Every Tube station in 18 hours

Most of us have faced lengthy delays on the Underground, but it took Geoff Marshall six days to reach his destination on the Tube.

However, he was attempting to secure a new world record - at the seventh attempt - to visit every station on the network.

Weary commuters may be flabbergasted by the endurance and eccentricity of Mr Marshall from Epsom.

He and his fellow traveller Neil Blake from Deptford, can now proudly claim to have got around London Underground's 275 stations in the quickest time. Their journey of 18 hours, 35 minutes and 43 seconds shaved 43 minutes off the previous best and has been recognised by Guinness World Records.

Even more astonishing is the fact that IT worker Mr Marshall made so many attempts to secure the record. Including a practice run, he spent almost 140 hours - about six days - travelling the Tube network in his quest. He was joined by finance worker Mr Blake, who was on his first attempt.

Mr Marshall said: "This time we worked out a new route, although it only needs one train to break down and your chances are over."

Such problems scuppered the first attempt in May 2002, when Mr Marshall missed three stations due to signal failure. Another attempt looked promising but a rival got a quicker time. The third and fourth attempts saw him only minutes off the record. The fifth attempt was in July 2003, on the day the front page of the Evening Standard revealed Tube temperatures of 98F. There were delays on the Central line and the record was missed by eight minutes. A year ago, the sixth attempt was aborted due to a knee injury.

Mr Marshall will not reveal the route in order to protect the record. But it began at 5.29am in Amersham on the Metropolitan line and ended at 12.05am at Upminster on the District line. Ironically, after their mission they missed the last Tube home and had to take a mini-cab.