LU Record Attempt

On Thursday 30th December 1999 Alistair Bell made an attempt to visit every London Underground station within one day and break the previous record (see below). The attempt was made under the official Guinness Book of Records rules.

This page shows the planned and actual timings. Regrettably, after some early delays Alistair found himself missing the last train to Aldgate and therefore the last train to Upminster.

Planned Actual
     Arr           Dep           Arr            Dep     
Chesham 05:30 05:31:19 Metropolitan
Chalfont & Latimer 05:38 05:47 05:39:02 05:47:37 Metropolitan
Amersham 05:52 06:00 05:51:26 06:00:06 Metropolitan
Watford 06:20 06:32 06:20:34 06:32:15 Metropolitan
North Harrow 06:48 walk 06:48:59
West Harrow 06:54 07:10:46 Metropolitan
Preston Road 07:03 walk 07:17:54 07:24:14 Metropolitan
Northwich Park 07:26:56
South Kenton 07:16
Kenton 07:39:39 Bakerloo
Harrow & Wealdstone 07:20 07:26 07:42:12 07:44:07 Bakerloo
Lambeth North 08:05 08:08 08:28:24 08:30:16 Bakerloo
Waterloo 08:09 08:14 08:33:13 08:40:57 Jubilee
Stratford 08:37 08:45 09:07:44 09:16:40 Central
Woodford (via Hainault) 09:20 09:27 09:54:11 09:55:39 Central
Epping 09:45 09:50 10:11:11 10:17:48 Central
Snaresbrook 10:10 bus
Leytonstone 10:41:24
Walthamstow Central 10:40 11:27:56 Victoria
Kings Cross 10:56 11:00 11:44:23 11:49:30 Northern
Stockwell (via Northern) 11:22 11:25 12:07:57 12:09:12 Victoria
Brixton 11:28 11:30 12:11:10 12:11:25 Victoria
Pimlico 11:36 11:38 12:17:29 12:19:54 Victoria
Stockwell 11:42 11:44 12:23:50 12:24:43 Northern
Morden 12:02 12:06 12:43:27 12:46:57 Northern
South Wimbledon 12:09 walk 12:49:08 bus
Wimbledon 12:25 13:06:36 District
Earl's Court 13:26:30 13:32:43 District
Edgware Road 12:52 12:59 13:46:32 13:48:03 Hammersmith & City
Hammersmith 13:14 13:21 14:02:36 14:12:04 District
Chiswick Park 13:27
West Kensington 14:14:57 14:16:34 District
Gunnersbury 13:37
Richmond 13:43 13:52 14:32:16 14:42:51
Feltham 14:02 14:11 14:51:07
Heathrow T4 14:23 14:29 15:05:50 Piccadilly
Heathrow T123 15:09:02 15:10:40 Piccadilly
Acton Town 15:01 15:06 15:34:28 15:42:45 Piccadilly
Chiswick Park 15:44:26 15:47:20 District
Ealing Broadway 15:12 15:16 15:55:30 15:57:06 Central
West Acton 15:19 walk 15:59:30
North Ealing 15:29 16:11:17 Piccadilly
Uxbridge 15:58 16:05 16:42:32 16:45:06 Metropolitan
Ickenham 16:10 walk 16:50:16
West Ruislip 16:26 17:10:38 Central
Bethnal Green 17:13
Mile End 18:14:40 18:15:41 District
Whitechapel 18:19:20 18:22:47 East London
Shoreditch 17:33 18:25:10 18:28:25 East London
New Cross Gate 17:46 walk
New Cross 17:57 18:41:38
New Cross Gate 18:53:50 East London
Whitechapel 18:09 18:12 19:04:06 19:19:17 District
Barons Court 18:39
Earl's Court 19:44:05 19:56:42 District
Kensington Olympia 19:00 19:59:24 20:08:11 District
Earl's Court 19:03 19:07 20:13:56 20:20:13 Piccadilly
Cockfosters 19:52 bus 21:10:36 21:14:34 Piccadilly
Oakwood 21:17:12 bus
High Barnet 20:22 21:37:06 Northern
Finchley Central 20:31 20:38 21:46:03 21:50:38 Northern
Mill Hill East 20:41 20:44 21:53:20 21:59:23 Northern
East Finchley 22:08:25 22:10:37 Northern
Camden Town 22:22:12 22:26:50 Northern
Goodge Street 21:10 21:15 22:32:15 22:34:12 Northern
Camden Town 22:40:01 22:45:48 Northern
Edgware 21:45 walk 23:08:16 bus
Canons Park 22:05 23:16:00 Jubilee
Stanmore 22:08 22:11 23:21:20 23:25:51 Jubilee
Baker Street 22:39 22:45 23:53:59 23:55:38 Metropolitan
King's Cross St. Pancras 00:00:16 00:09:54 Metropolitan
Liverpool Street 00:16:23
Aldgate 23:02 STOP
Aldgate East 23:12
Upminster 23:50

Alistair's comments on various points:

North Harrow This looks incredibly tight! If I miss it, the next one's at 0709, so I _really_ want to catch this one. I'll find out if it's feasible on the last test run tomorrow night. If not, I'll just have a bit of catching up to do :-) He missed it.
Preston Road If there's a train back to Northwick Park on its way, I'll catch it and go to Kenton; otherwise I'll walk to South Kenton. There was one shown, but it took much longer to arrive than the signs claimed.
Snaresbrook By W12 bus
South Wimbledon Bus if available 57 bus actually used.
Richmond By SWT. The actual trains are at 08/16/38/46; however, I'll make a decision at Hammersmith as to which train I'm getting, and I can either add time by going to West Ken and back (and missing out West Ken and Barons Court in the evening), subtract time by missing out Chiswick Park (and adding it after Acton Town), or both. Did both.
Feltham By T4 bus Taken.
Ickenham If a U1 bus to West Ruislip turns up while I'm at Uxbridge, I'll probably catch it.
New Cross (Gate) Of course, if it's a New Cross train first, I'll do this in reverse! He did.
Cockfosters/Oakwood By 307 bus. I'm unsure whether to go back to Oakwood or walk to the roundabout; if there's a train leaving imminently I'll probably take it. He took the train to Oakwood and then the 307.
Mill Hill East Actually, the service from MHE is awful at this time of night: 2011, 2023 then nothing until 2055 :-( If I catch the 2026ish from Finchley Central I'll simply walk back (it appears to return empty -- if it actually returns in service to East Finchley thence Archway depot that's even better, even if I have to hang around at MHE for ten minutes)
Edgware I could walk to Canons Park or take a bus to Stanmore; if there's an imminent bus I may well take it. Last night there was a 79 bus to Canons Park at the bus station, so I caught that. 186 bus to Canons Park.
Aldgate If I'm on a Circle rather than a Met I'll stay on to Tower Hill.
Walthamstow Central Nightmare - rucksack split and missed GOBLIN. Caught 257 bus.
Earl's Court Tripped at Wimbledon Park.
Finchley Central From platform 2!
Liverpool Street At which point there were no more eastbound trains. I could have caught a Central to Mile End and looked for an Upminster train there (just missing out Aldgate), but it didn't really seem worthwhile once I'd started missing stations anyway.

One Robert Robinson (accompanied by a team of Scouts) broke the previous record - his own - on 26th March 2000, visiting all 282 stations in a few seconds under 20 hours. He started at Temple at 05:02 and reached Amersham at 01:00.

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