Berlin U-Bahn challenge?

[uefacup81]

Right; sitrep at 1547hrs...

I'm at Prinzenstrasse on the U1 with 2h05 until I pass the current record time with 40 stations to go. I'm not sure if I'm going to beat Gasman's time, but it's going to be close!

Either way it'll be a new record though as I don't believe the new U55 was open for Gasman's attempt...

[Starkey7]

And...?

[perkyperky]

Indeed the U55 was not open then.

[uefacup81]

Right, back home so here's the story:

Start: Honow - 1019hrs
End: Rudow - 1753hrs

Time: 07:34:50

So just a tantalising 1m23s off Gasman's time.

All in all though, a very good and enjoyable day from start to end, with the usual collection of highs and lows

General Highs
Very good connections 95% of the time
Bus stops directly outside stations
Catching two or three trains that I thought I'd missed
A couple of buses/trains that weren't on my timetable

General Lows
A couple of bus stops nowhere near their "parent" stations
A couple of buses that just refused to turn up
Not "giving it the beans" in a couple of situations where I ended up missing a train by seconds
A couple of poor door/carriage choices which gave me some nasty full-platform-length runs

...and a little more specifically

Low Losing about 10mins having made the wrong choice in a situation where I could double-back or take a bus
High Gaining some of the lost time through an untimetabled train
Low Missing a train by about 5s by not "giving it the beans"
High An unscheduled bus saving the day
Low Missing a train because of said bus dropping me miles from the station and having to cross four sets of very unhelpful traffic lights!
Low Realising that the route I'd planned (from a couple of years back) didn't cater for the U55
High Working out that I didn't have to adjust my route to fit the U55 in, and that I hadn't reached the crucial point yet anyway
Low Losing about 10mins by choosing the wrong end of the U55 to start at!
Low Sprinting off a bus for about 100yds in the wrong direction, then missing the train I needed by about 10s
Low Going in to the last change of my route with the indicator board on the stairs telling me I'd missed my train (and the record at this point)
High Coming down the stairs to see that the train was still at the platform and deciding to give it the beans
Low A very fat, ugly German coming the other way deciding to, very deliberately, step into my path
High A very kind German holding the doors of said train for me
Low Three unexplained, unnecessary stops of 30 seconds to one minute apiece on the last train, which (even if everything else had still happened) single-handedly cost me the record!!

Adding it all up, I'd say that mistakes on my part cost me about 30mins overall, so I think that sub-7 is certainly possible on the pre-U55 route, and possibly on today's route too.

As an aside, I think I can say I notionally beat the old record too, seeing as adding in the U55 cost me about 25mins thus:

U6 -> Friedrichstrasse
Friedrichstrasse -> Brandenburger Tor
Brandenburger Tor -> Hauptbahnhof
Hauptbahnhof -> Friedrichstrasse

[al]

Is the U55 southern terminus currently called Brandenburger Tor, or Unter den Linden? Different places on the web say different things.

[uefacup81]

Is the U55 southern terminus currently called Brandenburger Tor, or Unter den Linden? Different places on the web say different things.

Brandenburger Tor. The old S-Bahn station was called Unter den Linden; but the name was changed to Brandenburger Tor upon completion of the U-Bahn part of the station as the name Unter den Linden will be reused for a further station on the U5 extension which will link the U55 to the main network.

[Soup Dragon]

Couldn't resist an early plus for ESC 2010, who could forget Norway 1990 with Brandenburger Tor?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ju0PiIgs9o

[JoeGJ1984]

I've mentioned it already on this thread (http://www.tubeforum.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=1645), but I was thinking: why don't we see if we could organise a trip to Berlin for members of this forum to challenge the Berlin U-Bahn? On the other thread I linked to, uefacup81 (who now lives in Berlin) said that you could do smaller challenges such as random 15s. Perhaps go for a week and make a holiday out of it (organising travel and accommodation); this will enable us to get two or three challenges in, including the full network (takes about 7 1/2 hours) and a random 15. People can use spare days either to look around/get used to the U-Bahn system or look around Berlin generally (be nice to do at least one or two touristy things unrelated to tube challenging).

Soup Dragon, you mentioned on the other thread about trying to organise one or more continental challenges; is there any chance of getting something like this organised some time next year? (I'm thinking April/May might be the best time to go - the weather should be warmer than in winter which will make it more pleasant, but not uncomfortably hot which it might be in June, July or August). Perhaps even (this is for the future though) consider going further afield to places such as New York or Sydney! (I'd say definitely start with a European city though). Berlin would be a good place to start, because we've got uefacup81 who knows the city and the system and so could 'show us the ropes', as it were. I'd be up for going to Berlin for a week next year.

[Soup Dragon]

I agree with Joe that it would be quite good to make a week out of this and do a few other challenges whilst in Berlin. I would love to do something this year but funds are a bit tight at the moment. I think we should plan for something next year, who else would be interested in going to Berlin?

[Root]

who else would be interested in going to Berlin?

I'll register a tentative interest in this. It'll depend on time and money, of course. Berlin's one of my favourite cities and it'd be nice to have an excuse to go there again.