Taller trains...............

or faster shorter trains

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperloop

"Trying to rebuild infrastructure while keeping the railway running also verges on the impossible"

The mainl ine out of Paddington is currently seeing a lot of platforms being lengthened for Cross -Rail - and I believe SW lines towards Ascot & Reading are getting the same treatment - disruption - sure - but not major

Land on the roof of a skyscraper, problem solved:
https://i.imgur.com/xVqChTa.jpg

The lack of joined-up thinking for the vanity project HS2 and direct Crossrail or Eurostar connections is so typical of muddled UK transport thinking...:ugh:

If anything needs to be binned, it's HS2!

Well of course if the problem o be solved is time city centre-city centre, then IMHO Concorde was not "the answer". However, also IMHO, a superb feat of engineering

Rotodyne: vertical takeoff aircraft that never made it off the ground.
 

Noisy bugger was the Rotodyne.
Only ever saw/heard it once.

Noisy doesn't really describe it - undoubtedly the worst I ever heard - made a B-47 or a Caravelle sound like a glider... I think it was the specific frequency of the "whine" from the prop tips that was really good at shaking the fillings out of your teeth .........

Reputedly the most efficient way ever invented of turning jet fuel into noise. :O

I was lucky enough to be taken to the RAe Garden Party at White Waltham in 1957/8 and saw the Rotordyne fly. Very noisy but very impressive.

Colin

The prototype was indeed noisy when flying in helicopter mode, but massive reductions in tip jet noise had been achieved by the time the government pulled any further funding.

Even before then, when the Rotodyne with modified tip jets visited Battersea Heliport hardly anyone knew it had been and gone. Don't forget that the airliners of the day were also VERY noisy. Even in the early '70s, the racket made by DC-8s, Boeing 707s, VC10s and Tridents was quite something!

In the early 60s, I lived about three miles from where the Rotodyne was being test flown at White Waltham. Running just along the northern boundary of the airfield is the GWR main line, where in those days, Kings and Castles were pounding along at 80-90 mph.

The tip-jet noise of the Rotodyne sounded exactly like the noise of a King or Castle at speed.

There is a very good History Channel documentary in four parts on YouTube:

Beags "Even before then, when the Rotodyne with modified tip jets visited Battersea Heliport hardly anyone knew it had been and gone."

There was a sound recording being made by an engineer on Battersea Bridge who gave a running commentary as the beast came along the Thames.
" Patter, patter , patter , Rotodyne etc... now approaching..... patter, patter..........." SPLAT!! .... "Pigeon has just shat on the microphone...patter patter ..... etc.etc."
Or so I was informed.

The Rotodyne didn't stand a chance once the Government decided that all British rotorcraft should be under the control of one company, Westlands.
SARO's Scout / Wasp survived, Bristol's Belvedere staggered on - just, but Fairey's Rotodyne was dropped as Westlands thought they had a competing design of their own. Interestingly this was a version of the Tilt Wing concept of Bristol's Chief Designer, Raoul Hafner who just happened to move from Bristol's to become head of development at Westlands.

I was a pupil at Farnborough Grammar School in 1959 when the Rotodyne was exhibited at the SBAC show. The noise it made when it flew over meant all lessons stopped!

Recall seeing, and hearing, it at White Waltham when a CCF cadet visiting the AEF

Is the same Dave Gibbings that I used to know when I worked at Faireys in the 50's