Sapper82.

As far as I know, there's still plenty of older stock still spattering it about all over the place!

I had a trip on the Severn Valley Rly recently in an old LMS compartment carriage and it reminded me just how comfortable they were compared with modern "aircraft" type, cramped and often without a proper window seat conditions - not to mention air-conditioning equipment that often doesn't work. In winter you freeze and on hot summer days you suffocate, elderly folk (amongst others) have a really tough time of it, there always seems to be and has been, a major problem with adequate maintenance of the air-conditioning equipment. It was OK when only the Pulman stock had it with relatively few vehicles involved! With the older stock, at least you had SOME control of your local environment!

Riding quality has, however, improved but we've only just caught up with what was the norm in this repect with countries such as France or Germany 80 years ago!

A not inconsiderable proportion of the population are now well over 10 miles from their nearest railway station. It wouldn't be so bad if you could always rely on there being a convenient bus service to connect as you would expect to find in the Swiss transport infrastructure!

We've still a huge way to go to avoid, or alleviate the much talked about road gridlock!