The last day of the year is an excellent time to tot up what you've been doing all year... assuming you've been counting, which obviously I have. Cue my Counts of 2024.
(If you don't count these kinds of thing, look at all the fun you're missing out on)
Let's start with the number of London stations I've been to. And by 'been to' I mean entering or exiting the station, not just passing through.
stations in zones 1-3: all stations in zones 4-6: five
There are approximately 350 stations in zones 1-3 and I've been to all of them.
There are approximately 240 stations in zones 4-6 and I've been to five of them.
This is because I have a z1-3 Travelcard and I am a cheapskate.
All five of the outer London stations I went to are in the London borough of Hillingdon. Three were because I was out with friends and such is social pressure, and the other two were because it's cheaper to walk to Iver from London than to get the train there. Other than on those two occasions I haven't toyed with stations in zones 4-6 at all. Ludicrous, I know.
Next let's check up on how many London bus routes I've ridden.
Buses: all of them
I have again ridden on every single TfL bus route this year (nightbuses, schoolbuses and mobility route excepted). It may only have been a few stops but hell yes, that's every single route from 1 to W19. I'd actually achieved this accolade by the end of January, which was a wild month, and since then all I've had to do is nip out and ride any new routes.
I've also checked which bus routes I rode most often (because if TfL insist on sending me a weekly spreadsheet I am darned well going to make use of it).
The 425 and 488 are joint top because they're local and stop at Bus Stop M, as do all the other underlined routes. The other buses in this list are key radial links in outer London, and are precisely the buses you would over-use if you had a z1-3 Travelcard and were determined not to ride any trains.
My most-ridden Superloop routes are the SL2 and SL8, eleven times each, with the SL1, SL3, SL7 and SL9 not far behind (because these buses are useful as well as speedy). Switching to the very bottom of the spreadsheet I see there are 231 routes I haven't been back on since January.
For the avoidance of doubt, yes I went to every tram stop this year and no, I did not ride the Dangleway.
Another thing I've been counting this year is the number of times I visited each London borough.
• Technically I counted the number of days I visited each borough.
• If I set foot in a borough on a particular day, that counted as 1.
• Standing on a station platform or riding through on a bus didn't count.
Here's the annual spread of my 2024 travels.
Enf
37
Harr
34
Barn
45
Hari
55
WFor
59
Hill
32
Eal
75
Bren
60
Cam
96
Isl
102
Hack
78
Redb
45
Hav
27
Hou
51
H&F
58
K&C
56
West
115
City
129
Tow
356
New
241
B&D
32
Rich
48
Wan
67
Lam
90
Sou
76
Lew
74
Grn
63
Bex
26
King
32
Mer
48
Cro
45
Bro
50
Sut
34
And yes, these are extraordinary totals.
During the past year I have been to every London borough at least 26 times, which is both ridiculous and extreme. Even farflung Bexley I've been to (on average) once a fortnight. I confess this is no accident, it's required a deliberate roaming focus, aided and abetted by knowing exactly where all the borough boundaries actually are. If you're not ticking off six different boroughs every day, on average, you're never going to get anywhere near my totals. I'm willing to bet that nobody else in London has made over 25 visits to every London borough in 2024.
You can tell I live in Tower Hamlets because that scored a near-maximum total of 356 days. Newham came a very strong second, mainly because I live less than 200m from the boundary. Central London boroughs are next, with the City ahead of Westminster ahead of Islington. The numbers generally drop off towards the outer suburbs, but note Ealing's elevated total which is essentially because it's now so easy to get there on Crossrail.
And the truly extraordinary thing, as you may have twigged, is that I achieved all of this without venturing by train into zones 4, 5 and 6. Instead I hopped aboard multiple buses, plus the odd tram, because these are included for free with a z1-3 Travelcard. Admittedly things took a lot longer by bus but that's fine if you have the time, plus I got to enjoy the sights along the way. My greatest challenges were the nine London boroughs which lie outside zones 1-3, i.e. the eight lightest-coloured squares on the map (plus Redbridge), but yay I still managed to reach each of these more than 25 times.
I expect 2025 will look very different, given that a 60+ London Oyster card gifts free travel across zones 1-6, but let's cross that bridge when we get to it.
As for number of visits to counties outside London, this year's tally is poorer than it might first appear.
Twenty times: Surrey Nineteen times: Norfolk Twelve times: Essex, Herts Eight times: Kent Four times: Bucks Twice: Beds, East Sussex, West Sussex, Hants, Warks Once: Berks, Cheshire, Northants, Staffs, West Midlands, Worcs Never: everywhere else
A lot of the visits to the Home Counties were just minor boundary incursions. Norfolk does well because I have family there. I only visited counties other than those on nine occasions, which is pitiful. This is why the 'Beyond London' list in my 2024 index was rather short, and I need to do better next year.
These are very similar compass point extremities to last year, latitude- and longitude-wise. A single trip to Crewe is doing a lot of heavy lifting here. But have you seen the cost of rail tickets these days, not to mention how unreliable the weather can be when you book a long-distance train in advance?
As for how far I've been walking, here's the average number of steps taken and miles walked each day.
year
Daily steps
Walked daily
2019
13250
6 miles
2020
16400
7 miles
2021
22700
10 miles
2022
16100
7 miles
2023
14600
6½ miles
2024
14800
6½ miles
My perambulations peaked during the pandemic, with an amazing average of 10 miles a day in 2021. I'm now down to a more reasonable 6½ miles a day, or almost 15000 steps daily, which I'm pleased to see is still better than I was doing before lockdown. I do however weigh two pounds more at the end of 2024 than I did at the start, which is about 1kg, so I'd better go easy on the Creme Eggs this spring.
Please allow me to slip in my usual analysis of Archers episodes. These are the characters to have made the most appearances in Ambridge this year.
1) Emma (86 episodes) 2) Alice, Fallon (84) 4) George (76) 5) Harrison (62) 50-something episodes: Lilian 40-something episodes: Jolene, Susan, Kenton, Alistair, Ed, Will 30-something episodes: Brad, Joy, Lynda, Kirsty, Brian, Paul, Justin, Chris, Helen
Emma's top this year but only just, whereas last year Helen was a full 40 episodes ahead of her nearest contender. This year's top 5 were all involved in the River Am car crash back in May or the subsequent fallout. Alice is spending her fourth consecutive year in the top 5, and Susan her fourth in the top 10. Notable non-speakers this year include Debbie, Phoebe and Johnny (again). In somewhat unexpected comparisons Miranda appeared more than Elizabeth, Khalil more than Josh and Rochelle twice as often as Jill.
Other things I've been counting this year include...
Number of photos taken: 20,000 (↑1000 on 2023) Number of photos uploaded to Flickr: 575 (↓140) Number of visitors to the blog: 1,120,000 (↑150000) Number of comments on the blog: 10,300 (↑6)
I'm taking more photos but showing you fewer, sorry. The number of visitors to the blog is up 15% on last year, which is astonishing for a 22 year-old website so many thanks everyone. The number of comments is (genuinely) six more than last year.
If you've been counting something interesting this year do share it with the rest of us. And if not then do consider starting to count something in 2025 because I'm likely to ask you again next year.
n.b. Proper counts only, thanks. If your count is zero or one then you're not a proper counter, more a raconteur.
