We have been travelling by train. Union Station Toronto, has the calm ordered feel of an airport with its boarding queues and check in. Once on the train each passenger is courteously seated by attentive staff.
No standing room on these trains despite the spacious carriages. A stewardess came to show us how to break the emergency exit window and sick bags are provided. Rolling gently through suburbs and settlements, following the line of the great lake, the giant train hooted and tooted from major to minor in a continuous lament as it skimmed over unattended crossings and drew up at stations without platforms where passengers climbed down onto enormous portable step stools.
I am not complaining. Our British network has many tentacles and a multiplicity of routes. As we saw on a BBC TV documentary Britain from the Air, the rush hour is a phenomenal logistical exercise for a complex service running on Victorian lines. The dimensions of the rolling stock restricted by bridges, tunnels and platform length. This is simply another experience that makes me reflect that there are other ways of doing everything and sometimes it is the small things that make a big difference.
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