Welcome to Wimbledon Station,
where I'm not getting this tram,
I'm getting this one.
Okay, so here's what we're doing.
Many years ago, twice in fact, I've been known
for getting round all the tube station,
the entire Lunderground network
in the fastest time possible.
Off the back of that people then tried to do things
like how fast could you visit all the DLR stations?
How fast could you do just all the overground stations?
And another obvious candidate is this one,
which I'm doing today, which is how long,
how fast can you do all tram stops?
There's 39 tram stops in total.
Now, I'm not the only person to have tried this,
amusingly from one of my bus hop videos,
there's my friend Hugo and his friend, Josh.
Now Josh, in this clip here
is actually the unofficial record holder.
It's about one and a half hours.
I'll put the details down in the description.
There's a website which lists
all these alternative challenges,
and he actually holds the record
for getting to all 39 tram stops.
Now, I don't think I'm going to beat that today.
Merely because since he did that a couple of years ago,
the timetable has changed.
However, on that Wimbledon, I'm heading for
either Beckenham or Elmer's, or New Addington
depending on what happens.
And I think, I think I can get round all 39 tram stops,
in about one hour 35, one hour 40,
maybe one hour, 45 minutes.
(upbeat music)
So it's one minute past 11, we've just started.
The reason why I waited for this tram rather than the one
that was already on the platform
is that if everything works out to time,
I should hopefully make a sneaky connection
at Beckenham Junction that I'm trying to make.
Obviously the first question you could use,
The next stop will be Dundonald road.
Is what is my planned route?
So let's have a nice graphic and a voiceover
with what my planned route is.
[Geoff] So starting at Wimbledon,
the plan is to go to Reeves corner,
where you get out and go on foot, up to George Street,
where you catch a tram coming back round
the clock winds loop through central Croydon,
all the way through to Beckenham Junction.
Here you get out, you can go on foot or catch
a bus down to Elmer's End.
Get a tram there and come back down to Sandilands
where you change for the last time, reverse direction,
this time, getting a tram down
to the finish at New Addington.
(tram beeping)
The next stop will be Merton Park.
(upbeat music)
This is all going swimmingly easy so far,
three minutes in at 11:04,
stop number three.
This tram is for Beckenham Junction.
Merton Park.
(upbeat music)
Now if you noticed I've chosen my time carefully
doing it off peak, sort of in the morning on a weekday.
I think it the best time,
this point of trams where it goes to the central of Croydon,
and then you get rather busy so doing this in peak hours,
you would get stuck in road traffic.
So I'm hoping
(tram announcer speaking)
hoping that 10, 11 in the morning
is the optimum time to do this.
(upbeat music)
The next stop will be Phipps Bridge.
(upbeat music)
The next stop will be Belgrave Walk.
(upbeat music)
This tram is for Beckenham Junction.
[Tram Announcer] The next stop will be Mitcham.
(tram beeping)
11, 12, eight stops in Mitcham Junction playing fairly.
Is for Beckenham Junction.
(person coughing)
(tram whirring)
The next stop will be Reeves Corner.
Okay, we're 22 minutes down,
and the by down, I mean, in.
We're on time, I've got out the tram at Reeves Corner.
I'm walking at a fast pace.
I might run in a second.
But to explain, Reeves Corner is stop number 14.
Now here, you have to knock out
Church Street and George Street.
I could have gone one stop more to Centrale,
but that would involve cutting through the shopping centre.
Instead if I just head up this road here,
I think that'd be the fastest way of doing it.
(Geoff breathing heavily)
(tram whirring)
I really needed to make that tram and I didn't make it.
(panting)
The next one's, the Wimbledon one.
So what I'm going to do,
(heavy breathing)
is do George Street to Church Street,
and then at Church street, run back to Reeves Corner.
And I think the thing to do here would be just to run.
I don't think I'll make it back to Reeves Corner.
What if I run to Centrale?
(Geoff breathes heavily)
And I've made it, I hear it in the distance.
You can see one, that's come from Wimbledon
and it's heading, and already we haven't done Elmer.
It's heading for Elmer's End.
So I've got decide what to do.
(tram whirring)
So we're leaving Centrale on an Elmer's End tram.
If I'd have made that one before it would have taken me
to Beckenham Junction, which was the plan.
So do I wait for the Beckenham, the next Beckenham Junction?
Or do I go to Elmer's End first?
I think we have to to do the sensible thing,
go to Elmer's End first, but now I have,
I have two choices of what to do at Elmer's End.
(tram whirring)
Okay we're just departing Lebanon Road
Sandlands' next to the train will then branch up
to Elmer's End, what I'm considering,
I'm looking at real time trains, open train times
is at Elmer's End, you get a national rail
Southeastern Service is the 11:54 to Cannon Street,
take it one stop to Clockhouse.
You then run 90 seconds on the road
to Beckenham Road trams,
or I'll get the bus to Beckenham Junction from Clockhouse.
It depends whether I make that 11:54 or not at Elmer's End.
And if they're there too early, then I'll just run
or walk to Birkbeck instead, or get a bus.
(upbeat music)
(tram announcer speaking)
There's a south eastern in four minutes.
There's a 54 bus in nine minutes.
I think the most sensible thing to do,
would just be to go on the road,
on foot to Birckbeck and make a direct tram connection.
(traffic whirring)
(Geoff breathing heavily)
(Geoff's footsteps)
(tram beeping)
(Geoff breathing heavily)
Thank you!
(laughs)
The next stop
will be Beckenham Junction, (tram beeping)
where this tram (tram beeping)
will terminate. (tram beeping)
So as I got to Birckbeck, got my breath back now,
as I got to Birckbeck, I could see the tram,
and then I run up the pathway, I wave to him,
I've a nice driver, Mr. Tram Driver,
if you're watching this video,
(laughs)
that was exceeding the kind of you.
Otherwise that's it's a 10 minute wait on this section.
This now means, and it's 11:59.
There's a 12:03 out of Beckenham Junction.
So as we pull into Beckenham Junction,
there should be a tram on the other side
of the island platform.
I should just be able to hop across
and leave Beckenham Junction quite quickly.
And then there's only one more change at Sandilands to make.
And then we're home and dry.
[Geoff] That's the tram.
[Geoff] Easy, easy.
(tram beeps)
Made the 12:03.
This tram.
And we're going to make it, we got to Sandilands,
and I thought I wasn't going to make it, and look at that,
a beautiful sight pulling in right now,
is the New Addington tram.
(tram whirs)
(tram beeping)
It is 12:21.
The timer, let's have a look.
It's just gone to 1:20.
I think we'll roll into New Addington around 1:40,
at most 1:45.
So the record is 1:35.
So I think we'll miss it by about five to 10 minutes,
but we'll see, on to the last tram.
(upbeat music)
So we're coming into stop 38, King Henry's Drive,
the timer is at 1:34,
so this is going to be very close.
I've done better than I thought I was going to do.
Okay, pulling into, King Henry's now.
[Tram Announcer 2] Please keep an eye on your luggage
and possessions.
Remember to take them with you when you leave the tram.
Pulling in at 1:35, it's going to be 1:36
when the doors open.
(tram beeping)
1:36 and one second.
There we go.
Welcome to New Addington.
That is a lot better than what I was expecting.
What? Hang on.
Oh, thank you.
That's all 39, isn't it?
Yeah, all 39, New Addington, okay.
Okay, I need to get a cup of tea
and we'll digest everything that's just happened.
(tram beeps)
Okay, I've had my tea, it started raining.
It's a bit drizzly, it's a bit chilly.
So I'll get back on the tram in a second,
just wanted to quickly talk about them,
what happened?
So, first of all, if I'd have run immediately
from Reeves Corner, I would have caught the, that tram,
which is going round to West Croydon,
what I don't know if that was going
to Beckenham Junction or Elmer's End.
So I feel like I could have made an earlier tram,
but as it was, when I got out at Elmer's End,
I did make right choice in going to Birkbeck.
And I probably caught that tram that I shouldn't have done
because of that kind of driver waited for me.
So thank you very much.
Made the speedy connection at Beckenham Junction.
And then at Sandilands, I felt like I made a tram,
which I should have missed.
I think that tram heading to New Addington at Sandilands
was running about a minute late.
As, it is, I made 1:36:01,
which I think puts me into third place
on the unofficial leaderboard, which I'm quite happy with.
So that is really good.
Do I want to do it again?
I do, just to see if I can move more quickly
between Reeves Corner and George Street
and maybe make the earlier tram, but there we go.
All 39 tram stops in just over an hour and a half.
I'm going to check my Oyster balance as well,
because I'm wondering if at the hopper fare,
it only cost me one pound 50, or whether it charged me
three pounds, but we'll see.
So as that tram arrives, I'll say bye-bye.
Come ride the Croydon trams.
See ya.
(upbeat music)