The UK was short of transport capacity as the new century dawned. The pathetic failure to build much in the last 25 years has compounded the shortages. Hundreds of thousands of new people each year have been invited in with no thought of the need for roads and trains for them to use.
I am writing a couple of pieces about the difficulties of getting about. I am taking as an example three speeches I have made by coincidence this year in the Tonbridge/Tunbridge Wells area. The first was an Investment lunch in Tunbridge Wells, where I was setting out the prospects for world economies and markets. The second was this week’s guest speech to the Freedom Association meeting . The third was on the following evening when I was being questioned on my experiences of government and the UK economy at a meeting in a village to the east of Tonbridge.
My computer told me the journey should take around 1 hour 30 to 40 minutes by car from my home to the venue, and about 2 hours 30 minutes by train from my local station with a 20 minute walk to the station and a 30 minute taxi ride from the destination station. That made it a total time of 3 hours 30 minutes door to door by train allowing a few minutes to find the platform and train at the stations.
Despite this obvious drawback of the train , allied to the fact that it would work out considerably dearer than driving my own car, I decided to undertake the train journey for the Investment lunch. To make it easier I planned a train journey from London where I had meetings before setting out for Tunbridge Wells.
Even though I was starting in London, it would take two changes of tube train and a longish walk from the station to the venue. I allowed extra time for the possible delays on the tube and for a possible late mainline train.
All went unusually smoothly until we neared Tonbridge. The train stopped in a station and we were told there was an incident on the line ahead. The train would wait for as long as it took and there was no indication of how long it would take to clear. I made a dash for the taxi queue, got a cab and sat in traffic jams on my way to the hotel in Tunbridge Wells. All my allowed time for delays and more was used up and I only just made it to the time of my speech. There was a nice big taxi bill on top of the train fare.
This week I had no need to be in London Wednesday or Thursday. The train seemed a very unappealing option for either journey, with several changes of train and the need to find taxis I could rely on to do the last few miles. I resolved to drive there and back each evening, covering a distance there of around 70 miles. See tomorrow what happened.
Summary of train issues
You need to look at door to door time. Often getting to and from the station is expensive and subject to delays. The Councils who want us all to go by train try to stop us getting to stations.
The train is never early but is often late. Trains are subject to cancellation or unacceptable delays, making them difficult to trust for important meetings unless you go hours in advance of need leaving open the option of an expensive taxi to rescue you. Government owns the track and signals which often cause delay, and runs bad timetables.
July 13, 2025
Indeed, door to door train journeys rarely make much sense even in CO2 terms. Unless you life next door to one station on the right line to go to an office next to the other station. Which is rarely the case. Often you can arrive at stations and no taxis are readily available too. The fact that a car with single occupant is still far cheaper than the train shows just how inefficient trains are this despite huge train subsidies and vast over taxation of cars.
You also have far more convenience & flexibility with a car with luggage, a space to store bags so you do not need to lug them with you all day. Plus you can drive in the small hours if needed.
Note too that the each end connection are often double trips to and from the station (with a professional driver if a tax). Walking too is not actually CO2 efficient either as human food is a very inefficient fuel – should CO2 wrongly bother you.
But the government policy is to make car ownership difficult, expensive or impossible and to block the roads as we see. Plus with motorist muggings a tax grab. Not incompetence but deliberate vandalism under 14 years of the con-socialists too.
July 13, 2025
Correct. Saved me typing all of that.
July 13, 2025
Yesterday my friend said I went into London for the day using a taxi to and from Milton Keynes Station. The journey to London and on to Covent Garden was smooth and uneventful. On return the train terminating a Liverpool it was announced the there were severe delays from Crewe. No clarification was given and it appeared busses had been arranged for the onwards journey. No doubt all the passengers plans were affected. A couple going on a cruise were worried they may be too late.
Travelling by train is a lottery.
July 13, 2025
It is such a lottery that I don’t travel by train, and so don’t go to many events and places I would otherwise have and so don’t support those local economies.
The blame is fully with the unions and the governments that allowed them such lattitude to disrupt the rest of us.
A constructive suggestion – instead of rail commutes perhaps people could arrange car pooling on a large scale – deny the operators the business and the unions their livelihoods.
We need to find ways to peacefully and legally disrupt these people, to be “difficult”, because democracy and voting isn’t doing it.
July 15, 2025
Hitching used to be quite efficient as a mode of transport when I was young 30-40 years back. Alas most people are often too scared to pick people up now! Plus insurance rules and companies often ban it in company cars!
July 13, 2025
I once slept on the Tonbridge train on a Saturday night, having missed the last train back to London.
There was chaos coming back from Tunbridge Wells one night also. It is a nice town but transport is poor. I mentioned Uber and the locals told us they do not have that. It is either taxi, drive or arrange a lift.
July 13, 2025
An absurd half report on the Air India crash what are they playing at? With both fuel switches being apparently manually switched off just a couple of second after take off. More questions than answers and they surely have the answers already.
Release the full cockpit recordings and stop playing games with the victims. This is surely the right thing to do.
July 13, 2025
Ll, there is a lot at stake with this flight. No doubt Air India would prefer pilot error be the cause.
July 13, 2025
I think you are being very brave to declare the switches were changed manually, there have been past reports of incidents on that type that suggest it can be otherwise.
Perhaps you should wind your neck in lest you be seen to accuse the wrong people.
… But then you feel safe behind your browser in your counting house offshore somewhere.
July 13, 2025
The deterioration in services run by government agencies continues to get worse. The ability to travel modest distances has been purposely made more difficult and time consuming. The active de-trunking of our A roads remains government policy. That has resulted in the prime routes becoming constrained by roundabouts traffic lights, detour and ever lower speed limits. These policies are factored on slowing down traffic and they have worked because to make a journey across any major city is now next to impossible. The average speed of traffic in London is now five miles/hr simply because of all the restrictions and penalties if you transgress some local law. Not only has it slowed down journeys it has made them more expensive. The taxi drivers are paid on the clock much increased over time for once simple journeys we could take but now don’t.
Postal services are another example. When Bram Stoker wrote Dracula at the end of the 19th century he mentions in the book his main character writing a letter to the hotel in Brighton the morning of the day they wish to stay there. The letter is delivered on the morning post and a reply is received back by mail that afternoon confirming the booking at the hotel. Now 125 years later we can’t even guarantee our post will be delivered in the following days!
It is time to get the so called ‘do gooders’ out of decision making processes now ruining our lives..
July 13, 2025
RE,
True. Broken Britain. Poor service is now the norm.
We used to be able to park on Waterloo Bridge for a night out. Now half of the bridge is given over to cycle lanes. I could drive into central London for work. I had a parking space, but certain streets also had free parking. Now you can’t park in Wimbledon, or the area in and around Kingston.
There 20mph speed limits where there aren’t traffic jams or road works. So driving is not pleasant outside of 10am to 2:30pm and evenings after 7:30pm.
I have a 24 hour bus a few minutes walk away on the main road and the station is seven minutes away. It is more convenient to make use of my London Freedom pass. I don’t have to worry about parking at the other end either.
In this weather buses are too hot. I mostly prefer trains anyway.
July 13, 2025
The truth is that with the benefit of hindsight, the Beeching railway cuts have proved to be a disaster. Dr Beeching was recruited by the government from a very successful business career at ICI to make the railways profitable again. By the early 1960s the industry was bleeding millions of pounds a year. His solution was simple – close down the bits that lost the money.
His 1963 report recommended taking an axe to about a third of the network – 5,000 miles of track, including hundreds of branch lines, many of the goods marshalling yards, thousands of stations and tens of thousands of jobs.
Instead, the then British Rail would concentrate on the things trains did well – fast journeys between the cities. Apparently, improved bus services would replace branch lines.
Many think that losing the branch lines – which fed passengers into the intercity network – was a mistake. So much traffic (particularly heavy goods) moved to the roads that we had to build a hugely expensive motorway network.
The railways allowed the industrial revolution to flourish. Other countries (Japan and China particularly) have invested in super-fast railway networks. Meanwhile, I spent most of Friday afternoon sitting in a huge traffic jam because of an accident at the M25 Dartford Crossing.
July 13, 2025
Dr Beeching was asked to report by a McMillan government, Marples being Transport Minister (who rode a bike, never drove a car). There were plenty of suggestions that a conflict of interest with construction business and road builders put Marples in a dubious influential position. Eventually he left the country.
Dr Beeching bore the ire for decades when he simply did what was expected from the report.
July 13, 2025
What moved freight to the roads as I recall was railway strikes. Sir Richard can come back again as far as I’m concerned; perhaps he could cut more of the subsidised network.
July 13, 2025
Trains are usually too expensive in this country when compared to the car, except when travelling to city centres which have are congestion charges and extortionate parking prices.
I lived a while in Austria, a few years ago. Trains were very reliable and about a quarter the cost to use for long journeys compared to the UK. They efectively have a nationalised service. I don’t know how expensive it is for taxpayers, but for users it works a lot better than our system, stations and trains are clean and well-maintained. There is an extensive network to tiny stations in many rural areas, despite much of the country being mountainous so necessitating a lot of expensive tunnels.
July 13, 2025
Standard single or period return fares without rail cards seem to be about £1 a mile. Day returns often nearly half this? But a car (with up to five or even seven people and this door to door direct) can be as little as 20p a mile or 3p a person if full. This despite about a 50% subsidy for rail and vast over taxation of car fuel, road taxes, car mugging camera and parking “taxes”. So up to 35 times the cost but without these tax subsidy market riggings up to circa 130 times the costs.
Without the market rigging tax and subsidies what would the real demand to train travel be? Perhaps half of current levels? This does not even take account of the end connection costs and often rather indirect routes!
Then when we get driverless cars and taxis too it will decline again! Trams rather duff too but governments like them. Just buses with very restricted routes.
July 13, 2025
You did well to get as far as Tonbridge. My experience out of Wokingham recently on the Gatwick line was one cancellation, followed by an overcrowded and late next train, followed by unscheduled change of train/platform at Redhill. Lucky to make the plane.
Unreliability on that line then leads to people motoring to Twyford, leading to parking issues there.
Problems stack up.
July 13, 2025
I seem to remember from when I last visited UK (two years ago) that if delays made one miss an important meeting one could claim a refund of the fare. Perhaps now the working assumption is that everything that goes wrong is the fault of the customer and everything right is due to the superb running of the state, its agencies and monopolies. Just be thankful the train turned up at all.
July 13, 2025
PS. I read in the paper a few years ago while still living in UK that in response to a public clamour for more trains to stop at a particular station at certan times – I can’t remember its name – a train company spokesman said, ‘We havent arranged for trains to stop there because we have not observed that people are waiting for a train at those times.’
July 13, 2025
The refund system is very easy to use – they get plenty of practice. I assume the rail regulator has intervened as the procedure is the same across all operators.
July 13, 2025
You still can but hardly worth the time and hassle. Two valid claims I made just never got paid and one gave me only about £5 back!
July 13, 2025
At least you had the choice of travelling by public transport JR. I am too afraid to use public transport especially in the south east. Those who use it and see no need to pay also see no need to respect the other conventions which we all take to granted.
July 13, 2025
Indeed.
When I travel on tubes in Central London as I often do it is quite rare that I do not see some ticket evasion, shoplifting or even phone snatching, pickpocketing and similar.
July 13, 2025
Getting about causes emissions and needs to be discouraged or it’s the end of the world, I think that must be the guiding philosophy behind all this.
July 13, 2025
The mad Ed Miliband Religion. Even walking causes quite a lot of CO2 per mile. But a bit more CO2 plant food is greening the planet rather nicely.
July 13, 2025
Richard1 :
Correct.
July 13, 2025
So why are we not encouraging the introduction of self driving cars like the USA and China. Once again we are being left behind!
July 13, 2025
Why ‘encourage’, why not allow market forces and consumer choice dictate
July 13, 2025
I feel your pain. One very minor comfort is that at least our rail network performance is better than the one in Germany – same problem, decades of under-investment coming home to roost as equipment reaches the end of its life.
July 14, 2025
Yet the Bundesbahn along with Swiss Rail used when I rode them) to have reputations for operating with Germanic precision with departures and arrivals that were timed to the second, much as the Shikansen in Japan.
July 13, 2025
Correct JR, it is the total time it takes to get from one destination to another, the other is cost, if 4 people go by car the cost is the same as just one person, on a train the price quadruples.
There is also the case of security, I would never travel by train late at night, typically from a London theatre show or indeed anything else.
Then heath, you are in a sealed box, with air conditioning (set by the train company, if it is working) which I must also assume has some sort of well maintained air filtering system ?
Lastly can you actually get a seat, last time I went to London by Train for a meeting, I had to stand all of the way.
Fortunately I live only a 20 minute walk to a station, and the local bus route runs past the outside of our House, yes I do have a bus pass, but it is not used very often, as the car is virtually always more convenient.
I have not used a bike for years.
July 13, 2025
Note: those that can afford new cars are to be funded by those that cant – More 2 tier society from a 2 tier Kier Government
Labour will unveil £700 million of taxpayer-funded subsidies to encourage the public to buy more electric vehicles (EVs).
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2025/07/12/labour-spend-millions-electric-car-handouts/
In plain English travel is to be restricted to those with money – very very Socialist
July 13, 2025
Think about, diverting money from the hard-working poorer to the comfortable. While at the same time keeping their mentors in China swamped with UK taxpayer money.
UK Industry, its people, its future has been programmed out.
The UK’s Politburo is happy and feeling ingratiated by its own personal generosity to itself.
July 13, 2025
To the Unions the Sponsors of this Political tyranny, it is your members, your life blood that is taking the biggest hit. 2TK doesn’t like you either – he supports World globalisation and rule. To him and his team its a 2 Tier World, the Marxist doctrine of the 2 Tier Kier. He will give unions workers jobs away to ensure growth in far away places, he will take union workers money(their taxes) and send it out of the country never to return. Welcome to ‘two-tier-isum’
The Unions should ask how many jobs has the 2TK team cancelled and sent abroad. Should Union member kid themselves it is only the so-called rich that are paying?
July 14, 2025
….chinese EVs to boot
July 14, 2025
Does anyone know whether Sadiq Khan’s armoured convoy sticks to the speed limits he imposes on London drivers, or do they consider themselves exempt, riding in Chaika lanes?
July 13, 2025
A short-term “solution” to improve the railways would be for a new incoming administration to bribe the existing train drivers sufficiently for them to install driverless trains. The long-term solution, as we saw with the dockers in the 1960s and the printers in the 1980s, is to change the technology. Convert steel wheels on a steel track to rubber wheels on a tarmac track and run licensed individual private vehicles (coaches and lorries) running on this tarmac (road) track controlled by computer. These licensed coaches and lorries will of course be also able to run on the normal roads to provide the door-to-door flexibility needed.
July 14, 2025
I had no concerns using Singapore’s driverless MRT system. The civic standards of the people are very high, so crime risk is minimal, and everywhere is clean. Although the system could get quite crowded at peak times, people were always polite and well behaved. Not quite the same in London or Glasgow.
July 13, 2025
Far more urgent things in the UK now.
Coming back here is like stepping back into 1990. You’d think it was still ye olde Britain. We are in a dystopia. Blair is pushing for ID cards because diversity is working so well (he never went away and employs 800 people, you know.)
a stra ze neca from Latin to English in Google Translate comes up as: A road to death
Economic collapse and civil war incoming.
July 13, 2025
Interesting Car journey to North Wales for a holiday break last month, why is it that road works on major trunk roads, and even many motorways, are only conducted 8 hours a day, 5-6 days a week, why not work 24 hours a day, complete the work 3 times quicker, and avoid the added costs and extended delay and frustration for millions of journeys.
Whilst I understand 20mph speed limits on certain sections of roads due to narrow bridges, or tight and narrow roads in specific areas, in most cases 20 mph seemed to be a simple and ridiculous fund raising exercise for the inevitable speed cameras that appear just inside the zone where the limit changes, sometimes changing multiple times on the same stretch of road with little advance warning.
On the plus side, the Roads in North Wales certainly appeared to be in very much better condition than in England !
July 14, 2025
That’s because in Wales, Scotland and NI, public expenditure per capita is far higher than in England, despite us subsidising every other part of the UK !
July 13, 2025
In the MsM today – Peter Mandelson has hit the media praising his seemingly new best buddy, Donald Trump. Also saying the Labour Landslide majority was due to peoples ‘sense of anger’
He might right for a change. Which is why most of the electorate are amazed and haven’t forgiven the old crowd. The collectively responsible team that the Parliamentary Group knew had dealt them a bad hand, yet still felt that continuity had to be delivered by those that created failure, that was preferable to cleaning house.
July 13, 2025
The transport failures aren’t recent, the cancelling of the UK isn’t recent, the exporting of UK Industry isn’t recent. There is just something wrong with those that inhabit the HoC & HoL the majority have supported the wreaking at all cost we have seen this century.
The crowd above have lost the plot a long time ago, or did they? Making it awkward and costly to get around(train, bus or car) is the opposite to having an effective system of management ensuring a thriving society. It now appears to be the new religion, the World appeasement for a two tier society.
The train and even the car is something the country has to send its money abroad to be supplied. The assembly in the UK of foreign kit is not the UK engaged in manufacture. HS2 is was ancient before it gets started, old foreign supplied rolling stock in a ‘new frock’, is not part of a modern railway.
Sir John has mentioned before how uncomfortable the new(old, someone else hand me down) rolling stock is, we are presented with this old kit because they have run out of customers in their home markets. Then we have the situation of the steel required to run the trains on, its just foreign – the taxpayer being forced to support foreign governments before its own people. The Tories cancelled UK Industry/Steel
July 13, 2025
317 criminals were smuggled, in plain sight, into the UK yesterday on the 12th July from France…Travel to and from france appearing to be working fine
July 13, 2025
I am a huge fam of travelling by train – if I have no time constraints nor luggage.
Otherwise it is the car.
July 13, 2025
The joys of living down south.Up here they are building houses but no roads to accommodate the extra traffic.To get to work, used to take 10 mins.Sometimes unless I leave an hour early it can take up to an hour.
July 14, 2025
The train company fixed costs of a seat on a train remains constant whether its purchased today or a month in advance ….so why is the price different to the consumer ?
July 14, 2025
As far as Wokingham Borough the most convenient railhead with the best and quickest service is Twyford but the shortage of parking at or near the station has been a problem for decades. The LibDem Council wrings its hands blaming the ‘railway’ for the parking problem while the LibDem councillors in Twyford, including the Council Leader, seem determined to put yellow lines on every road in Twyford to prevent on street parking.
July 16, 2025
The M6 near Preston is also horrendous. When it closes (which is frequently does) there are no alternative routes for miles. On Monday the motorway was shut completely southbound following an accident. The removal of hard shoulders means no vehicles can pass the accident to just clear the motorway, notifications to get off the motorway and take alternative routes aren’t early enough. People were stuck for five hours and more. Friday the week before Northbound was closed,