I believe the most stupid thing this country's ever done with regard to transport was to rip up the rail network. That's not a political point, BTW, even though it was the Tories wot done it ITFP - successive governments of both stamps have failed to recognise that act of criminally insane vandalism and do something about it - instead they've spent zillions on building more and more, and bigger and bigger, roads which, along with the reduction of the railway's network and capacity, has encouraged a hugely exponential growth in road-traffic.

So we have what we have - a crumbling, completely inadequate road network chock-full of juggernauts and 3/4-empty cars, and a rail network so reduced that it can barely cope with a comparatively small (when compared with the rest of Europe, for instance) number of users.

Time for a re-think, methinks. Maybe the new line is a pointer to a brighter future. Hope so.