The seven-minute journey of a javelin train from St Pancras to Stratford is the inspiration behind a new piece of music to be premiered next month.
But composer Graham Fitkin discovered that the smooth running of the high-speed shuttle made it impossible to echo the rhythms of the classic train-inspired work, WH Auden and Benjamin Britten's 1936 Post Office information film, Night Mail.
He said: "It's an extraordinary train but what is interesting is it doesn't sound like you imagine a train to be like - that idea of the rhythmic thing you get in Auden and grew up with in films. It's pretty much silent."
The work, Track to Track, is one of 20 short pieces organised by the PRS Music Foundation for Olympic year under the banner New Music 20X12.
Fitkin, 48, who lives in Cornwall, worked with writer Glyn Maxwell on the commission which will be performed by the London Chamber Orchestra at the Cadogan Hall on March 22.
He also he incorporated fragments of ideas from schoolchildren in Havering, north-east London, Berkshire and Kent.
The children were given recordings and photographs made when Fitkin and Maxwell travelled on the train and the two men received new recordings of music and poetry composed in workshops with members of the London Chamber Orchestra in return.
"It feels like a really good. inclusive way of working that has brought something really magic to Track to Track and will help us truly celebrate the Olympic spirit," said Fitkin, adding: "I desperately tried to get tickets for the Olympics and failed so it's nice to have a connection."
The children will perform some of their own works at St Pancras station on June 27 and take part in performances of all the new Music 20X12 commissions at the Southbank Centre on July 15.
