Speed-up

King's Messenger, 1918-1940: Memoirs of a Silver Greyhound. By George P. Antrobus, O.B.E., King's Foreign Service Messenger 1918-1940. London: Herbert Jenkins Ltd. Price 10s. 6d. net. [...] "The great European express trains have an air of mystery and romance about them. Truth to tell, this is but ill-deserved. Except over the French portion of their journey they have no right to the title of express"—he was writing of conditions before the great speed-up of the last decade— [...].

By comparison with steam, no big acceleration of the expresses proved possible between Leeds and Manchester and the speed-ups that have been secured owe a great deal to the excision of intermediate stops.