Great Western Coffee Shop

I was travelling back on the Cotswold line last night and got talking to some American tourists who were exploring the South of England.

One of them said how impressed they were with our rail services here. "They seem to be very reliable and always run to time" :)

On the one hand I am pleased they have had a good experience of rail travel in our country. On the other hand I'm not sure how representative their experience is!

But it was good to hear anyway.

When things are running on time, it's pretty good I think. Latest example for me last night coming home from Windsor to Thatcham, which involved 2 changes (Slough and Reading) but all 3 trains on time to the minute.

But, as in all cases where a system is running near to capacity (Heathrow Airport is another example) if something fairly small goes wrong, the impact can be much greater.

I agree 100%. I have been travelling quite a bit by train recently - most of my journeys have been away from London but (touch wood) have not had any service issues.

Even my few journeys to Twickenham were trouble free - but I believe there were major problems the day before.