The French have beaten their own speed record for the fastest train on convertional rails: -
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/6521295.stm

Only the Japaneese have beaten this but that was on a magnetic levitation rail. At 356mph, an Edinburgh/London journey with no stops would take a little over an hour. My 80 mile commute would be over in 14 mins and my misses would be happy for me to go see my beloved Barnsley loose at home every week.

Are we ever likely to see such speeds over here? If only, but unlikely. The tracks simply aren't up to the job for starters, there are too many bends and because we're a relatively small nation in terms of area, the stations are too close to each other meaning trains wouldn't have sufficient time to get up to full speed. Health and fracking safety would probably just ban it outright becasue little Jonney trespasser might get hurt and finally I'm convinced Network Rail want me to get out of bed at 6am for the rest of my natural.

My first reaction to this artical was "I've heard it all before", in fact I have heard it many many times over my 19 years as a commuter, but prehaps this time it is for real. Its well over due and the quicker it gets started the better because the infrastructure around the station now is little short of a joke. On a friday night the line of cars heading to the station to collect people can stretch back to the hospital and causes major delays for anyone coming into the city.

Prehaps, just prehaps "platform 6" will become a reality before I retire.

P.S I am only 46

http://www.peterboroughet.co.uk/ViewArticle.aspx?ArticleID=2223973&SectionID=845