Station to station

This is the view from the southern end of Lancaster station.

If you keep following these tracks (and don't take any wrong turns) you'll end up at Euston station in London. That is actually quite extraordinary, no? An unbroken stretch of land that runs all the way from Glasgow to London.

I've only gone the whole distance once, by accident, when I was on my way home and I discovered as we were pulling out of Preston that the train didn't stop at Lancaster. Next stop, Glasgow :-(

Years and years ago I read Alan Moore's 'Voice of the Fire' and one of the stories in that book really conveys the discomfort and tedium of travelling by stage coach. These travelled at around jogging speed, covering perhaps sixty miles in a day.

Stage coaches were still in use (just) a hundred years ago but now I can go from Lancaster to London on about two and a half hours. Isn't that amazing? I guess that would have taken five or six days in a stage coach. I wonder how long it will take in a hundred years time?