The World's Fastest Train.

For various economic and other reasons there has been a tendency throughout the railway world to curtail exceptionally fast running of passenger trains during the past few years. Many trains running at abnormally low speeds, it is true, have been considerably accelerated, but few outstandingly fast timings have been introduced in any country.

Until recently the world's fastest start to stop run was credited to the Canadian Pacific Railway, with a train averaging 68.9 miles an hour. Now the Land of the Maple Leaf has to take second place in the world railway speed table, following new accelerated timings introduced on the Great Western Railway of Britain. The fastest daily train in the five continents is now the “Cheltenham Flyer,” covering the 77 ¾ miles between Swindon and Paddington Station, London, in 67 minutes, or a start to stop speed of 69.18 miles an hour.

The existing time-tables of the Home railways show some exceptionally fine passenger running. Trains like the “Flying Scotsman,” the “Royal Scot,” the “Atlantic Coast Express,” and the “Cornish Riviera Limited” have earned a worldwide reputation for speed, comfort and safety. During the next few months it seems likely many of these crack Home expresses will be considerably accelerated, but for all-round speedy running, the existing record of the Great Western Line will be hard to beat. In addition to operating the world's fastest train, the Great Western also claims to run the fastest night passenger train in the world. This is the 1.40 a.m. Paddington to Plymouth express, which covers the 225 ¾ miles in 265 minutes, an average throughout speed of 51.1 miles an hour. At present the Great Western time-tables feature no fewer than 53 passenger trains, covering 4,359 miles each week-day, travelling at start to stop speeds varying from 55 to 69 miles an hour, a really fine performance, of which any railway might well be proud.