Rest assured I am no trainspotter or train buff. The closest I can get is to tell the difference between Thomas and Percy in Thomas and the Tank Engine fame. I do see a need for efficient, reliable and sustainable railway infrastructure. Especially high-speed rail as seen by my previous posting.

I was just reading a review of Blood, Iron & Gold: How Railways Transformed the World by Christian Wolmar. It was the British transport secretary, Andrew Adonis, who reviewed the book no less. Should be an interesting read to add to the pile in winter.

I take issue with two things in Adonis’ review. Firstly he says “Norway is the only country that has never had different classes on its trains.” This is incorrect as far as I know, Norway may not have classes now but it did at one stage. I travelled from Bodø¸ to Trondheim my ticketed seat was in a first class carriage. I asked the conductor about the classes and apparently in past there were classes but now they just give a first class seat to the first people who reserved a seat. Given it was a 12 hr journey, I did check out the entire train. The only visible difference between the classes was bigger seats and the power sockets in first.

The second issue is Adonis’ closing remark, “To catch up, Britain needs a strong governmental lead.” I guess it not much of an issue but as transport secretary, should he not be a stronger advocate for state investment in high speed rail in Britain? But then again, train travel in the nation that gave us railways is so bad, I am not sure I want the state meddling in it. Why does it work in Germany, France and Japan? What can we improve on? What can we learn?