Geoffrey Marshall (born August 1972)[1][4] is an English video producer, performer, and author from London who runs a YouTube channel which is predominantly transport-themed. Born in London, he spent three years living in the United States between 2006 and 2009, and now resides in south London.[1]
Early life
Marshall was born in Lambeth, south London, to parents Roy and Christina. He went to school in Croydon and Sutton, and finished his studies at the age of 15. His interest in London Transport began as a child, when he and his cousins planned to go on all the bus routes. He started his own website in the 1990s. Marshall has worked in the IT industry.[5][6]
London Underground station visit records
Marshall has twice held the world record for the Tube Challenge: travelling to all London Underground stations in the fastest time possible. His first record time to visit the then 270stations was achieved with Neil Blake in 18hours 35minutes and 43seconds in May 2004, on his seventh attempt.[7] This beat the previous world record of 19hours, 18minutes and 45seconds that was achieved by Jack Welsby in April 2002.[8]
His second record time of 16hours, 20minutes and 27seconds, was set in August 2013.[9][10] A previous attempt which came close was covered by BBC News as part of London Underground's 150 year celebrations.[11]
Between 2013 and 2019, Marshall was a contributor to Londonist.[13] One of the website's video series was Secrets of the Underground, in which Marshall presented little-known facts of the London Underground. The 17-episode series originally featured just the 11[12] London Underground lines, but later episodes were produced for the DLR, Overground, and Tramlink networks, as well as bonus episodes. The series has over 17million combined views. Marshall has continued to make Secrets of... videos on his own channel.
All the Stations was a project organised by Marshall and Vicki Pipe to visit all 2,563UK railway stations in the summer of 2017.[14][15] The pair filmed much of the journey, with daily updates posted on YouTube and other social media.[16] A feature-length documentary about the journey was produced in 2018.
Funded through Kickstarter, the journey started on 7 May in Penzance and finished 105 days later on 19 August in Wick. The series consisted of 59main videos and 12bonus videos. Marshall and Pipe visited every station in Great Britain, including those that are served by only a small number of trains,[17] including Shippea Hill station on 3 June, where 19 people joined them, meaning more passengers used the station in a single day than had in the whole of the previous year.[18]
In 2019, Marshall and Pipe crowdfunded All the Stations Ireland, in which they spent three weeks visiting all 198railway stations in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland during March and April 2019. Subsequently, they spent three days in July 2019 visiting the Isle of Man to travel to every station on the island.
TV and radio appearances
Geoff Marshall being interviewed at the opening of the Elizabeth line in May 2022
Marshall occasionally gives interviews on London TV and radio concerning transport stories, but first appeared on TV featuring in series 1 of ITV documentary The Tube. The second episode, titled "24 Hours", showed his unsuccessful attempt to beat Jack Welsby's Tube Challenge world record.[19] This was followed later in 2003 by "Race Around The Underground", part of Carlton Television's Metroland documentary series,[20] in which Marshall would have broken the record, had the Richmond Branch of the District Line not suffered a signal failure.[21]
Underground: USA was a 12-week documentary road trip which Marshall undertook between June and September 2009 in the US. He travelled to all 48 mainland states and, in each one, visited a town or a place that shared a name with a station on the London Underground map: for example, Epping, Maine, where the journey started. Despite having his filming equipment stolen during the trip,[23] Marshall turned the story into a one-hour YouTube documentary, as well as publishing an accompanying book.
Charity events
Marshall first organised a tube-based charity event in 2005 with Tube Relief, in response to the 7 July 2005 London bombings. Using the slogan "Not Afraid", around 50people took part and raised over £11,000 for the London Bombings Relief Charitable Fund.[24]
Subsequently, Marshall organised a series of Walk the Tube events to raise money for charities, by getting a group of people to visit every tube station, though not as a record attempt. These events took place in 2014, 2015, and 2016.[25]
