{"id":16048,"date":"2024-02-29T09:37:25","date_gmt":"2024-02-28T23:37:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/?p=16048"},"modified":"2024-02-29T09:37:25","modified_gmt":"2024-02-28T23:37:25","slug":"gtr-train-enthusiast-on-track-to-visit-all-2580-gb-railway-stations-in-six-weeks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/?p=16048","title":{"rendered":"GTR train enthusiast on track to visit all 2,580 GB railway stations in six weeks"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Control Room Train Services Manager for Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR)<\/a> aims to set a new record by visiting all 2,580 of Great Britain\u2019s railway stations in just six weeks.<\/p>\n

As part of his charity mission, Dave Jones, 34, of Three Bridges, West Sussex, hopes to average 62 stations a day in England, Wales and Scotland. He is charting his \u2018Great British Rail Adventure\u2019 on social media.<\/p>\n

Dave\u2019s trains must stop at every station for them to qualify. Two workmates helped with the mammoth task of mapping his journey on a Word document, using their railway industry train tracking system and National Rail Enquiries.<\/p>\n

His colleagues now have a 6ft by 2ft map of the Great Britain and a small image of Dave to move around to track his progress as he updates them on his latest position via social media.<\/p>\n

Dave said: \u201cI\u2019ll be sleeping on board wherever I can. I\u2019ll be on my own so the thing I\u2019m dreading most is keeping my mental health going.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome people call me brave. Some people call me bonkers. And some people call me other things which I can\u2019t repeat.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dave set off from Three Bridges station, home to the Sussex Rail Operating Centre where he works on 19 February.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s been stopping at as many stations as possible when not on shift but tomorrow (28 February) he\u2019s taking just over a month\u2019s leave so he can pack in as much travel as possible.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s all for charity,\u201d said Dave. \u201cI\u2019m splitting the money I raise between Great Ormond Street Hospital and the children\u2019s intensive care unit at the Oslo University Hospital.<\/p>\n

\u201cI referee Sunday park football and the Oslo hospital saved a friend\u2019s life when she was refereeing there on tour. She had a nasty freak accident on the pitch that split her spleen. If it hadn\u2019t been for the medics, this would have been more of a memorial trip.<\/p>\n

\u201cI also want to highlight how great the railways are and encourage people to visit fantastic destinations across the network.\u201d<\/p>\n

As well as the stations of suburbia and Britain\u2019s 86 counties, Dave\u2019s trip will take him to the Isle of Wight and the Island Line\u2019s eight stations, but he\u2019s most looking forward to the scenic routes of the West Highlands, Cornwall and Wales.<\/p>\n

Only two other people are known to have visited all the stations in Great Britain. Geoff Marshall and Vicki Pipe completed their tour in 2017 and charted their trip on YouTube. They weren\u2019t racing the clock and took a \u2018leisurely\u2019 14 weeks, 6 days and 22 minutes. There were also only 2,563 stations then \u2013 17 fewer than today.<\/p>\n

Geoff Marshall said: \u201cI take my hat off to Dave. He must be mad to try this! Good luck to him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dave\u2019s fundraising page is www.gofundme.com\/f\/stop-at-all-2579-railway-stations-in-the-uk<\/a> \u2013 he first created the page before Brent Cross West opened its doors in December and there are now 2,580 stations. You can also follow him on Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.<\/p>\n

His handles are Twitter (X) @railadventure89 and Instagram greatbritishrailadventure.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Control Room Train Services Manager for Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR) aims to set a new record by visiting all 2,580 of Great Britain\u2019s railway […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":16049,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[7,11],"class_list":["post-16048","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-rail-news","tag-transport","tag-usa"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16048","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16048"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16048\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/16049"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16048"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16048"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16048"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}