Timeshift2002

[summing up his experience of travelling on the modern-day equivalents of three named trains]

Andrew Martin:
I've ridden on the modern equivalents of three of the most famous named trains. And it is a bit difficult to avoid concluding that, for all the efficiency of those trains - and they were all on-time - and the undoubted skill and amiability of the staff, the present falls some way short of the past. Let's face it - modern railway travel is rather lacking in style and character. Can't we have back some of the features that made the named trains so enjoyable? Who wouldn't rather have compartments than close-together airline seating - that is, seats with very high backs? Why must trains try and emulate airlines? I knew somebody who was on a train to the West Country, and the guard announced "We are now commencing our approach to Bristol Temple Meads". And who wouldn't rather have dining cars than the at-seat trolley service which is just like being served a meal in a hospital? Railway style need not be a lost cause. There is some re-kindling of lost train romance. The Brighton Belle is being restored to run on Sundays. Virgin say that the northbound leg of the Scotsman is to be resumed. And I'm very glad that dining has been brought back to the Cornish Riviera Express. I like to think that we can read the names of these historic titled trains, not as we might the inscriptions in a graveyard, but as a pointer to a railway future that is more confident and more fun. But then I always was an optimist.