Dear LPG, 

I think that most will agree that it has been a while since we have felt seriously free and safe enough to get back to travelling a bit further away from home on public transport but, apart from all the problems that understaffing seems to be causing now that we are getting back to normal, I recently decided on a trip to deepest darkest Kent to spend a few days with a very dear friend.

One thing that the pandemic has taught me is a knack for asking all those really trivial questions you can ask Google about and, when you are going to be on a train for longer than ten minutes these days you really look out of place unless you are doing something with a mobile phone.

I found myself a window seat and resisted the temptation to focus on the small screen as I began to appreciate the scenery beyond the train’s window, but I soon realised that we had to be going pretty fast because as we passed the stations we missed out, I could not even catch what was written on those green signs that display the station names.     That got me thinking about just how quickly you can get from London to anywhere on the British south coast these days, and one of the things I managed to do was find an app which told me that the train I was sitting on was averaging about 88 miles per hour at times.  Impressive I thought and, even though I had planned to get back to appreciating the view, the fact that it was speeding past so fast got me thinking to the point where I felt the need to follow fashion and focus on the phone.  I got the mobile phone out and asked Google a few more vaguely related questions.  

Did you know that the fastest UK train is the Eurostar E320 which averages 124 miles per hour?  I thought that that was impressive until I came across what I found next. I don’t have that much interest in trains really, but I then found a video or two which shows the fastest trains in the world, and I have to say the thought of traveling on the Shanghai Maglev which averages about 268 miles per hour is a bit mind blowing.  

What was passing me really quickly outside the window of the train, and all those ‘wooshy’ thoughts of speed, left me thinking about Donald Campbell and what he achieved back in 1964.  I remember seeing it on the telly all those years ago, but I can only tell you the details because I found them on the internet while traveling pretty quickly.  He managed 403 miles per hour and now the record is over 763 miles per hour courtesy of a dare devil named Andy Green.  

I have to say that all that research left me a bit in awe of just how fast and far we have come even though I am personally getting slower and slower as I get older.

BD, Beckenham 

BD offers is the information she found.. 

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