by Christine Swan

I try to alternate posts between historical family portraits, and general randomness. This post is of the latter category and asks why our railways aren’t working. I don’t have any answers, but if we are serious about public transport, serious changes are needed.

Systems seem so fragile, that any type of weather causes them to wobble and more often than not, fall apart. During the extreme heat of July in 2022, rails buckled and my return journey from Holyhead to Birmingham never happened. Instead chasing around and getting as far as we could became a challenge worthy of the Crystal Maze. Eventually, we gave up at Hereford and hailed a lift from our son.

Not the South of France – Holyhead on the hottest day of 2022. The railway station is conveniently part of the port complex

Llanfair P G on the way back from Holyhead

I regularly travel around France during the peak of the summer heat, and the trains run regularly, only occasionally punctuated by trackside wildfires. “Different track material”, I have been told by those in the know. “Our tracks handle low temperatures”. Really?

One of the world’s most beautiful railway journeys – heading towards Cannes

Leaves, frost, frozen points, too much snow, the wrong kind of anything will stop the trains. We might have the rails to cope with the cold temperatures, but they aren’t very reliable for any other type of weather. Rail commuters have the odds stacked against them, they really do.

The start of another chilly commute

The temperature inside the carriages is as variable as that outside. The air conditioning in modern trains, would be perfectly suitable for traversing the hottest of countries, rather than our often insipid summer temperatures. Air conditioning is also provided during the winter on random occasions. I always take a coat or wrap with me during the summer, not because of the atmospheric conditions, but so that I don’t develop hypothermia on my commute home. Heating can also provided during the coolest winter, or balmiest summer day. There is always a surprise to be had.

Informative information board

For variety, half the number of usual carriages can be provided. The standers are doomed to arrive at work already tired from an hour on their feet. The sitters smugly privileged but destined to have their view disrupted by a sea of legs and rears.

All of this negativity might beg the question, why on Earth am I still commuting after decades of doing it? The answer is that I am genuinely committed to using rail transport in an effort to reduce my carbon footprint and because I enjoy it above all other forms of transport. There is something unique and special about rail travel. From quick hops on the London Tube to overnight travel on a European sleeper train, it would always be my preferred way to get from A to B, no matter how far away B is.

Now that’s what I call a train – Trenitalia’s Frecciarossa 1000

What matters to me is efficiency, comfort and lack of hassle. As I write this post, my commute to my destination this morning took about one hour and all trains ran to time. My return journey took two and a half hours. I understand that unexpected events occur but cancellations and delays are too frequent with no consequences. Train crew are often not available on Sundays which also causes cancellations and lack of catering services, and yet, many working people travel for leisure at weekends.

When things go well, rail travel is wonderful. Driving long distances can be a thankless and exhausting task. When you are driving, that is all that you can do, your entire focus is on the road ahead. If the journey is short, I find this perfectly tolerable, but long hauls on the motorway, to me, are a boring waste of my time. However, I could equally argue that waiting on a freezing station platform for over an hour is a similar occupation.

Interesting people travel by train. Today, I was travelling with a peripatetic fine art teacher and we chatted for the entire journey like old friends. In reality, we started talking only after trying to work out which trains were cancelled, which were delayed and which might actually turn up. It isn’t always like this. The sneaky vapers, feet-on-seaters, music-blarers, non-stop talkers, Tik-Tok watchers (sans headphones), bag-on-seaters, and incessant coughers, are ready to spoil your journey. Today, we also had a fare-dodger. The train, already exceedingly late, stopped at a station and the conductor wearily announced that we would not be moving until one person either paid up or disembarked. Fortunately, he chose the latter. The conductor apologised on the public address system, and sounded as if he had reached the end of the line.

I relish my usual forty minute commute as an opportunity to relax and read. I find it hard to allocate reading time otherwise. Sometimes I just stare out of the window and appreciate the view. Most of all, I feel as if I am doing the right thing for the environment.

Perhaps it’s a London-centric view but using the overground and underground trains is the norm. Who drives in Central London? Certainly not me. We expect a Tube train will arrive every few minutes and we can whizz around the network quickly, popping up at our destination, with the certainty that we will get there and on time.

London Tube train – By Tom Page from London, UK – 09, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=17251234

Investment is key. My personal preference would be to renationalise the railway and plough money back into the service and network. There has to be belief that this is a service worth providing and to take pride in it. Whilst car travel is often cheaper and rail services unreliable, people often express surprise when I try and explain why I think that the railways are still relevant and important. A trip on the Severn Valley Railway shows what that passion looks like. The staff care and take pride in the service that they provide. The line that I commute along, has new trains and some refurbished stations. There is much to be proud of, but reliability must be a key target. Nobody should leave for their morning commute and be uncertain if they will arrive on time, or if they can get home. Apart from the few unavoidable exceptions, it should be cheaper, and faster to ride the rails.