I have no difficulty recognising the substantial contribution you make (indeed 10x the number of my contributions!). I was trying to suggest, poorly as it seems, that a lot can and will change in the next 10-15 years, though we may not know what or when or how much. For instance passengers could travel more or less or less often or further ; freight double or halve, etc. Coal, steel, mail, TPOs, motorail all have come and gone in no time. I suggest, with some temerity, that the 'rail industry' is slow, even resistant to change. Much tech is agile and mobile, 'go-getting', innovative. Rail gives the appearance of being so 20th, even 19th Century. Much of the complexity of interconnecting services could disappear with a more 'tube' like arrangement where passengers make the interchanges and driver-less trains broadly shuttling from A to B and back. I don't wish to diminish the planning role but I hope you may see the threat (opportunity?) of an all-encompassing algorithm 'taking over'. Myself, I like planning and building, they are creative and rewarding, and not unchangeable or unchallengeable processes.
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