READING about the Hyperloop, and Richard Branson’s wish to transport us between Glasgow and London in 45 minutes (Branson promises to send Hyperloop passengers from London to Glasgow in 45 minutes, October 12), reminded me of this passage:
Posterity may be shot like a bullet through a tube, by atmospheric pressure from Winchester to Newcastle: that is a fine result to have among our hopes; but the slow old-fashioned way of getting from one end of our country to the other is a better thing to have in the memory. The tube journey can never lend much to picture and narrative; it is as barren as an exclamatory O!
This was written in 1866 by George Eliot, in the introduction to her novel Felix Holt.
Although I have no wish to return to the transport and conditions of Eliot’s day, I wonder if the modern business person, rushing from one place to another, has any appreciation of the country they are passing through, and the people living there who are affected by the decisions they make in the pursuit of profit at any cost.
Robert Mitchell
Stirling
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