Yorkshire222
Member
Reading a 1960 issue of Trains Illustrated, a letter makes interesting reading comparing then with now. (Perhaps in response to an article in a previous issue - but I don't have that one.)
"Do you not realise that the telephone is the curse of the modern businessman's existence? Only in a railway train can he feel really free. Many businessmen travel by train for precisely this reason. No doubt this infernal contrivance will be forced on us and British Railways will be able to net a surprisingly good revenue from a supplementary charge for telephone-free trains. Railway journeys in this country are not long enough for a business executive to be worried that he is out of touch; rather, he welcomes the short break."
Perhaps a previous article described continental practices as the Editor comments "all the best trains between Paris and Lille have telephones, which the French recently reported as being used about 30 times a day".
Did BR ever install phones on trains?
"Do you not realise that the telephone is the curse of the modern businessman's existence? Only in a railway train can he feel really free. Many businessmen travel by train for precisely this reason. No doubt this infernal contrivance will be forced on us and British Railways will be able to net a surprisingly good revenue from a supplementary charge for telephone-free trains. Railway journeys in this country are not long enough for a business executive to be worried that he is out of touch; rather, he welcomes the short break."
Perhaps a previous article described continental practices as the Editor comments "all the best trains between Paris and Lille have telephones, which the French recently reported as being used about 30 times a day".
Did BR ever install phones on trains?
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