Exactly this. There are six trains from the fleet sitting in storage. They’d be no use to any other operator and would require no staff training to use. It’s insane. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British...

Oxfordshire does! www.oxfordshire.gov.uk/business/lic...

Everything good that's happened in UK rail in my lifetime has been stuff that's occurred despite the resistance of the Department for Roads, and the thing that the GBR structure does is to consolidate total power over rail in the hands of those bastards

By the time I became editor of Waterways World, Terry was publishing hugely successful books. I emailed him to ask “Does the offer still stand?” and he wrote us some superb articles. Rest in peace, Terry.

[Canal Boat’s editor was a great guy too, by the way. No one gets every call right.]

Back when I was deputy editor of Canal Boat (25ish years ago!), Terry phoned up and said: “I’m taking my narrowboat across the Channel. Would you like a story?” I replied: “That sounds brilliant – yes please! But let me ask the editor.” Editor said “That’s a STUPID irresponsible idea” and nixed it.

They are just so hilariously bad at this. “You’re not going to get the change you want by voting for the populist left.” Well you sure as heck aren’t getting it now having voted Labour, so why not try the Greens?

I swear 90% of passengers at Oxford station do not understand that other journeys than Oxford<–>Paddington are possible, and are genuinely puzzled why they might have to wait for people to get on/off “their” train.

Not expressly stated here but I suspect a lot of this (in the US as elsewhere) is the ubiquity of big, fast SUVs. Sharing the road simply isn’t fun any more and that’s a large part of why today’s bike tourers are seeking the ubiquitous “gravel”. theradavist.com/whats-next-f...

The Bull. That’s what it is.