There’s a depressing piece in The Observer today detailing the horrendous delays that anyone trying to go on holiday in August using various train lines is going to be subjected to. (Full disclosure: I’m planning to go up to the Lake District in August so am going to get caught up in all this). What makes these delays all the more galling is how expensive train travel is. According to The Observer £10 in Britain buys you 27 miles of train travel while in Ireland it gets you 38 and in France 50.
The Observer also reports that:
On many lines into London from the South East there is no prospect of adding carriages until the platforms at Waterloo and other stations are lengthened.
This does make me wonder why the Eurostar platforms at Waterloo aren’t now be used by extra-long commuter trains now that the Eurostar runs into St. Pancras. It seems crazy just to leave them sitting idle but all too typical of the way the transport system is run in this country.
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