So Now I Own A Railway
I write so often about rail journeys on this blog that people often accuse me of being a train-spotter. Not that there's anything wrong with spotting trains, but I'm not that way inclined. I like show-tunes, though, so you can read into that whatever you like. Why else do you think I keep re-commissioning Dress Circle? Surely I'm allowed one or two indulgences?
Oh I know, I know. It's that kind of remark that keeps getting me into trouble. I can hear the complaints already...
"Hey Fatso, you are running Radio Scotland like it's your own personal train set. Quit it."
And that's just the staff meetings.
But this morning I realised that I do actually own an actual railway company. Well, part of it.
And so do you if you live in the U.K. and pay your taxes.
Yes the East Coast service from Inverness to London has been nationalised. It used to be run by National Express and before that by some other private company. But this morning, when I boarded the 0755 to Kings Cross (changing at Stirling en route to Glasgow) I noticed the coach livery had changed. The East Coast logo was vaguley similar to pseudo-Soviet branding. That's either deliberate, a designer's in-joke or else an indication that the job had to be done in a hurry.
I had some misgivings as I climbed aboard. I had come to like the National Express way of doing things. The coaches were always clean and fresh (in the mornings) and you got free wi-fi even in standard class. What, I wondered, would nationalisation mean? Would they be dusting off those old British Rail sandwiches from the 'seventies? Would the carriages be patrolled by a squad of commissars demanding to check our papers? Would they be executing the posh folk in Business Class?
No. Nothing revolutionary at all. It all seemed the same, really. Apart from the posters telling us that this is "Your Railway" .
So it's true. I own a railway and that's not a wind-up.
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