Successful day out on the trains

Yesterday, Sunday 6 January 2019, I spent a whole day travelling on the London Underground network. During my travels, I used the Central line, Piccadilly line, Metropolitan line, Bakerloo line, Circle line and Victoria line, as well as the Docklands Light Railway (DLR) and London Overground. 

I visited 16 new London Underground stations: Perivale, Greenford, Northolt, South Ruislip, Ruislip Gardens, West Ruislip, Ruislip, Ickenham, Hillingdon, Uxbridge, Ruislip Manor, Eastcote, North Harrow, Kenton, Harrow & Wealdstone and South Kenton. This now means I have visited 220 out of the 270 London Underground stations. Whilst I still have plenty of stations left, particularly on the Bakerloo line, Metropolitan line and Northern line, I have now completed five lines.

Central line

A main target for yesterday was to visit the stations between Perivale and West Ruislip on the Central line in order to finish visiting every station on the line. The Central line is a particular favourite of mine, with an interesting history, stations and architecture. I have also blogged a fair about the Central line, particularly in East London. 

However, after visiting the final stations I needed to visit, I have now entered or exited at all 49 stations. Some highlights from the Central line stations I visited yesterday include the incline lift at Greenford, the station building exterior at Perivale, and the ticket hall roof at South Ruislip. I ended my Central line quest by visiting West Ruislip, the end of the line. Instead of going home I decided to walk the 0.7 miles to another nearby station, Ruislip.

Piccadilly line

Ruislip is a charming station with an original station building from 1904, a classic footbridge and a well-preserved signal box. I then visited the stations between Eastcote and Uxbridge, to also complete visiting the Piccadilly line. After visiting all 53 Piccadilly line stations, I struggle to pick a favourite. Southgate, Sudbury Town, North Ealing and Uxbridge are particular favourites of mine. There are also some interesting things to look out for on the Uxbridge branch that I completed yesterday such as the winged wheels above Uxbridge station, the railway bridge outside Ruislip Manor that references the station, and the Hillingdon (Swakeleys) roundels at Hillingdon.  

Bakerloo line

After completing the Piccadilly line I then decided to head back home. However, because the Picadilly line shares the Uxbridge branch with the Metropolitan line, I decided to get the Metropolitan line back. However, when I got to Northwick Park I put the walk between Northwick Park and Kenton. You may have noticed on the latest tube map that dotted lines have appeared on the map to denote "under a 10-minute walk between stations". There is now a dotted line between Northwick Park and Kenton that I thought I must put to the test, and I can confirm that it is really easy to change between the two stations.

So whilst at Kenton I decided to take the Bakerloo line one stop north to the end of the line at Harrow & Wealdstone, and also visited South Kenton on my way back into central London. To finish the day I got the London Overground from Queen's Park to London Euston, and finally the Circle line and Victoria line back home. 

I still have 50 more London Underground stations to visit, and I still have exciting plans for 2019. If you have any challenges or ideas for a blog post, please get in touch. You can follow me on Twitter or Instagram where my name is Tubespottingdan.