Yesterday a Virgin Train set a new speed record, travelling non-stop from Glasgow Central to London Euston in 3 hours, 55 minutes. It’s an impressive feat (kudos to the driver and all the rail staff involved), but as the discussion on uk.railway notes, the previous record of 4 hours 14 minutes was set by a train which stopped en route.
Coincidentally, if I want to travel from Liverpool to London tomorrow, National Rail is offering me a 10:06 departure, arriving at 14:02, a slightly less record-breaking 3 hours, 56 minutes!
In other news, Richard Branson has pledged to fight global warming by donating profits from his companies. Call me cynical, but if he wants to fight global warming, he might like to start by reducing the astronomical walk-on fares on his train service, thereby encouraging people off polluting cars and planes and into nice shiny electric Pendolinos. Just a thought.
UPDATE: There are rumours circulating that normal service trains were delayed to allow the special to pass unhindered!