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New record set on the Tube
By Indira Das-Gupta Last updated at 00:00am on 24.07.02For most commuters the journey to work is an ordeal. For Jack Welsby, it was literally a race against time.
Mr Welsby has just broken the world record for visiting all the stations on the Tube in the shortest possible time. He negotiated his way around all 275 stops in 19 hours, 18 minutes and 45 seconds - beating the previous record by almost 40 minutes and earning a place in the Guinness Book of Records.
Mr Welsby, 24, from Nottingham, said: "It has been a dream of mine since I was five years old, when I first visited London and my parents took me on the Tube."
The journey took Mr Welsby, who is a freelance sub-editor, six months of preparation. He revealed that the key to success was all about planning ahead.
While he kept his precise route a secret, he did reveal that he started at Heathrow at 5.04am and finished at Amersham, at the end of the Metropolitan line, at 12.20am. For verification, he recorded the number and boarding time of each train, and was photographed at each stop.
A Guinness Book of World Records spokeswoman said: "The skills needed for this particular record are a mixture of detailed planning, athletic ability and sheer luck. All it would take is one signal failure to delay you. Another tip is not to try and do it on a Monday or Friday."
