DO you think that one day we will travel in flocks of electric pods whizzing about our heads in the way that vacuum cash systems used to send money dashing about the ceiling in old-fashioned department stores?

Suspend your disbelief.

Of course, 200 years ago, when George Stephenson and Edward Pease predicted railways would run at 15mph, the sceptics said every cow in south Durham would be scared so witless it would stop milking and the eyeballs of every human travelling at such outlandish speeds would pop out of their heads.

Those sceptics were forced to eat their words.

When William Shatner was a nipper 90 years ago, did anyone dare dream that one day rockets would be fired into space for tourists?

Of course, they didn’t. Ninety years ago, they were still watching the first motor cars overtake the plodding horses of yesteryear.

And yesterday, Shatner became the first nonagenarian into space.

It can happen.

At its core, the Urban.Mass has sound ideas: personalised transport that is cheap, green, fast and congestion free. What more could anyone want?

We look forward to watching it develop and fully expect to travel to the bicentenary celebrations of the Stockton & Darlington Railway in south Durham’s first flock of pods.