A BEAstly Journey
SIR,—Your correspondents Mr Cyril Ray and Mr Goodsir Smith seem to be irrevocably committed to (even fixated on) air travel. I suppose this must be either for status reasons, or for what one might call technocratic ones, since these tales of misfortune always seem to end with the victim arriving half an hour or so after the train (horrid old train!), which in any event left two hours later. So why not go by train in the first place?
Is it not clear that, while aeroplanes undoubtedly have their uses, taking passengers from London to Edinburgh reliably and in comfort is not among these? Over really long distances they are, of course, quicker than anything else; and on journeys in- volving sea travel one may prefer them to all the business of transferring from trains to boats (or perhaps one may not). But for journeys to, say, Edinburgh or St. Ives, I have never been able to understand why anyone allows themselves to suffer the (too often frightful) consequences of employ- ing either The Line That Leaves You Behind or The Line That Takes You By Bus.
Previous page
