DURING the long September Weekend in 1977, there was much in the press about transport and travel, especially about innovative new approaches. The Glasgow Herald said Concorde had passed its 16-month trial at Dulles Airport in Washington DC; British Airways now hoped that a court would permit the supersonic aircraft to undergo a trial at New York’s Kennedy Airport.
At Gatwick, people queued from 4am on the Monday to get their hands on £59 single tickets that would take them to New York, courtesy of Freddie Laker’s low-cost Skytrain venture. And the Herald reported that British Rail’s high-speed Inter City 125 had arrived in Edinburgh for its first showing in Scotland. All of that said, the lure of a good, old-fashioned weekend trip by rail still had an allure for many. BR laid on extra trains and declared itself pleased with the response. The roads were unusually quiet for that time of year. And the weather was, as ever, mixed.
Heavy rain and a shortage of taxis awaited these returning holidaymakers at Glasgow’s Central Station on the Monday. You couldn’t have blamed any of them for thinking that, next time, they’d go to New York on Skytrain instead.
Back then, incidentally, wheeled luggage was still a novelty. It would be a good few years before the two-wheeler with telescoping handle really took off.
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