I was in Abbotsford, Canada, the other week which is about 30 miles East of Vancouver. My colleague dropped me off at the bus stop, 12 minutes later the bus took me 5 miles to the monorail station, where I caught the monorail to downtown Vancouver. Took me 42 minutes to go 28 miles and all for $8 CDN (and it was all relatively new and clean). Now I know its a bit unfair to compare the UK with the engineering and transport infrastructure might of Canada, but I couldn't help thinking that here is a country that is trying to get people around by using public transport sensibly. More importantly, the other passengers were not care in the community cases or tramps, unlike in the USA.
Now all the old bastards quote the damage done by Dr Beeching's cuts to the rail network, which is undoubtedly true, but it was also 40 frickin' years ago! Could some Government in the intervening period not have thought about reactivating/building some of those branch lines that used to provide such a sterling service?
Sorry to ramble, I'll get my tartan flask and anorak and get the numbers of those trains that don't run anymore.
TI