Royal Challenge

[JamesWright]

Last week (23rd April) I completed the Royal Challenge.

The latest time on the leaderboard was set back in 2013, since when two new stations have been added: Seven Kings and Barking Riverside. The latter station is a little troublesome: unless starting or finishing there, you'll have to double-back. There is a chance you will get the timetabled 1-minute double-back but any delay on the inbound train will mean waiting 15 minutes for the next service back to Barking. In the end my planned route was more than 15 minutes faster on paper than any route I could make starting at Barking Riverside, so I accepted the risk of the missed double-back.

I started at Queens Road Peckham on the 10:47 train that was 1 minute delayed. I got some smooth and punctual connections at Canada Water and Canning Town to get a Beckton-bound DLR service passing through Royal Victoria and Prince Regent to Royal Albert. I then ran to London City Airport where I had a short wait for a service to King George V. This productive start saw me tick off 5/19 stations in only 28 minutes, but this rate cannot be maintained for the whole challenge.

As planned, getting to Barking in time for the 11:42 service to Barking Riverside proved possible only with exceptional luck so I had to wait for the 11:57 service... which was 2 minutes late. There was still hope for an immediate double-back as we crossed into the right-hand platform at Barking Riverside, but the train in the left-hand platform closed its doors just before we came to a stop. The enforced 15-minute wait and subsequent return journey was spent taking a brief look at the local area before rechecking the timings for the next part of the route.

After another turnaround at Walthamstow Queen's Road I backtracked all the way to Wanstead Park, having spent nearly 50 minutes on the soon-to-be Suffragette line and only ticked off 3 further stations. (There's got to be a faster way of doing this, right?) There followed a lovely transfer to the Elizabeth line at Forest Gate for three stops to Seven Kings and then the longest run of the route to Newbury Park. I just missed a double-back at Barkingside and, to add injury to insult, a train cancellation meant a 10-minute wait for the next service, which I took to Stratford.

That delay on the Central line meant I missed the 13:45 Overground departure, putting me a further 6 minutes behind my schedule. The next service took me through Dalston Kingsland to Highbury & Islington, where I changed for the Victoria line through King's Cross St Pancras to Victoria. I then ticked off Queensway and Royal Oak before diving through the closing doors of a Bakerloo line train via Queen's Park to arrive at Harlesden at 15:03.

I faced a choice here whether to run or take the 226 bus to Park Royal. Either way would easily get me on the 15:34 departure but could I make the 15:24? Running would require maintaining my top pace for longer than any run I'd done so far today and I was already quite tired. I calculated the bus would definitely be faster as long as it arrived within the next 5 minutes. 3 minutes was advertised so I waited. In the end it was 3 minutes plus 4 minutes, meaning I missed the train at Park Royal by about 1 minute.

The bus stop at Alperton was closed which meant an unwelcome 450m run to the next stop, though this didn't cost me any time. It was also now peak after-school time in Wembley but the 83 bus still made good progress all the way to Wembley Park, where a Jubilee line train took me through Kingsbury to finish at Queensbury at 16:10.

Total stopwatch time was 5:21:49. This was 34 minutes slower than planned but also only 32 minutes slower than the fastest time from before Barking Riverside and Seven Kings were added, so not too shabby. Full route and timings emailed to Tangy.

[RJSRdg]

Did you visit Regent's Park?

[JamesWright]

Did you visit Regent's Park?

Nope. Regent's Park is not included in the list of stations for this challenge. An explanation for this was given in the challenge's original thread.

[RJSRdg]

I could have sworn it was on the list when I looked last week, but you're right, it's not!