Jonathan Pettit and Alan Opie will attempt to break the World Record for the London Tube Challenge on 2 September 2024 (delayed from 22 August 2024 due to planned engineering works on the Piccadilly Line) in support of 2 fantastic charities.

- Jonathan, who works for the British Association of Landscape Industries, will support their charity of the year Thrive (www.thrive.org.uk). Thrive is the gardening for health charity who help to improve people's physical and mental health through gardening and horticulture.

- To celebrate his retirement after 44 wonderful years serving in the RAF, Alan will support the RAF Association (www.rafa.org.uk). RAFA provides serving RAF personnel, RAF veterans and their families with a wide range of vital support services including befriending, wellbeing training, professional childcare, training for partners, retirement living, casework support and help to secure emergency grants.   

The London Tube Challenge is a true marathon of public travel, requiring us to visit all 272 tube stations in a day. In 2018, we attempted to break the previous world record of 15 hrs 45 mins 38 secs set in 2015 for visiting 270 stations. Despite major engineering problems closing the Jubilee Line for 6 hrs, we managed to visit all bar one of the stations (Heathrow Terminal 4) in 19 hrs 15 mins before the network closed.

In 2021, the Northern Line Tube Extension to Nine Elms added 2 more stations to the network and a new Guinness World Record of 20 hrs 4 mins 10 secs was set by Adham Fisher on 4 October 2021. Alan and Jon have registered their attempt with Guinness World Records to set a new mark on 22 August.

In visiting the 272 stations on the London Tube Network, we are permitted to connect between stations by tube, on foot or using other forms of public transport. We are not allowed to get a taxi or a lift. The challenge requires considerable planning, fitness, stamina and a good sense of humour and, as our last attempt demonstrated, plenty of good luck to ensure that the tubes keep running. We will broadcast our progress on the day on social media so please follow us and help us to make history and support the work of two fantastic charities.