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A train-obsessive has achieved a life's ambition by visiting every station on the New York subway system in less than a day - setting a new world record in the process.

Glen Bryant of Emsworth in Hampshire achieved his feat by visiting the 468 stops that make up the Big Apple's underground network in an impressive 22 hours, 26 minutes and two seconds.

Quite the journey: The New York subway system is one of the biggest in the world, with 468 stations

A pharmacist by profession, Mr Bryant, 26, travelled to New York with five other enthusiasts, starting his epic journey at 3am, and finishing at 1am the following day.

His jaunt has been recognised as a Guinness World Record.

The trick to managing this herculean task, he says, was team work.

'It's easier to do the challenge in a group because you have one person doing the photographs and one person doing the log book,' he explains.

'For me, the job was making sure we passed through every station, and [deciding] what line we were taking next.

Enthusiast: Glen Bryant achieved his feat in 22 hours, 26 minutes and two seconds

'We would stop, the doors would open and we would take the photograph.

'You don't have to physically step on the platform.

'There are times when it has gone wrong with delays, lines being closed and broken down trains.

'But overall we had some good luck.

'We were up for 26 hours and if it wasn't for my teammates, I probably would have fallen asleep.'

'There was no celebration at the end. It was more like "Can we go to bed now?"'

This swift dash around America's most famous city eclipsed the previous record by almost half an hour.

In 2009, Chris Solarz and Matt Ferrisi, both from New York, completed the challenge in 22 hours and 52 minutes.

Odyssey: Mr Bryant's journey took him to all corners of the network - including stations in Queens

Before tackling this marker, Mr Bryant also took on a solo challenge to visit all 270 stations on the London Underground in the quickest time possible.

He decided to take up the challenge after becoming interested in the London Underground and discovering the record for visiting all the stations on Wikipedia.

Despite attempting the challenge 14 times, Mr Bryant was always pipped to the post and fell short of the record by just one hour - coming in at 17 hours and 29 minutes.

However, he has had more success on the other side of the Atlantic.

His New York time has now been ratified as a record, complete with certificate - although he had to wait for his achievement to be confirmed.

'It took six months to find out we had actually got the record so it was a nerve-wrecking wait.

'Now it's official, it's quite amazing.'