29 August 2013

From London to Brighton in 3 minutes

For those raised in Britain a speed-ed up film of a train journey from London to Brighton will be a childhood memory. The version I remember was from 1953 and must have played as a filler in cinemas as well as on TV. The BBC taped it again in 1983, thirty years later, and have now done so again on the 60th anniversary.
This time a special train journey was made, with the improvements continually being made there is now no non-stop service to Brighton; soon there will be no non-stop service between London and Gatwick. If things get much better non-stop services will be entirely eliminated!
All three journeys, 1953, 1983 and 2013, are shown in a synchronized, side-by-side video at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-23853863
At the speed shown the journey is superficially identical, until you examine how much styles of dress have changed in the station views.
Thanks to Paul Jones for the tip.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

But John, now they have thought up HS2, non-stop between Euston and Birmingham. And they can't see the uselessness of it from the point of view of people who live in between!