I’m yawn the train
Neil spends a day on round trip for 6-minute ride
A TRAIN fan travelled seven hours and caught two planes to ride a rail service that took just six minutes.
Neil Hughes, 62, left his home in Troon to reach Stourbridge, near Birmingham, so he could experience Europe’s shortest branch line.
He rode a Parry People Movers lightweight railcar 0.8 miles from Stourbridge Junction to the town centre and back, taking three minutes each way.
When he totted it up, he had covered 1127.2 miles to get there and back in the same day.
Neil said: “I didn’t really have high expectations, I just wanted to do it and now I have.
“It was a fun thing to do and I’m glad I did it. My only regret is I didn’t meet the station cat called George.”
The retired air traffic controller
I just wanted to do it and now I have NEIL HUGHES ON FULFILLING HIS TRANSPORT DREAM
loves to experience different modes of transport. He read about the Stourbridge Shuttle in a magazine and decided to see it for himself.
He said: “It’s reportedly the shortest branch line in Europe and the Parry People Movers shuttle is run on flywheel technology. That part of it stirred my curiosity.”
Neil spent about £90 on travel, which started with an early car ride from Troon to Glasgow Airport.
He then flew for 27 minutes from Glasgow to Belfast then from Belfast to Birmingham. From there, it took half an hour by train to Stourbridge Junction. He got home at 11pm.
Neil is planning a train journey to Paris to show Elaine, 61, his wife of 38 years, an aviation museum.
Elaine said: “An 18-hour trip to travel for six minutes sounds barmy but that’s an average day out for Neil.”