NY Subway non-record

Two self-professed "infrastructure nerds" have set a new record after riding the entire New York subway system non-stop in just over 24 hours, reports say.

College buddies Don Badaczewski and Matt Green started out in the north-eastern district of Queens at dawn on Wednesday, reemerging 24 hours and two minutes later in the Bronx after riding every route on the city's 26 lines.

"It's just a challenge that would set ourselves apart from other people," Mr Green, 26, a transportation engineer, told the New York Daily News.

Armed only with beef jerky and water, and unable to use a toilet during the attempt, Badaczewski, 24, told New York One television: "We toughed it out. It was difficult. It's a big subway, a big subway".

The pair appeared unruffled by reports that Guinness World Records did not consider the feat as record-breaking because the pair did not stop at each of the more than 460 stations that dot the system's 1,100 kilometres or so of track, as in previous attempts.

"We didn't really care about it being officially certified by Guinness or anything like that. We were just in it for the experience," Mr Green said.

The 24 hours and two minutes they took to ride the system was believed to be a new record despite the fastest official time for the feat, including stops at every station, standing at 25 hours 11 minutes - a record set in 1998.

The subway challenge began in 1966, when bored student Peter Samson spent a vacation finding and timing the best route.

"We were like, 'Hey, we can do that. All we have to do is sit down'," Mr Badaczewski told the Daily News.