New record set for fastest trip through entirety of NYC subway

New York City’s subway has 472 stations laid out across 665 miles of track. For decades, transit enthusiasts have jockeyed to set the record for the fastest time to travel through the whole system.

Last month, Kate Jones, a New Yorker now living in Switzerland, set a new standard. She completed the journey in 22 hours, 14 minutes and 10 seconds. Her time was certified last week by Guinness World Records.

“I wanted a problem to solve that would be interesting for my brain, but also like something that would get me moving physically,” Jones, 43, said over the phone. She said she spent months figuring out how to hit every station with the fewest repetitions and the fastest transfers — all while trying to avoid delays.

Her time was slightly longer than that of the previous record holder, Matthew Ahn, who in 2016 completed the so-called “Subway Challenge” in 21 hours, 28 minutes and 14 seconds. But that was before the MTA opened three new Second Avenue subway stations on the Upper East Side.

Jones’ record-setting run wasn’t her first attempt. She tried the challenge in 2014, and again a year later.

But after breaking her ankle while rock climbing last August, Jones said she wanted to give it another go. As April drew near, Jones still had two rods, two plates and 10 screws in her ankle, but said the race was her motivation to run again.

“I had lost the instinct to run, you know, the way a [stop] light changes and you wanna run across an intersection? I had to really think about it,” she said. “When there’s a train on the platform, the doors are closing, you have to run down the stairs and dive onto that train.”

Jones returned to New York last month for the challenge, and her first two attempts didn’t work out. She said her third attempt was promising, but during her 20th hour she made a blunder when she accidentally got on a train…