Cool ... cheers mate, thank you
that was a slightly erratic taxi ride
S o it's really early in the morning it's err currently 5:40 I had to get the first train
of the day into Victoria they've got a taxi driver here by the way is Kensington Olympia
on the District line on the tube but is it the least served tube station on the network I think
it is it has a rather intriguing pattern where it's served at weekends and then the sign over
there suggests that it's not served at all on weekdays but it is as far as I'm aware there's
11 trains in and out of Olympia on weekdays and here this morning to catch some of them it's the
It's thr 0544 Miltn Keynes Southern train and while that has pulled in there on platform 2, something
rather magical has happened behind me over here on Platform 1 the district lines turned up!
*PA* Mind the gap between the train and the platform
*PA* The next station is Earl's Court
*PA* This is a District Line train to Edgware Road
Is that it? ... We're about to leave.
And so as we make our way around to Earl's Court a little explanation i'll flash a map up on screen
Olympia on the District line has always been this weird little dogleg this little spur service off
from Earls Court now up until December I think it was 2011 there was a regular service on a
weekday I think trains were every, every 20 minutes 3 an hour they were shuttled backwards
and forwards between High Street Ken through old court and into Olympia all day back them
forwards the official line says today is that there's no weekday service there's nearly a
weekend service only and then sometimes there's a weekday service when certain events are on at Olympia
however dig into the District line timetable and there's actually 11 times that you could
depart or leave Olympia there are some trains early in the morning which basically come out of
Lillibridge Depot just over there somewhere that's a district line depot and they come in to Olympia
to start their their day service or the train that we're on is coming is coming to Olympia from the
Depot but the idea is this morning is just to ride as many trains in or out of Olympia as I
can it's going to be impossible to do all 11 but let's see how many I can do the next station is
So come out the back of Earl's Court station Warwick Road entrance jump in a bus the one stop
I'm going to walk the last little bit it's 0559 now right about now the next train the
second train of the day is leaving at Olympia I'm not gonna make it there's no way I could
possibly catch all trains but I should I just walk on the road here be in time to
catch the 0616 that's very pretty this station of course was originally was called Addison Road
OK that's interesting got my map here this is my own map if you're thinking where does
that map come from I downloaded the district line working timetable and it lists the first three
trains being the 0550 which I caught and there's a0 559 and there's a 0616 - High Street Ken and they then
become like a Richmond train or something they become additional train I thought I'd buy the
0616 I just got chatting to the lovely driver who was like morning mate, what you do this is the
0625 to Dagenham East so I don't know what happened to the 0616 that was going to High Street Ken
Coming into Earl's Court again I'll go out
the back way again and get the bus again what a ridiculous thing to do
Right so go to C3 bus just the one stop gotta walk the rest of the way again
it's cutting it fine but I should make 0645 at Olympia which is also going to Dagenham East
And we're back at Olympia it's 0643 just about to go to 0644 and
there is no District Line train on platform one
Aaaans the Overground train was arriving train number zero zero one has arrived on platform one
On the top column of the timetable is the train number I found train number one this is the 0638
they changed it it's now it's now becoming Upminster train
so waiting at Earl's Court my train should have gone to High Street Ken, it didn't loads of trains
though an Earl's Court to Upminster so many in fact that you get you get the great game that commuters
played there's two Upminster trains on the platform at the same time and people stand and they try
and work out by looking at their signals which one is gonna leave heading towards the City first
OK ended up playing my own game the Eggware Road train came in
I'm over there but then on this platform here the
training which is coming from Olympia that's going one stop to High Street Ken
and it's before the Edgware Road train first
When I get out at High Street Ken i'll be able to see the train number on the side of the Train
I really need to find out what train number this is
Yeah yeah i've been got a coffee, that was actually train 102 which again you look at the working timetable
was actually a train of Ealing Broadway that wasn't meant to be going to
Tower Hill so obviously terminated reversed it early at High Street Kensington
Came to Edgware Road just because I got a Circle LIne train been looking at my map as well my map
which I shall by the way put in the description so you can download if you want to see yourself when
the Olympia trains run that's a perfect example of what High Stree Ken and Olympia is actually
for platform three and four are high street ken i then used you know to receive those trains and
any other trains if there's a hiccup on the district line the line controllers can use
those platforms to turn trains early and get the service pattern back on track you know there's
not meant to be over the daytime of monday to friday regular service between highest
weekend and olympia having said that there are two trains this evening so having now been up
very early I'm gonna go home but literally gonna have a nap and then come back out this evening
And I'm back I've been home I've had a nap I'm at High Street Ken it's 7:36 and
look what's on platform three, it's an Olympia train!
that's interesting we're just about to depart and I'm audio announcements come and the destination has
now changed to an Ealing Broadway train so they've just check my controller decided that instead of
going to Olympia it's going to go straight to Ealing Broadway holy this means I have to get out Earl's Court again
I'm on platform four, Earls Court this is the Olympia information corner because there's a
lot of sign here and down here there was a time table poster that tells you about trains to
Olympia for the 19:44 but changed into an Ealing Broadway train I'm gonna go back to
High Street Ken see if the one which is here at eight twenty five runs and trying and get to Olympia that way
A few fun and games Oh thought there were two Tower Hill trains on platform
three and four, I was waiting for the next Edgware Road to High Street Ken
when Tower Hill train over there instead of Tower Hill train but this time he'll
probably changed into a High Street Kensington terminator
Ah, we've arrived on Platform 4! I've never arrived on platform four before
The tube inside of me just had a mini nerdgasm. Don't write Nerdgasm in the comments!
You can write nerdgasm in the comments! *laughs*
Platform four!
It's quarter past eight and and back HSK it's eight-sixteen it's due out at eight twenty-one in five minutes
Personally, I'm just still excited I arrived on platform 4 I've never arrived a platform 4 before
that's like a little you know a hundred things to do on the tube before you die
In exciting news that we've left High Street Ken
it's still saying it's gonna be an Olympia train it'll change it all let's find out when I get there
OK so we're good a train is going to Olympia so I will end my day in exactly the same
spot where I started it, it's two things to point out here, the reason why I'm so fascinated
by the Olympia service is of course to do a tube challenge we're trying the other tube challenge
to travel to 270 stations you have to do Olympia because the district line just goes there you can't
use the overground as per Guinness World Records rules to tick off Olympia you also can't do a
tube challenge at a weekend they say you can only do it Monday to Friday which means that you must
either get one of these limited trains or wait for an event like they've had the great british beer
festival takes place in August when i last the record in 2013 we did on them during the week
that the great british beer festival was on in terms of its service and then i think it's one
of those things where you know maybe if i want to close the station but closing the station is or
you know right pain in the proverbial so they run this sort of very sparse skeleton service
and it's not really meant for passengers because you know it's not a it's not a regular service
so what it really does is that Olympia and HSK they used to actually when went
TfL has stopped the daily service on Monday through Friday in 2011
does free up paths paths of course of space which trains can take which means that you have a better
service on other lines I think it meant more trains to Wimbledon and extra trains thing
to Broadway so there's good reason to further for doing it so you can't rely on the Olympia
service but it does mean that the service is improved on the district line elsewhere and
improves its reliability which is a good thing so that's the reason why but it's fun anyway just to
come out and try and get one of the limited Olympia trains if you're ever passing Earls' Court
around 7 or 8 o'clock in the evening pop on down to platform 1 see if you can catch
a limited train to Olymia, that's it I'm still excited about platform 4! I'm gonna shut up about that now
*PA* The next station is Olympia where this train terminates