Rules of the South London Challenge

Last updated: 14th November 2021
Updated to include Nine Elms and Battersea Power Station.

Stations to be visited:

Balham, Battersea Power Station, Bermondsey, Borough, Brixton, Canada Water, Clapham Common, Clapham North, Clapham South, Colliers Wood, East Putney, Elephant & Castle, Kennington, Kew Gardens, Lambeth North, London Bridge, Morden, Nine Elms, North Greenwich, Oval, Richmond, South Wimbledon, Southfields, Southwark, Stockwell, Tooting Bec, Tooting Broadway, Vauxhall, Waterloo, Wimbledon, Wimbledon Park.

General rules:

  1. The aim is to visit all 31 London Underground stations that are south of the River Thames in the fastest time.
  2. To "visit" a station means to arrive at or depart from (or both) all 33 stations that form the South London Challenge on a LU train. You are NOT required to get off at every station but you can of course alight at any station to change lines or transfer to a nearby station. If a station is temporarily closed (to ALL lines at that station) for any reason e.g. security alert, rebuilding etc. then a "pass through" of the station is accepted.
  3. In the event that a station has some line/s serving that station that are open for traffic and other line/s that are "passing through" non-stop then only a visit on the lines still stopping at that station will count. A pass through on the "closed" platforms will NOT be counted as a visit.
  4. Transfers between stations must only be undertaken on foot or by scheduled, timetabled public transport e.g. bus, NR trains, DLR or Tramlink. The use of private transport such as cars, bicycles, taxis or roller skates are not permitted.
  5. Challengers may compete in the South London Challenge as an individual (solo) or in small teams up to 5 people.
  6. Your time starts when the doors are locked closed ready for departure on the first train you board at the start station and the challenge ends when the first member of your team physically sets foot on the platform at your finishing station. The stopwatch must be continuously counting between your start and finish stations. Timings must be noted down in hours, minutes and seconds.
  7. If you finish by running/transferring to or departing from your last required station, or if your last required station is a "pass through" closed station, you must keep the stopwatch going until you arrive at the NEXT station in any direction.
  8. Even though this is a London Underground based challenge, you may use trains run by other operators that run on the SAME tracks as those used by Underground trains and calling at the SAME stations. For example, it permitted to visit Kew Gardens and Richmond on an Overground train.
  9. In order to verify your attempt (and for your time to appear on the leaderboard) it is requested that challengers keep a journey log of their challenge showing your start and finish stations, route and interchange points with arrival and/or departure times for each as appropriate. The logging of arrival and departure time at every intermediate station is not required (but can do so if you wish).
  10. This is not an official record as such, but is fully recognised by the Tube Challenge community.

General Advice:

  1. Although this is a race against time and I know you want to do your best but please be vigilant when doing inter-station runs along corridors and escalators, other members of the public may not be as easy on their feet or know the Underground as well as we do!
  2. Please do not hold the train doors open for an excessive amount of time, if your team mates are too far behind, let the train go and wait for them to catch up.
  3. By entering yourself into the South London Challenge you abide by these rules..

    4. For any questions, clarifications or to submit a time for the leaderboard, please contact the webmaster via email.
    Tangy (Webmaster).