I had to go down to London a couple of weeks ago.

The journey by train is pretty painless these days, if all goes smoothly. Two hours and 20 minutes each way seems to be the norm from Leeds, plus a half hour tagged on each end to get from Leeds to home.

However it didn't go that smoothly. After a three-hour meeting in London and some after-meeting chat in the pub, I got on the train in mid-afternoon feeling more than peckish.

Unfortunately the buffet was shut. There was no form of refreshment between Kings Cross and Leeds and the only consolation was that the journey was not a marathon, provided there were no breakdowns.

This started me thinking: surely it hasn't always been like this on public transport? Once upon a time cars were a rarity, not the norm, and public transport must have had some sort of heyday.

Well, how does a day trip to Edinburgh sound? Or, to be exact, a Tour de Luxe to Edinburgh and the Forth Bridge, by rail and coach, with three meals included, and all for 24/6d (£1.22p).

That was a typical tour offered by the T&A itself in June 1936 (we're still doing holidays). Travel was by 'Special Corridor Dining Car Train, with every seat reserved and parties arranged together'. Lunch was served en route after a surprisingly late start at 11.06am.

Coaches met the train at Waverley Station and took the tourists round the Castle and the National War Memorial, down the Royal Mile, past Holyrood Palace and on to the Grand Hotel for high tea.

After tea there was a coach trip down Princes Street and over to Queensferry and the Forth Bridge for a gawp, before returning to Waverley Station, at 10.30pm, for the train home, with a late supper on board. The party arrived in Bradford at 3.40am on a Sunday morning.

Not bad for under 30 bob...

But that was a day trip. What about a week's holiday in those pre-motorway days?

For the better off there was the coach trip. Or, if you were the coach operator, the 'luxury land cruise', to warmer climes like the south coast.

Years ago, before the weather went haywire, the southern part of Britain generally had better weather than the north and, as Professor Henry Higgins had it, in Hertford, Hereford and Hampshire, hurricanes hardly happened.

Feather Bros (Tours) Ltd of Morley Street, Bradford, offered the freedom of the road - at about 40mph top speed.

Top of the market from Feathers in 1949 was the eight-day Cornish Riviera land cruise at £16. To put this in perspective, that was about three weeks' wages for a clerical worker at the time, so this was a pretty snooty trip.

It started from Bradford and went through Huddersfield and over Marsden Moors to Manchester, then down the line of the River Severn to Bridgnorth in Staffordshire, Kidderminster, Worcester, Tewkesbury and on to an overnight stop at Cheltenham. That was a hard day's travelling.

The next day saw the tourists safely from Gloucestershire to Devon, via the Cheddar Gorge, and a night in Barnstaple, followed by a restful day going no further than Ilfracombe, conserving energy for the big trip down to Penzance, and on to Land's End. Thus the week went on, with not a tourist spot missed.

The way back took in Glastonbury, Bath and Stroud, another overnight stay in Cheltenham, then home via the Vale of Evesham, Stratford for the Shakespeare tour, Matlock for tea and Chatsworth House for the gardens and Sheffield back to Bradford, all meals provided.

The last day's journey meant the travellers were on the road for nearly 11 hours - but at least they couldn't complain they had missed anything.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.