Recently Mrs Biggles had to attend a business meeting and decided to travel by train. The outward journey should have taken two and a half hours, but in fact took four and a half. The return leg also managed to be one and a half hours late. Talking to friends this standard of service does not appear to be unusual here in the UK.

To tempt people away from their cars the railways must offer a reliable and reasonably priced service. I had to visit a city 100 miles from home and found that the return ticket would cost me 76 UKP if I travelled before 10am. I took the car.

In my opinion, trains will always be with us in one manner or another. Mass transit in large cities is a very great need. We should remember though, that when we count the cost one's time as well as dollars should be included. And for some of us our time is very expensive.

In the US trains are greatly used for transport of product. I think it is a great use for industry and will probably not disappear.

As for casual travel, it may be on it's way out. The railway system for passengers in the US is subsidized by the government. It still costs a lot more in $$ and time than the airplane. But if one is contemplating a vacation, I can't think of a better one than traveling by train. Several years ago I traveled from Texas to Connecticut via Chicago, New York and on my way back, through Washington, D.C. I spent a day in each city. I had to save my money to be able to do it, but it was one of the most wonderful trips I have ever taken. Maybe I'm just in love with casual travel, but it was certainly worth my money time. I would hope we could continue to support this type of passenger transportation.

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It still costs a lot more in $$ and time than the airplane.

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In the Netherlands flying really isn't an option, since there's only one airport in the entire country (except for some military and private-jet-only ones), so where would you fly to?? In no more than 2-2.5 hours I can get to every corner of the country, the airport is 1.5 hours away.

I think in the Netherlands railways definitely do have a future. As long as every Dutch student can still take trains and busses for free, and the railway company gets paid for that by the government, trains will exist. If only they'd be on time...!

What a wonderful scheme, to give free travel to students.

Trains? What are they? Oh yes, I remember, they had them in England when I lived there. As for a future for them, it depends on where in the world you are, in some countries catching a plane is not an option so trains would be the only means of distance travel for the average person.

In the UK trains are a bit of a joke, a bad joke at that. Last time I had to catch a train was when I needed to attend a meeting in London and was staying in Southampton, due to works on the line I had to transfer to a bus for most of the journey!

The train issue seemed to gather a bit of steam (no pun intended) in the UK before Blair got so preoccupied with the little matter of Iraq. He was taking a bit of heat about it by all accounts and I hope the issue has not been derailed (no pun intended) by other major happenings on the international front. I know it is a pet peeve of the British people and hope for the sake of them that it eventually pulls back into the station (no pun intended). It has been a burning issue with them for a long time and seriously need to get sorted. I hope the British public do not get railroaded (no pun......) oh never mind. I seem to have become Richard Whitely and must stop before it goes any further.

Where I live (Queensland, Australia) both freight and passenger services go from strength to strength.

We are fortunate to have a well operated and highly reliable service. I shudder every time I see Government privatise something (such as UK Railways) because in the end all you ever seem to see is higher prices, less reliability and general chaos....

Yes, but not for long distance passenger transport. The future is in:

High speed short distance transport for commuting from suburb to city for work

and

Transportation of goods (the U.S. mail uses Amtrak trains for a large portion of its transportation).

Of course they have a future. We have a very posh train which whizzes by every so often manned by a steam engine! The smell is wonderful. I would love to be able to afford the fare and all the little luxuries. Fresh food taken on -on route-the very best of local produce etc. But then I'd also love to travel on the Orient Express-there's just something about trains which no other mode of transport can compare with.I would also appreciate it if ordinary trains ran on time and had sitting room for all passengers!

I think there is a future for the trains in UK but work certainly needs doing by all accounts. I'm always hearing reports about timetables not being kept to. Just to balance up the complaints a little though, here's some praise of the service.

We fly out from Gatwick 2 - 3 times a year. Rather than use our car or cadge a lift to get to the airport, we catch a train from our local station. It takes us right up to the airport terminal. So far, the train has always arrived on time and there have been no real difficulties of any sort.

The staff are usually very helpful with Mrs TW who is a wheelchair user. They always rush to get the ramps and, at the Gatwick end, escort us to (or from) the airport terminal, operating the lift or holding doors. They'd carry our cases if we let them ...but I'm an independent soul and prefer to manage myself if I possibly can.

With that sort of treatment I'm bound to say that I think our trains are pretty good. Maybe I should e-mail this post to the train company so that they can frame it.