It was no coincidence that Albert Einstein experienced his great insight into relativity and the nature of the time-space continuum on a tram. I have never been on a Zurich tram but the buses in Brighton confirm that there is something tangibly ethereal about vehicles of public transport. The potential disjuncture of time and space is for ever being demonstrated beyond a peradventure. The city council has even provided the means of observing the phenomenon in the form of indicators at bus stops that show the estimated time of arrival of services.
        How to observe the phenomenon: Watch the indicator carefully. The next bus is scheduled to arrive in three minutes. Then two minutes. Then one minute.
        Then two minutes. (Reculer pour mieux sauter as they say in the airline business.)
        One minute.
        Due.
        The bus disappears from the display and the list moves up one place.

Obviously the bus has gone into hyperspeed, travelling at the speed of light and has passed by undetected by the unaided human eye. In that minute when it was shown as due it travelled a distance of 668 million miles. Maybe more. Perhaps it encountered a black hole on the Patcham By-pass.
        But here it comes now. None the worse for its experience.
        Of course, passengers already on the bus, having paid for their excellent value all-day Saver tickets, do not appreciate the singular episode they have undergone because they are travelling inside the bus. The only time they might observe any disturbance is in the vicinity of the Clock Tower at the junction of North Street, West Street and Queen's Road. No wonder that timepiece suffers periodic collapses.

2005