Friends of the Rail Forum

It's Glasgow-Edinburgh at 140mph ... in 30 mins

High speed rail link plans between Edinburgh and Glasgow unveiled

High-speed rail plan for Glasgow to Edinburgh line

I was delighted for the people of the Central Belt to read about the high speed link, but amazed by the ministers comments about the Scotrail network.

I often travel from London to Aberdeen and back by train, and between Edinburgh and Aberdeen there are many sections of speed limits of 20 mph and in one part single track working. For the people of Inverness the service is about the same. As a guide the train from London takes under 4 hours to travel to Edinburgh, but another three to travel the remaining 120 miles. The current time to London is slower than in 1891! Read the story about the 'Race to the North'.

Along the same lines of historic speeds, I seem to remember reading somewhere that the train from New York to Chicago was faster in 1939 than it is today.