981	Nicholas Mitchell and Ian Robins	278	17:42:38
3 December 1981	Colm Mulvaney and Seth Vlardis	277	17:37
14 April 1986	Robert Robinson, Peter Robinson, John Garde and Timothy Clark	272	19:51:14
30 July 1986	Robert Robinson, Peter Robinson, Timothy Robinson, Timothy Clark and Richard Harris	273	18:41:41
4 October 1994	Robert Robinson and Tom McLaughlin	270	18:18:09

[edit] 2000 onwards

The opening of the Jubilee Line Extension in 1999 was a significant addition to the network and may be seen as heralding the beginning of the modern era of Tube Challenging. Nonetheless, it was the doyen of the previous era, Bob Robinson, who led the team that set the first post-JLE record in March 2000. Subsequently, in April 2002, Jack Welsby started at Heathrow and finished at Amersham setting a new world record of 19 hours, 18 minutes and 45 seconds. Jack had two other people with him at various points of the day, but only he did every single station. The appearance of two television programmes featuring (unsuccessful) record attempts by Geoff Marshall raised the profile of Tube Challenging, as did the rise of the internet, which fostered regular communication amongst the community of Tube Challengers.

Date	Record Holder(s)	Start	Finish	Stations	Time
16 March 2000	Robert Robinson, Chris Loxton, Chris Stubley, Chris Whiteoak, Olly Rich and Adam Waller	Temple[4]	Amersham	272*	19:57:47
3 April 2002	Jack Welsby	Heathrow T4	Amersham	275	19:18:45
20 February 2004	Steven Karahan	Amersham	Upminster	275	18:47:57
5 May 2004	Geoff Marshall and Neil Blake	Amersham	Upminster	275	18:35:43
30 May 2006	Steve Wilson and Samantha Cawley	Amersham	Upminster	275	18:35:38
26 September 2006	Håkan Wolgé and Lars Andersson	Amersham	Heathrow T123	275	18:25:03
25 July 2007	Antony, Jamie, Kevin & Phillip Brown and John Stark	Amersham	Heathrow T123	274	18:20:26
10 April 2008	Steven Karahan	Amersham	Heathrow T5	269	18:18:42
18 April 2008	Rachel Brabbins, John Stark, Antony, Jamie, Kevin, Phillip and Ryan Brown	Amersham	Heathrow T5	269	17:56:28
8 July 2008	Martin Hazel, Sara Wearn and Andi James	Amersham	Heathrow T5	269	17:56:11
24 July 2008	Steven Karahan and Andi James	Amersham	Heathrow T5	269	17:12:43

Time in bold represents current official Guinness World Record.
* The number of stations visited is uncertain

[edit] Route planning

Mathematically, the Tube Challenge is closely analogous to the Travelling Salesman Problem. The successful route of former world record holder Håkan Wolgé was designed by computer, using a genetic algorithm^[5]. It is necessary to account not just for the distances or times between stations, but also for the timetable - especially when planning routes over the less frequently served parts of the network. Comparison of recent routes with earlier ones suggests that the dramatic improvement in the record time between 2000-2008 may largely be due to the use of increasingly better routes.

There are a number of commonly used bus, tram, rail or pedestrian connections between termini or near-termini of lines, such as: Wimbledon - Morden (or South Wimbledon); Cockfosters - High Barnet; Edgware - Stanmore (or Canons Park); West Ruislip - Ickenham; and Richmond - Hatton Cross. These may be traversed in either direction, depending on the specifics of the route.

Some connections are often made on foot between geographically proximal points on different lines, or different branches of the same line, such as North Ealing - West Acton (0.5 miles); North Harrow - West Harrow (0.6 miles); and Chiswick Park - Gunnersbury (0.5 miles).

[edit] Network changes

The London Underground network of today is considerably changed from that Lewis & Longley traversed in 1959. The most significant changes were the openings of the Victoria Line (1968-1972) and the Jubilee Line Extension (1999),^[6] together with the loss of the East London Line from the network in 2007.

Year	Date	Line	Stations Lost	Stations Gained	Notes	Network Size
1959	25 October	Metropolitan Line	White City	-	-	277 Stations
1961	10 September	Metropolitan Line	Great Missenden Wendover Stoke Mandeville Aylesbury	-	-	273 Stations
1968	1 September	Victoria Line	-	Seven Sisters Tottenham Hale Blackhorse Road Walthamstow Central	-	277 Stations
	-	District/Central Lines	-	-	Ealing Broadway consolidated	276 Stations
1971	23 July	Victoria Line	-	Vauxhall Brixton	-	278 Stations
1972	14 September	Victoria Line	-	Pimlico	-	279 Stations
1973	16 June	Northern Line	Strand	-	Consolidated with Charing Cross (Bakerloo)	278 Stations
1975	19 July	Piccadilly Line	-	Hatton Cross	-	279 Stations
	4 October	Northern Line	Essex Road Drayton Park	-	Northern City Line transferred to British Rail	277 Stations
1977	16 December	Piccadilly Line	-	Heathrow Terminals 1,2,3	-	278 Stations
1981	31 October	Central Line	Blake Hall	-	-	277 Stations
1982	24 September	Bakerloo Line	Wembley Central North Wembley South Kenton Kenton Harrow & Wealdstone Headstone Lane Hatch End Carpenders Park Bushey Watford High Street Watford Junction	-	-	266 Stations
1984	4 June	Bakerloo Line	-	Wembley Central North Wembley South Kenton Kenton Harrow & Wealdstone	-	271 Stations
1986	12 April	Piccadilly Line	-	Heathrow Terminal 4	-	272 Stations
1994	30 September	Central Line	North Weald Ongar	-	Epping-Ongar section of Central Line closed.	269 Stations
		Piccadilly Line	Aldwych	-	Aldwych branch of Piccadilly Line closed.
1995	23 March	East London Line	Shoreditch Shadwell Wapping Rotherhithe Surrey Quays New Cross New Cross Gate	-	East London Line closed for repairs[7]	262 stations
1998	23 March	East London Line	-	Shadwell Wapping Rotherhithe Surrey Quays New Cross New Cross Gate	East London Line reopened	268 stations
	27 September		-	Shoreditch		269 stations
1999	14 May	Jubilee Line	-	Canning Town North Greenwich	Jubilee Line extension	271 Stations
	18 August	East London/Jubilee Lines	-	Canada Water		272 Stations
	17 September	Jubilee Line	-	Bermondsey Canary Wharf		274 Stations
	20 November	Jubilee Line	-	Southwark		275 Stations
2006	9 June	East London Line	Shoreditch	-	Highly disputed Guinness Rule that replacement bus must be used	275 Stations
2007	23 December	East London Line	Shadwell Wapping Rotherhithe Surrey Quays New Cross New Cross Gate	-	East London Line closed for engineering work prior to its incorporation in London Overground; permanently removed from the London Underground network.	268 Stations
2008	27 March	Piccadilly Line	-	Heathrow Terminal 5		269 Stations
	12 October[8]	Hammersmith & City Line	-	Wood Lane		270 Stations

[edit] Tube Challenge in the media

Former Guinness World Record holder Geoff Marshall was featured in an episode of the ITV documentary series (later sold to Sky Travel amongst others) "The Tube", as he and friend Dave Brooks attempted (unsuccessfully) to break the record.^[9]

A few months later, as part of the 'Metroland' series of programmes on ITV, Geoff appeared again: this time with two friends, Chris Vinall and Peter Martell, as they made another (unsuccessful) attempt. This programme was called 'Race Around The Underground' and also featured previous world record holders Jack Welsby and Bob Robinson.

In the wake of the attack on the London Underground on the 7th July 2005, a special charity event "Tube Relief" was organised by Geoff Marshall and Neil Blake, to encourage people to ride the tube all day and attempt to visit all 275 stations.

The spirit of the event was not to try and break the record time, but to merely show that the "We're not afraid" tag line in use at the time was very much true. On Thursday 25 August 2005, 67 people participated, most of them travelling the majority of the network, starting at Amersham and finishing at Upminster. Over £10,000 was raised in charity money for the official relief fund. The event attracted attention from BBC News and Virgin Radio, as well as several channels in New Orleans, Louisiana, from where one participant had travelled to take part, only to return home in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

In 2006 the first annual charity attempt was made in aid of BBC Children in Need. Challengers taking part have featured on BBC Three Counties Radio (laying the foundations for an attempt involving the station, see below) BBC Southern Counties Radio^[10] and BBC London 94.9 on the phone during the challenge.

In April 2008, BBC Three Counties Radio featured the Tube Challenge for a week on the Lorna Milton show, culminating in the coverage of a record attempt by station reporter Rachel Brabbins, who along with Ryan Brown joined World Record holders Antony, Jamie, Kevin and Phillip Brown and John Stark for the day. The team's progress was followed by the station throughout the day, and they finished in a new World Record time of 17 hours, 56 minutes and 28 seconds.

On 17 November 2008, a team of Tube Challengers appeared on the BBC2 quiz show Eggheads.

On 10 February 2009, a team of Southampton students filmed an online documentary with record holder Andi James.

[edit] Alternative challenges

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• tubeforum.co.uk: Rules of the Tube Challenge