The APT was a fantastic bit of engineering. Absolutely typical of british approach to these things which is to can it when you've done 90% of the work and are very close to the result.

It made passengers sea-sick due to poor settings in the tilt mechanism (which no-one had tried before). As it was, the principles they worked out are the basis of the Pendolino (italian) and Super-Voyager (canadian) today.

Garrard - I moved from southampton in 2003 so haven't ridden that line more recently. For me it's the bus-on-rails-excuse-for-a-train that provides the stopping service between manchester victoria and huddersfield now.