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Subway Riding Record Shattered!

Jen Chung

Published Dec 30, 2006

Modified Mar 7, 2008

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Jen Chung

Published Dec 30, 2006

Modified Mar 7, 2008

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Congratulations ot Brian Brockmeyer, Stefan Karpinski, Andrew Weir, Jason Laksa, Bill Amarosa and Michael Boyle (left to right) for shattering the 17 year old subway riding record and hitting all 468 stations in 24 hours, 54 minutes, and 3 seconds. Their website, Rapid Transit Challenge, is full of tidbits about their journey, and here's what they say about the finish:

There were 75 transfers made over the course of the run

We traveled on all but one of the 26 subway routes, missing the Z train

The approximate distance covered during the run was 292.1 miles of track

Our average speed was 11.7 miles per hour including all waiting time

The total travel time was 18 hours, 8 minutes, 17 seconds

The total waiting time was 6 hours, 45 minutes, 46 seconds

Bathroom breaks are a popular topic for questions. It was never really an issue for us during the ride. We drank only small amounts of liquids and visited four restrooms in the system at the following locations:

Chambers St after getting off the C around 7:13pm

179 St after getting off the F around 12:59am

Roosevelt Ave after getting off the V around 7:34am

Lexington Ave/60th St after getting off the R around 1:05pm

Also awesome: Friends visited them on the route, bringing food, and transit workers were enthusiastic, with one conductor on a B train telling other riders, "Everybody, you should know you're riding on the train with the guys who are trying to break the record." And this chart showing how much ahead of the old record they were at each transfer? Brilliant.

But does this chart mean that subway service has gotten better? Hmm.

The team is submitting their results to the Guinness Book of World Records - they caveat it by saying it may take several months for the information to be officially accepted. Guinness, Schmuinness, they rule for their feat of transit endurance. We hope they put all sorts of other information up on the site after they've gotten some rest.

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Chambers St

food

friends

Guinness Book

lexington ave

News: NYC

roosevelt ave.

subway

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transit

travel

world records

Jen Chung

Jen Chung is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.

Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations

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