Ah, another week, another train to Leeds. Having commute to Worcester in the car for the last few years, the train is making a very pleasant change. You can work on it as you need to, and you can have the time to relax and read the paper, something I've not managed to do in years! In saying that, it only takes one bad train journey for me to revert to type and winge about the railways. My only comment about the trains operated on the east coast is that they are much older than the west coast Virgin trains as nobody has invested in the rolling stock on it. While they are clean and operate on time, they look old and feel tired inside, even in first. It compares badly to the trains you get on the continent, where they spent money on the trains to improve service and you can cross the continent in one in a reasonable amount of comfort. All the issues in the UK with road congestion could be helped with a better train service, as certainly in a lot of cases you can get to places by train.

However, it needs to be better value, and more flexible with it ticketing, for this to happen, along with better infrastructure when you actually get to your destination. As an example - Kings Cross has NO seating areas, no cafes, no bars. Hardly somewhere you are comfortable to wait for a train and doesn't make you feel you would travel through it in any kind of luxury. Even Waterloo has seating...