"How can you travel just one stop on every tube line?" is an interesting question.
It's a question I posed back in 2003 as part of this blog's very first Tube Week, and again in 2015 when I went out and rode the solution. It's a question which can be varied according to how you choose to define a tube line, and also a question which evolves as new lines and new stations open.
The opening of Crossrail affords the opportunity to ask again, there being additional central London tunnels linking previously unconnected stations. So let's ask again, and let's go one better and make a loop out of it.
"How can you travel just one stop on every tube line - plus the DLR, Overground and Crossrail - and arrive back where you started?"
14 lines, 14 stops, to create an unlikely circuit.
I think I've found a way to do it, indeed I've been out and ridden it as a single journey. I can tell you that the travelling part took exactly 30 minutes, and I'd like to invite you to guess how long it took altogether once you add in all the walking and waiting. You'll be able to see if you're right later in the post. You might also want to try to work out the route before I tell you what I did.
You have to ride between Waterloo and Bank on the Waterloo and City because the line has no other stations. You have to ride between Bank and Shadwell on the DLR because no other sections link up. You have to continue to Whitechapel on the Overground otherwise you're stuck at Shadwell. Less obviously you have to ride between Oxford Circus and Green Park on the Victoria line because that's the only feasible section. That's four sections fixed, and the other ten lines then have to be used to link Green Park to Waterloo and Whitechapel to Oxford Circus.
You can start anywhere, but I started at Oxford Circus and went round anti-clockwise.
Oxford Circus: Victoria line trains are so frequent that as one departs, the next is already lurking at the mouth of the tunnel. 00:00Victoria The doors close on platform 5 and the challenge begins! Green Park: My first interchange is via the tediously long tiled passageway so it's not a fast start. 00:07Piccadilly The train from the airport is still carrying many bulky suitcases. Piccadilly Circus: I managed to follow the shorter passageway, not go via the mini spiral staircase. 00:10Bakerloo I'm on my third line in only ten minutes, so this is going well. Charing Cross: But there's a really long pedestrian interchange here, two subwaysworth, because this used to be two stations. 00:16Northern This one-stop train journey is really short, just 43 seconds from doors closing to doors opening. Embankment: I've got lucky because Circle line trains only run every 10 minutes and one is just pulling in. 00:19Circle It's important this is a Circle line train because I need to save the District for later. Westminster: I'm heading back down into the depths (but not the very depths because that's westbound only). 00:27Jubilee This train's absolutely rammed, which is unusual in the middle of a Monday.
That's the awkward wiggle to Waterloo complete, and half an hour down. No sane traveller would ever have taken the route I took, but it was crucial to tick off the Piccadilly, Bakerloo, Northern and Jubilee lines in this first part of the journey.
Waterloo: A long-winded interchange, first up two sets of escalators, then needing to touch out before a trek up and down to the W&C. 00:36Waterloo & City Time for a nice six minute sitdown - it's been a real physical workout up until this point. Bank: This isn't the fastest interchange either, with yet another long passageway to walk down... and dammit, the escalator's out. 00:49DLR Another long ride, up and out of the City into the hubbub of the East End. Shadwell: This is the journey's only at-street interchange. I curse whoever made the nearest Overground entrance exit only. 00:58Overground This is the only Zone 2 journey in my all-lines circuit. Whitechapel is a popular alighting point.
That's the fixed stretch from Waterloo to Whitechapel complete, and an hour down. All that's left now is to tick off the Central, District, Hammersmith & City and Metropolitan lines, plus Crossrail. You'd think Crossrail would be the best thing to catch next, given it could whizz you all the way to Moorgate in one stop, but you'd never get back to Oxford Circus that way. Instead we need to leave Crossrail for later and ride the remaining sub-surface lines sequentially.
Whitechapel: Hurrah, the next two trains are the two I need and they're arriving in the correct order. 01:01District The train still has a poppy on the front, over a month after it was first slapped on. Aldgate East: This is the first time I've had the luxury of a same-platform interchange. 01:08Hammersmith & City Normally these trains pause in the tunnel while another train cuts across, but this time we sail straight through. Liverpool Street: Purists might not be particularly happy with this but I'm about to walk through the Crossrail station...
Moorgate: ...and up into a different station at the other end. If you don't pull this trick then the circuit is impossible. 01:18Metropolitan I've been extremely lucky with my sub-surface trains, here comes a perfectly timed Amersham. Barbican: Time to use the secret lift at the far end of the platform, because of course this solution was going to use that. 01:26Crossrail This is the magic link which makes the whole challenge doable. Tottenham Court Road: This is Crossrail's least efficient interchange. I choose to ignore the evil arrows on two separate occasions. 01:34Central I'm on my last train, rattling under Oxford Street to return to my starting point. Oxford Circus: It's taken me 95 minutes to ride one stop on every line (it'd be 98 to pedantically return to the Victoria line platform).
And if you merely scanned through all that (too long, too niche; didn’t read), this map shows the solution to the All 14 Lines Challenge. Starting and finishing at Oxford Circus my total elapsed time was 1 hour 35 minutes. By starting at Waterloo or Bank and skipping one of the longer interchanges I might have got the time down to 1½ hours. But I think I got lucky with many of my connections and it'd normally take longer than I took.
I do not recommend you ever try this, not unless you want a considerable workout for the cost of a tube journey. But it is a great way to sightsee the innards of the Underground and also a tough test of navigational skills. Above all it's nice to know the circuit is possible - 14 different lines, one stop each, and only a tad of mild rule-bending in the Moorgate area.
