A group of teenagers dubbed ‘The Amersham Ambushers’ completed the London Tube Challenge in record time.
Arthur Philipps, Ruairí O’Grady, John Mawdsley, Alex Rennie, Tim Livant, Joseph Solomon, Alex Sinclair, and Yipeng Xu, aged 16 to 17, visited all 272 stations in 18 hours, eight minutes and 13 seconds – officially the fastest time to travel to all London Underground stations – and finished the challenge in Amersham.
After failing twice before, on their third attempt, they beat the previous record by an impressive one hour and 56 minutes. The group of self-described train nerds named themselves ‘The Amersham Ambushers’, as they began their record attempt at Heathrow Terminal 5 and ended at Amersham station. Heathrow had originally been their final stop during their first two attempts, but after those ended in failure, they decided to completely flip their route.
To achieve the record, they were required to visit every single London Underground stop. The Elizabeth Line and the DLR are not classified as part of the Underground network and are thus not included in this challenge. It is necessary for the train to stop at a station for the visit to count, but challengers do not need to exit the train.
Speaking to Guinness World Records, Arthur said: “We wanted to complete this record for two reasons. It was a fun puzzle planning the route as some of us are quite mathematically inclined, and additionally it allowed us to explore parts of London that we hadn’t ever had reason to go to before.
“The feeling is incredible, obviously. We had a little party to celebrate where we drank some Guinness very appropriately, and we are meeting with the previous record holder for lunch.”
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