Who goes where?
When drafting this editorial around the beginning of July, it came to the forefront of my mind that it was nigh on eighteen months since I'd made a journey on a main line train, a span of time not equalled since my age was reckoned in low single figures and my public transport experiences amounted to no more than being bundled on to a Bury Corporation bus. I couldn't say when my first train journey was, nor conjure up any recollection of it, but it would undoubtedly have been on the electric train to Manchester. The last occasion wasn't anything particularly worth writing about, other than that it was, I think, in early March 2020 and was from Thirsk, currently my nearest local station, to Leeds. While walking through the city to keep an appointment I encountered a group of four persons from distand lands, their features mostly obscured by face masks, and as we passed I thought how absurd they looked. Surely the air of central Leeds was infinitely purer than the polluted atmosphere of their home territory? Unless they knew something the rest of us didn't know...yet? Well, weren't we soon to find out...

Within weeks the use of public transport was vehemently discouraged and the local rural buses wadered into and out of the market square, forlornly hoping for the passengers once bound enthusiastically for York who were now simply not showing up. Railway crews doubtless felt the same as they tended the trains from which the travelling public was all but barred. A lot has happened since then, not the least being that we had to go through it all again earlier this year but I read now that train services are being built up again and the operators are sounding optimistic about passenger levels rising again as the freedom to travel about is given back to us. Uncertainty, I suppose, remains about commuter journeys and the number who resume travelling to work against those who continue working from home - or change to a mixture of both on different days of the week. We shall presumably have to wait and see how any changes in travel habits play out over the months ahead. The railways, though, have invested in the growth of the passenger business over the last decade and in that continuing as it did before our everyday world was rent asunder and we must hope that their optimism in that regard proves justified in the longer term. Essential railway travel in my case is fairly rare and in recent years train journeys have been mostly for leisure and pleasure. There are places I want to visit, journeys I'd like to make, and I don't find myself in principle against returning to trains; indeed I look forward to it. The main point is that I have a choice in deciding whether or not to travel at all - and so to a considerable extent it can be on my terms.

I've mentioned before, I fear more than once, that my terms for enjoyable train travel have too often not been met over during last decade. I have sounded off about uncomfortable and cramped seats, about having to stand on overcrowded and woefully inadequate Trans Pennine trains, even once all the way to London on Grand Central despite having paid in advance for a first class ticket, about the poor positioning of windows to gaze out of, and of course, and at some iength, about the many failings of the four-wheel 'Pacer' units which I believe we're only just now entirely rid of in South Wales. The latest masterplan for the next reorganisation of the railway system did contain one nugget of hope with the pledge that the physical comfort of passengers be given greater consideration by ditching the miserable 'ironing board' tendancy of the seating in too many new designs in favour of upholstery which would be kinder to the human body. At least the unyielding hardness of recent accommodation has thus been acknowledged, but it does seem strange that the philosophy of providing comfortable seats, even in standard class, was so wantonly discarded and is having to be rediscovered! So when will I be enticed back to train travel? Well, it depends... For one thing I have no desire to travel for several hours on end wearing a face mask - I hate the things, they're irritating and steam up my glasses - nor have I any wish to share a carriage filled with other similarly faceless passengers. I find it an unsettling experience and whilst I might put up with it for short distances, it's an aspect of current life that will have to end before I start travelling the length of the country again by train.

I understand why on-train catering was, for understandable reasons, discontinued during the darkest days of the plague but before considering any long-distance journeys I would want to see it resumed. A trolley service is better than nothing, though not always by much, but lately when embarking on longer main line journeys I've taken advantage of in-advance bargain tickets to travel first class to experience a more congenial journey and enjoy the provision of some proper meals served at your seat and included in the fare. The East Coast route operators have been especially good in this regard. I'm concerned that, as with many aspects of life, the enforced non-provision of facilities will be used as an excuse for cutting them back them back permanently or even abandoning them altogether in future. All this notwithstanding, it would not be correct to say that at the time of writing the year has gone without any train travel at all. On a damp day towards the end of May I made a return visit to the North Bay Railway in Scarborough, mentioned in last November's editorial. Old locomotive friends were greeted again and an added bonus was an invitation by a friendly and informative member of staff to visit the engine shed. Walking back along the seafront, the threatened rain started to fall and we had to take shelter under the porch of an unoccupied beach hut. In that moment I was transported back to the seaside holidays of my youth: time spent riding on the miniature railway and dodging the rain - the very essence of holiday nostalgia!