Eastern Nat - Unfortunately being in my early 30s I was not around for this. However regarding the comments on the timetables that wouldn't surprise me at all - the amount of padding and buffer space there is in tha timetable now is crazy, it's very common to be quite late getting into Stratford but early into Liverpool Street!

Fulwell - With regards to National Express I couldn't agree more. I'm not a huge critic for the UK Rail system as I think it works pretty well overall. However without doubt the likes of National Express, and Connex before it, are clearly just into shameless money grabbing with zero investment, and they create negative press for the whole rail system. And these operations do make privatisation look a failure. Even the biggest fan of the system cannot deny that. So I can totally see why people using these operations would want renationalisation - No doubt I would too. But you see things in Scotland are going well, and in other areas, so it can work. Transpennine Express are another case in point, but they are now victims of their own success as they have had far too much passenger growth that they are now overcrowded!