On 30 December 2025, I did the “Christmas Parks Challenge”, which is an annual challenge of visiting all the park stations on the London Underground network, 24 parks in total. The rules of the challenge are follows:

• I have to visit all the 24 stations per standard “tube challenge” rules, i.e. depart or arrive the station on a London Underground train. If other trains, such as London Overground trains, share the same track as the London Underground trains, they are acceptable as well (for example, between Stonebridge Park and Queen’s Park). During the challenge, movement is only allowed on foot or by scheduled public transport. No vehicles which are not scheduled public transport are allowed, such as bicycles (personal or hired), private cars, minicabs or taxis.
• In addition to visiting the 24 stations by tube, I have to take a photo of the exterior for all these 24 stations as well.
• The designated starting station this year is Upton Park, by taking a photo of the station at a time of my choosing between 09:00 and 11:00. The timer starts at the moment the photo is taken, and ends at the moment the all the 24 stations are visited and 24 photos are taken, 1 for each station.

Before doing this challenge, the only kind of transport challenge I had done was the Random 15 challenge, in which I am a regular participant. It is a challenge where everyone departs together in form of a mass start, and the stations to be visited are only known as the challenge starts, like doing a score orienteering race. Therefore, this challenge is a novelty to me as the “checkpoints” are known and I can prepare a route beforehand.

I flagged all 24 parks on my offline map. The starting park was Upton Park, which was at the east among all parks, with only Elm Park and Newbury Park further out. Therefore the only reasonable route was to do these two first.

For the finishing station, looking from the map, there were only two reasonable choices: Moor Park and Wimbledon Park. As I wanted to go to Wimbledon in the evening to play bridge, I focused my effort to make a good route for a Wimbledon Park finish, and adjusted my order for a few times involving the order of the 3 parks on the Northern line, whether to run from Belsize Park to South Hampstead, whether to take the 112 from Stonebridge Park to Hanger Lane or travel down the Bakerloo to Queen’s Park, when to do Kilburn Park and Queen’s Park and the tricky Holland Park and Westbourne Park which are perpendicular to the tube lines without bus connections, etc. Finally I planned an 8h17 route for Wimbledon Park finish and an 8h10 route for Moor Park finish. I am the lead developer of Aubin which is a very powerful journey planner, allowing me to set my preferences and speed appropriate for a tube challenge, but unfortunately we were receiving poor quality data from BODS which have a lot of missing services in the timetable, affecting the quality of my plans.

However, as I decided to do the challenge literally the last evening and planned it so late, I wanted to get some more sleep so I decided to leave home to travel exactly at 09:30 for the off-peak cap, and headed straight to Wimbledon afterwards, therefore I executed my plan for a finish at Wimbledon Park.

I started my challenge at 10:25:00 by taking a photo outside Upton Park, then did the obvious route to Elm Park, departing there 10:46, 2 minutes late then planned.

I then made my first deviation from my planned route. My plan was to travel back to Barking and take a 169 to Eastern Avenue, but there wasn’t a 169 showing up on the departure board and the map on my phone when I got to the bus stop at Barking, so I took an EL1 to Ilford, another bus to Gants Hill, then Central to Newbury Park. I got there at 11:31, 3 minutes early at that point.

My next park was Finsbury Park. I made another deviation, my planned route was changing at Stratford for Stansted Express and Tottenham Hale for Victoria, but I got to Leytonstone at a good time for a Suffragette to Blackhorse Road instead, while likely to miss a Stansted Express at Stratford at that point. I got to Finsbury Park at 12:12, 4 minutes early.

I then made another deviation immediately. My planned route was down to Euston and back up to Tufnell Park as my journey planner told me to do that, but it looked foolish on a map so I took a bus to Holloway instead. The 4 didn’t come and I ended running to Tufnell Park. I arrived there at 12:25, 7 minutes early.

My next park was Woodside Park. Unfortunately the first outgoing train was to Mill Hill East and I had to wait for another one. I reached there at 12:45, 11 minutes early.

Then I returned to Camden Town for the other branch to Belsize Park, arriving there 13:26, 13 minutes early.

I continued going north on an Edgware train, but got kicked out at Colindale. Fortunately after taking the next train, there was a bus waiting for us to go out at Edgware. I arrived Canons Park at 13:45, 12 minutes early.

I then travelled on the Jubilee to Wembley Park and took the grand photo at 13:56, 17 minutes early.

Upon returning, the first Metropolitan train going north was to Uxbridge and the second one was to Chesham, so I waited for the second one as I had to leave Northwick Park later anyway. I took the rural Hertfordshire Moor Park photo at 14:24, 18 minutes early.

I went back to Northwick Park at 14:45, 19 minutes early. An 8-hour finish now looked like a possibility.

I ran to Kenton for a train to Stonebridge Park, but it was stuck waiting for signal for 5 minutes just before I got off. I arrived at 15:04, 22 minutes early, but the delay already cost me a critical 112 bus.

I waited for the next bus and hoped for an express run along the A406, but this major arterial was so congested that the average speed of the journey was only 12 km/h, no faster than an urban bus. I got off at Hanger Lane and ran to Park Royal. I got there at 15:28, 18 minutes early, which meant I lost 4 minutes due to congestion.

I took a Piccadilly to Acton Town and changed for a District to Chiswick Park, but I encountered a 6-minute wait at Acton Town. Nonetheless I still gained time from my plan, arrived the park at 15:50, now 25 minutes early.

I got back in and another 8 minutes wait, and got to Ravenscourt Park at 16:06, 24 minutes early.

At this point I made another deviation from my plan, but this time it was costly. My original plan was to run to Shepherd’s Bush for a Central to Holland Park, which would take 20 minutes, but journey planners told me that a 3-tube route via Earl’s Court and Notting Hill Gate would also take 20 minutes. As I had two long runs afterwards, I decided to take the tube to save a long run, but things went seriously wrong at Earl’s Court. An HSK train left as I arrived Earl’s Court, and I waited for 10 minutes until another train went out on that track! I ended up arriving Holland Park at 16:39, just 13 minutes early, losing 11 minutes in the process. This was the first time I entered Zone 1 in the challenge.

I ran to Ladbroke Grove for one stop to Westbourne Park and arrived 16:49, now 22 minutes early, gaining 9 minutes back.

I then ran to Queen’s Park and arrived 16:59, 26 minutes early.

Then it was one stop to Kilburn Park, 17:03, 25 minutes early.

Then it was a journey to Zone 1, the first time I entered it if I hadn’t deviated from my plan earlier. I got out at Regent’s Park at 17:20, 24 minutes early.

I got back in for Oxford Circus and Green Park, arriving 17:31, 22 minutes early.

Then things went massively wrong. I got back in for Hyde Park Corner but the escalator up was so crowded so I ran up the fixed stairs. However after the two previous long runs my physical fitness couldn’t keep up and after I got out, I ran straight out of the subway at Exit 2 forgetting to take a photo! I only realised it after crossing the busy gyratory and had to cross it back for the photo, wasted many minutes crossing forth and back. The photo time was 17:58, now only 13 minutes early, so I wasted 9 minutes there.

After taking the photo I ran to St. James’s Park, but my phone ran out of battery during the navigation! Fortunately I got my phone back on before I reached the station, and took the photo at 17:54, 19 minutes early.

I entered the station and the first westbound train was a Circle, totally useless for me. The next one was for Parsons Green so I travelled on it to the destination. However, it stood at the platform for 7 minutes waiting for the shunting signal to clear! And another 3 minutes before the next train came! I arrived Wimbledon Park at 18:35:15, only 7 minutes early, that terminating train cost me 12 minutes! I missed the 8-hour target just at this final leg.

In hindsight, I should have done Stonebridge Park – Queen’s Park – Kilburn Park – Westbourne Park – Holland Park – Hanger Lane instead of doing these on my way back from the west, such that I can have an easy interchange later from Ravenscourt Park to Hyde Park Corner, run to Green Park, double back to Regents Park for St. James’s Park and Wimbledon Park finish instead.

My goal next year is to further improve Aubin such that it can show all the correct timetables again (it did last year but then DfT swapped providers and ruined the data quality) and the exact platform numbers for all tubes and buses (so that an accurate time needed to run between connections can be calculated), with good quality real time data matching the timetables showing exactly if each tube / bus during the journey is delayed or running early. Furthermore, I also wish that the “rerouting onboard” functionality can be completed by then to help me decide if I should change routes on-the-fly.