A brief (but delayed) history of commuting
A brief (but delayed) history of commuting
If you're watching this on your daily commute, you'd be forgiven for feeling less than enthusiastic about trains. But as hard as it is to imagine, before the advent of commuter rail people faced a lot more peril than indefinite delays, expensive fares and getting to know the intimate notes of strangers' body odours. The world's first purpose-built passenger railway opened in 1830 and ran between Liverpool and Manchester. Prior to that, if you wanted to travel between the two you would either have to spend 12 hours meandering along the canals, which wasn’t so bad if you were willing to shut your eyes and pretend you were in Venice, or you could risk a three hour bone-jolting stagecoach ride down narrow, winding roads and keeping everything crossed that you wouldn't crash! The new trains reached speeds of up to 35mph. While some thrill seeking passengers treated the experience like a day at Alton Towers, others were terrified by the speed. An earlypassenger, Charles Young, said: "In less than five minutes off, we went like a shot from a gun. No sooner did we come to a field than it was a mile behind us" Nobody tell Charles about the Shanghai maglev, which with speeds of up to 267.8mph, is the fastest train in the world. It's hard to imagine how impressive this new invention was to early adopters. Actress Fanny Kemble described the romanticism of it: "You can't imagine how strange it seemed to be journeying on thus. Without any visible cause of progress other than the magical machine with its flying white breath and rhythmical, unvarying pace.“ You might find it comforting that one thing that hasn't changed is that the railway company underestimated the demand for their magical machine. Having budgeted for a daily quota of 250 passengers, the railway regularly found itself carrying more than four times that many. One thing us modern commuters should perhaps be grateful for, although first class passengers on the early trains had covered carriages, everyone else was exposed to the elements. At least now we all get a roof! We can also count ourselves lucky to have official stops and platforms. At first, stops were by request but that quickly became inconvenient. You can probably guess why. And with no raised platforms, passengers boarded the train at track level. Definitelynot a risk you'd take today. While the rail network wasn't and still isn't perfect, it's easy to forget just how revolutionary it actually was. The easy journey between Manchester and Liverpool meant people could more effectively meet and do business, had new opportunities for leisure and maybe even to find love. Knowledge and ideas could also be communicated more quickly than ever before, with the transportation of newspapers and mail. As the rail network grew, more accurate time-keeping was needed to keep travellers on track. Clocks around the country were synchronised and standardised, and railway time ruled. This ensured that six o'clock in Oxford was the same as in Crewe and Barrow. So whether you love or hate rail travel, there's no denying that life in the UK today would be unimaginable without it. And the next time you've got your nose in someone's armpit, think back to a time when commuter rail was an exciting, magical and even terrifying new technology. You might just see it in a whole new light.
