Fastest way to ride every Tube line

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History

The first tube challenge took place in 2002, initially started by Geoff Marshall. This challenge involves visiting all stations on the London Underground in the span of one day, and there have been some variations such as the Zone 1 challenge.

That said, London's rail network has changed a lot since 2002. If you look at a modern tube map, you'll notice many lines which are not part of the London Underground, but are rail services operated by TfL.

What is "the Tube"?

For this challenge, I'm defining the Tube as:

1. All 11 Underground Lines - Bakerloo, Central, Circle, District, Hammersmith & City, Jubilee, Metropolitan, Northern, Piccadilly, Victoria, and Waterloo & City.


2. All 6 Overground Lines - Liberty, Lioness, Mildmay, Suffragette, Weaver, and Windrush.


3. Elizabeth Line - a new railway connecting Shenfield/Abbey Wood to Reading/Heathrow Airport via Central London.


4. DLR - a light rail system serving parts of East and South East London.


5. Trams - I think you know what a tram is. These only serve areas in South London.


6. IFS Cloud Cable Car - Not a train in any sense, but it's owned by TfL and it's on the map so I'm counting it.

Prior to 2024, the Overground lines didn't have distinct names and colours. A lot of people aren't keen on the new names, I'm simply using these names for the purpose of clarity.

I'm not including Thameslink or the Northern City Line as they are not operated by TfL, even though Thameslink often appears on Tube maps.

Rules for the challenge

Just to make things a bit harder because I hate myself.

1. You can only ride each line once.


2. You can't use National Rail services.


3. Out of station interchanges are allowed - these are stations that are close enough for most people to reasonably walk to. Some are marked on the map (e.g., Wanstead Park and Forest Gate), some aren't (e.g., Aldgate and Aldgate East).

I set another rule, but it's hard to explain how it works so I haven't included it here.

Here's the route!

START: Headstone Lane

• Lioness Line to Kenton
• Walk to Northwick Park Station
• Metropolitan Line to Finchley Road
• Walk to Finchley Road & Frognal Station
• Mildmay Line to Willesden Junction
• Bakerloo Line to Elephant & Castle
• Northern Line to South Wimbledon
• Walk to Morden Road Tram Stop
• Tram to West Croydon
• Windrush Line to Whitechapel
• Hammersmith & City Line to Liverpool Street
• Weaver Line to Seven Sisters (or Walthamstow Central if on a Chingford train)
• Victoria Line to Finsbury Park
• Piccadilly Line to Manor House
• Walk to Harringay Green Lanes Station
• Suffragette Line to Barking
• District Line to Upminster
• Liberty Line to Romford
• Elizabeth Line to Liverpool Street or Farringdon
• Circle Line to Monument/Bank
• Waterloo & City Line to Waterloo
• Jubilee Line to North Greenwich
• Walk to IFS Cloud Greenwich Peninsula
• Ride the Cable Car to IFS Cloud Royal Docks
• Walk to Royal Victoria Station
• DLR to Stratford
• Central Line one stop down the line

END: Mile End / Leyton (depending on whether you board a westbound or eastbound Central Line train at Stratford)

Route Adjustments

Want to include Thameslink? Ride the tram to East Croydon instead of West Croydon, ride a Thameslink train to Norwood Junction and board the Windrush Line from there.

Don't want to include the cable car? Ride the Jubilee Line to Canary Wharf or Canning Town instead of North Greenwich and board the DLR to Stratford from there.