It doesn’t look much better from this side of the pond. It really is sad, seeing how much the network has been run down. I used to travel by train a lot, going back to the mid-70s when my age was still in single digits, regularly catching a train on my own from Stapleton Road to Clifton Down for dental work. Train was my default travel mode, but it’s got to the point where I simply couldn’t rely on it. You can no longer rely on being able to get bikes on trains even when booked, you’re often crammed into an airline seat with insufficient leg room, you can’t rely on being able to make a connection, you can’t rely on them even running, it’s often considerably cheaper to drive even with parking . It saddens me that it’s come to that.
I gave up trains completely about 5 years or so ago, during a previous round of strikes. Apart from using Nottingham’s trams, I now drive to most places I need to get to which I hate doing. I suppose at least that’ll please Sunak.