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Oh dear, this is incorrect in many ways so some fact checking is in order. In common with many other countries discussions about the construction of specialised ‘motor roads’ started in the UK in the 1920s. Specialised ‘autostrada’, ‘autobahnen’ and ‘freeways’ were built from the late 1920s and...

I say again that I read the article a long time ago — probably some twenty or thirty years. I understand now that the classifications were changed at some point and that it disturbs you that I may have used the wrong one. Sorry. But I notice that at no point have you disagreed with the general...

Some 40 years ago I joined a Silicon Valley-based computer manufacturing company. I was based in Europe but had occasion to visit the Bay Area several times a year. The first time I went (for my job interview!) I was taken aback by the number of Ferraris, Mercedes, Porsches, Jaguars and US...

Eh? Did you read what I wrote and the references I pasted into my post? The survey/analysis/study quite clearly showed that, at the time and however imperfect the socio-economic groupings used, people with higher incomes used the trains more and spent more than those with lower incomes. I now...

You may well be right, but I can only go on the ONS's own definitions, a description of which may be found at https://cy.ons.gov.uk/methodology/classificationsandstandards/otherclassifications/thenationalstatisticssocioeconomicclassificationnssecrebasedonsoc2010 it states: These groupings may...

Maybe I can help here... ...if I remember correctly this statement, or a very similar one, was made by an erstwhile Transport Secretary (or even 'Minister") many years ago - possibly twenty or thirty. It was a comment made after the publication of a survey or analysis which showed that...

No. 'The North'[1] was once much richer because of the efforts of its people - there was NO central expenditure to get it going in the first place. It then lost the plot as it didn't change fast enough to counteract changes in the markets for its traditional products. London also declined with...

I support this argument completely. Railways offer a 'service to the public', as do bus and coach companies, taxis, car hire firms, airlines and ferries and, in fact, any retail business. For these to succeed revenue has to exceed the costs. The concept of railway passenger services being a...

Straw men. One of the intentions of unemployment benefits was to act as a safety net for people who had lost their jobs. That is acceptable and is a necessary feature of a civilised society and has been since the Beveridge Report (officially called Social Insurance and Allied Services) in 1942...

Yes, agreed. And you don't have to assure me - I have worked in the private sector my whole working life. However your statement is what is called a non sequitur as it doesn't respond to any of the points I was making. ...but nevertheless, taking up your point, if these blithering incompetent...

This is another one of those situations where choosing brevity rather than describing the thought process in detail can lead to misunderstandings. So, this is a slightly longer attempt to explain what I was trying to say. Firstly, the economy works in a framework which has evolved over...

Consider your position as a possible commercial user of a freight service offered by GBR. Would you make long term arrangements for traffic flows with an organisation that is not wholly and entirely committed to keeping you happy and where is objectives can vary according to the whims of...

White paint doesn't cool the rails, it simply slows down the rate at which they warm up when the sun shines on them.

I'm not sure what this would bring. As the Wikipedia graph shows the number of deaths has been slowly declining since 2012 from around 1,800 per year to just over 1,500 in 2025 according to https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/reported-road-casualties-great-britain-provisional-results-2025...

Are you sure about the mass of a powered wheelchair? 16 stone is 224lbs or about 102kg. My wife uses a powered wheelchair which can raise, lower and tilt the seat and it weighs half of what you are suggesting, 51.5kg including its battery. And, no, I have not seen anybody tying down a...

I am not arguing that the number of road traffic collisions, deaths and injuries occurring on the roads currently is acceptable but one should reflect on the absolute numbers and the general trends over the years before writing about 'carnage'. In 1926 there were fewer than one million cars on...

Against which you have to balance the £3,000 billion of the Gross Domestic Product which is only possible because all factories, offices, shops, houses, theatres, football stadiums, restaurants, pubs, national parks and so on are connected to each other by road.

Ah, but one can blame the government - or at least give it equal responsibility. An example is the Great Western route modernisation and electrification as described in the National Audit Office's November 2016 report Modernising the Great Western railway[1]. A couple of quotes: and So, the...

There is still certainly a net inflow of people into Reading to work, but I haven't found any specific recent statistics about rail flows. The closest I have come are figures given in the 2023 update to Reading Borough Council's Local Plan which states in Section 1.2.3: However it would not...

In Reading the 21 bus from the town centre to Lower Earley runs through the University of Reading’s campus via the central area as part of its route and during term times Reading Buses runs a limited stop 20 route from the University to the town centre and station.