Record Breaking on the London Tube

At OISE Oxford we like a news story involving the London Tube, please check out our earlier posts here and here. Today there is a great Tubey news story all about Geoff Marshall, 41 and Anthony Smith, 28. These two intrepid souls have claimed the record for visiting all 270 London Underground stations in the quickest-possible time by eight minutes.  The new record is 16 hours, 20 minutes and 27 seconds.

Marshall said it took "more skill than people think..You have to get off one line and run to the other...We run from Cockfosters to High Barnet so it's a combo of athleticism and the ability to decode a Tube timetable."

The Tube twosome's attempt was completed on 16 August, but it took Guinness World Records more than a month to verify their record.

The pair, who finished at Heathrow Terminal 5 Tube station, said they only beat their previous times as there had been no problems on the Tube network that day. Though they have not revealed their exact route, they did say that the secret to their success involved starting from the outside of the Tube map and travelling into central London. 

From everyone at OISE Oxford, well done Marshall and Smith.

 Source: BBC News

Celebrate good times, come on!

The London Underground is celebrating its 150th anniversary with a range of events and activities throughout this year.  Today, it was the Queen's chance to celebrate.  The Queen, joined by the Duke of Edinburgh and the Duchess of Cambridge, visited Baker Street Underground station.

The royals saw a restored 1892 carriage at Baker Street, which was part of the first stretch of the network which opened in January 1863.  Today was the Queen's sixth visit to the London Underground.  The Queen's first Tube journey was in May 1939 as a 13-year-old princess, accompanied by her sister Princess Margaret and governess, Marion Crawford.

It was on 9 January 1863 that the world’s first underground train pulled out of Paddington station to make the first passenger journey - 3½-miles under the streets of London from Paddington to Farringdon and this making it into the record books.

The original Underground line was built and financed by the Metropolitan Railway.  Travelling on the new railway was a novelty that thousands of Londoners were eager to experience and on the first day of public service – long queues formed at every station. The line was a huge success with 26,000 passengers using the railway each day in the first six months.  Today, long queues are still a feature of the London Underground!

If you fancy celebrating this world famous subterranean railway line, check out the Transport for London website here.

And don't forget to 'mind the gap'!