The Great Northern runs a train from London to Doncaster,
156 miles, without stop, in 169 minutes, at the rate of 551/2
miles an hour, and the Great Central train runs over
England's new road, from London to Sheffield, 165 miles, in
170 minutes, better than 58 miles an hour, slipping a car at
Leicester without stop.

Such runs as that between London and Birmingham on the Great
Western, a distance of 1291/4 miles, made without stop in
140 minutes, or at the rate of more than 55 miles an hour,
are less remarkable; for this seems to be about the regular
gait of many trains in England.

These fast and long runs are common to all the trunk lines
in England, while in the United States the fast runs are all
confined to two roads, the New York Central and the
Pennsylvania. Compared with many English fast runs, the time
between New York and Washington and Boston is slow. The
distance to the two cities from New York is about the same,
and in both cases the fastest trains make it in five hours
(or a little over, now, to Boston), or at 46 miles an hour.

For runs of nearly 1,000 miles no country can show trains to
compare with the New York and Chicago trains on the New York
Central, the best trains making the 980 miles in 1,080
minutes, or at 54 miles an hour. While this is not quite so
fast as the time made by the fast trains from Paris to Lyons
and Marseilles, the distance is twice as great as across
France.

Fast Time to Atlantic City.

Coming to short runs and special summer trains, undoubtedly
the fastest are from Camden to Atlantic City. Here some very
fast time has been made over an ideal country for fast time
by both the Reading and the Pennsylvania. The best Reading
time is 561/2 miles in 50 minutes, or 66 miles an hour, while
the best Pennsylvania time is 59 miles at the rate of 64
miles an hour.

These constitute all the very fast regular trains in the
United States. The fastest run in New England outside the
Boston-New York run is from Boston to Portland at the rate
of 44 miles an hour, and the showing is still poorer in the
West and South. Chicago, in many respects the greatest
railroad center in the world, has no fast trains outside the
New York Central and Pennsylvania trains referred to.

Throughout the West, though the best trains are very