When I was a nipper my folks took me and my sister on a holiday to Whitby in Yorkshire to visit my Dad’s brother who ran a pub there. We set of for Victoria coach station at sparrows fart and boarded the motor coach that took us part way. This took the best part of the day, no Mways and town bypasses then, we just jogged along in the traffic. We then boarded a train which again only took us part way and one thing I remember was the fact that this train changed gear, it must have been one of the first local diesels to go into operation and was really a bus that ran on railway tracks. By the time we got onto the local bus it had been dark for a long, long time and well past me and my siters bedtime. We yawned ourselves stupid in an heroic effort to keep awake as we did not wish to miss any sightings of the strange people that lived this far north from our home in South West London. We finally pulled into Whitby at around midnight and were given a cup of hot milk before being whisked between crisp white sheets and bed.
The whole journey had taken about nineteen hours door to door and that is why I say that with todays aircraft it is possible to travel from the UK to Australia in about twenty four hours, which in my book and real time, makes Sydney almost as close as Whitby in Yorkshire.
Boadicea's Chariot 
funny enough, when I lived in Jhb (late ’80’s) it was quicker to drive to Durban than fly. (A distance of about Km500 (300 miles))
When one takes into consideration the time to drive to and from the respective airports, the 1 hour checking in time and depending of course what car you were driving I would get there quicker everytime!
When I flew back from Belfast last October it took 55 minutes. I took the train to Liverpool Street, around 45 minutes. I saw my bus, pulling away from the stand. The bus journey would normally be no more than 20 minutes, depending on time of day and traffic levels. The next timetabled bus didn’t appear. In the end it look longer to get the two or so miles from Liverpool Street home than from Belfast to Stansted.
Just for you OMG.
Very droll, I loved the ‘working class’ section, ba gum, thanks very much Ferret, it were ‘reet greet’.
I used to travel from Oxford to Boston, (Lincs) by bus and train. 7-8 hours. Must’ve been love.
Where could I get to in that time by plane?! (Or by a direct train, rather than two changes and a wait at Grantham?)
Long long ago I had the misfortune to interview at Hull Uni, getting there was pretty slow, had to use a BandB, next day had the interview and managed to miss the train home, Caught the next one 3 hours later, It was Christmas Eve and I stood all the way to London, it stopped so often for this that and the other I was stranded in Central London and couldn’t get any further. In all it took three days to get to and fro the wretched place!
Spousal unit managed to regularly spend 27 hours getting from Vancouver to Pembrokeshire. The flight is generally only about 11-12 hours. But it was three changes of trains. Bus link to Reading, Change at Bristol Parkway and again in Carmarthen! The coaches are quicker but he like our BR trains! (pervert!)
But then he commuted out of Grand Central NY for ten years! Aargh.
PS. I never took that place at Hull, went to Exeter that I could get to in a mere 5 hours in those days.
Love the video, had to translate for spousal unit.
Oh! the joys of public transport, my so called “higher” education was in London, my home was in South Wales. To get there I used to get the last train from Paddington to Cardiff via Gloucester, it left about 11:45 pm. The train stopped everywhere there was a station and in some places where there was not. However it did NOT stop in my home town, but it would roll slowly over the Wye river bridge immediately before the station, at about 4:00 am. By that time I was relatively sober and would open the door throw out my bag and jump into the darkness swinging the door shut behind me, the station was unmanned even in the sixties, and in five minute I was home. It was the only way to do the trip without changing trains.
Judging by some of these horror stories my boyhood trip to Whitby was undertaken at warp speed.
My worst ever public transport experience was the trip from Haverfordwest (Christinas Locale) to my home town of South Shields way back in 1982.
There was a snail trail up to Crewe which took some 12 hrs to complete, missed my 11pm connection for Newcastle and left me with a night on Crewe platform before I could catch teh 07:30am train the next day.
I had blown all my cash on the ticket so got home thirsty and ravenous.
I’m always saying this, but until you’ve tried the rickety old Wigan to Manchester Victoria, or vica versa, it’s my opinion that you seriously have not, plumbed the true depths of the delapidated excuse for the British transport system..
Last year, in January we did Paris Charles de Gaulle to Manchester, in six hours, including lifts to airport, flights, check in etc. THen guess how long it took for the train to drag our sorry little backsides to Wigan Wallgate? Seven hours. And with two babies in tow, it really was a total nightmare.
i agree with you. i can take an overnight train and travel 13hrs down to the hong kong border or jump on a crowded aircraft and be there in 2. Sometimes it’s more relaxing trundling through the countryside and watching the scenery.