They surrounded the T to every single station in one fell swoop

How lengthy may you spend using the MBTA? One hour? Two?

While most T riders faucet out after getting from Point A to Point B, a handful set their sights on a loftier objective: Traveling throughout all of the company’s subway strains in a single day and hitting every and every station.

Adam Oppenheimer and Charles Jessup Franklin are two of the newest Boston-area residents to undertake this problem, finishing their marathon final Sunday and clocking in at a staggering 10 hours and three minutes.

Oppenheimer, a latest faculty graduate who’s new to the space, mentioned he was impressed by others who had undertaken their very own “transit speedruns” in Boston and different cities.

“I’ve been loving exploring Boston, and this is just another opportunity to,” he defined in an e mail interview.

About 10 folks whole participated in a minimum of one leg of the journey, most becoming a member of for simply one or two subway strains, in accordance to Oppenheimer. By day’s finish, he and two others had accomplished the whole problem, setting out from Alewife shortly after 8:30 am and arriving at their final station — Union Square — at 6:36 pm

Franklin, a Cambridge political activist and software program engineer, mentioned he’d heard of the “MBTA Iron Man” or “The T Challenge” lengthy earlier than becoming a member of Oppenheimer for Sunday’s experience.

“When I first heard of it several years ago people doubted whether it could even be done in one day because the T was in such shambles,” he famous in an e mail interview. “But with the T now back on track thanks to [MBTA General Manager] Phillip Eng and company,” Franklin mentioned, “I decided to hop on the idea.”

Indeed, the MBTA has made sizable gains below Eng’s tenure, with crews eliminating a historic number of speed restrictions and addressing a backlog of repairs.

When masters college students from the MIT Transit Lab set out to experience every of the T’s speedy transit strains from finish to finish in 2013, it took them more than 12 hours with occasional breaks and bus connections — and that was earlier than the Green Line Extension added a handful of stops in Somerville and Medford.

According to TransitRuns, a world database of transit speedruns, the time to beat on the MBTA is now simply over 7 hours and 21 minutesa report set in 2025.

Oppenheimer’s group took about an hourlong break for lunch, and he estimated they might have shaved off one other 40 minutes to an hour in ready instances had they “hustled a bit more.” Still, he mentioned the day “just flew by,” with few delays and an “exceptionally smooth” experience.

He organized themed, color-coordinated snacks for the journey and spent a while chatting with strangers on the prepare, together with a Braintree-bound rider carrying a sousaphone. Reflecting on their journey, each Oppenheimer and Franklin pointed to the Mattapan Line as private favorites.

“I had never been on the Mattapan Line before, so riding the virtually indestructible PCC cars was fun. It felt like I was riding a bus from history class,” Franklin defined. “It was also pretty exciting to see the Red and Orange lines operate at 50+ MPH.”

Franklin praised the Orange Line’s pace and the views from the Red and Blue strains, in addition to the forward-facing seats on the Green Line’s older mannequin Type 7 vehicles.

His recommendation for others wanting to hit every of the MBTA’s subway stations?

“Bring friends, enjoy the view, and don’t get stressed about just barely missing that train,” Franklin mentioned. “There will be another one.”

Abby Patkin is a normal task information reporter whose work touches on public transit, crime, well being, and the whole lot in between.