Ben Webster travelled more than 300 miles yesterday in the time it took me to travel 30.

As he stepped on board the Eurostar in Paris at 9.45am, I was setting out from Chesham, Buckinghamshire. Two hours later, as I ran panting through the doors of St Pancras International, Ben floated serenely off the train.

Tacked on to the northwest end of the London Underground Metropolitan Line, Chesham is prime commuter territory. But a strike by Metronet’s 2,300 members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union meant that all but three Tube lines were closed yesterday.

Yomi Tosef, 31, a commuter, said that he gets up at 5am daily to be at work in London by 8am. His route involves four changes, if he’s lucky.

I give myself a sneaky head start on Webster and arrived at Chesham station at 9.36am. A sign informed would-be travellers of the strike and helpfully advised them to “use alternative routes”.

A trio of teenagers decided to take the bus and I followed them. The bus stopped at Amersham, two miles south, where Chiltern Railways runs a line to Marylebone. The 10.26 train was packed. The lavatories grimy, the windows grimier.

I arrived at Marylebone at 11.05am. The Underground station was shut so I walked to Baker Street, where I squeezed on to a bus. Fifteen minutes and a mile later, I prised myself out, walked another half a mile to King’s Cross station and weave my way through a maze of alleyways around St Pancras station. Webster’s train pulls in. I stagger through the station doors. It’s a dead heat.

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