I've heared that version as well, and the press just kept giving BR a bad time. They said what so wondeful when trains in Europe can do 150mph (at the time) etc, what they the stupid press were to thick to realise is that everything is much closer in the country meaning our signals are much closer together, when a train driver does 150mph and sees an orange signal it can't stop in time for the next signal. I think the stopping distance is still set to 1.25 miles this day, meaning that if you're doing 125mph you can stop in time for the next signal which will be red.

Its a real shame that APT was not a sucess, but it was rushed and not finished properly,like everything any UK government does

I think we just need to admit that the French and Germans are better at building than trains than us  Oh and the Italians!