"Obviously train journeys took longer back "
Actually on many routes train times have got slower and slower over the last 60 years - but Manchester - Stansted isn't a trip I'd want to make by train at ANY time...................
I can remember a Spitting Image sketch on the subject of the vast cost of Mount Pleasant in the Falkland's - "less crowded than Heathrow, easier to get to than Stansted" was one line.