Southampton to London does not quite have the ring of San Francisco to New York but it is good to see the legendary Greyhound bus company over here. The owners claim the pricing will start from £1 with most fares under a tenner. Meanwhile I was asked to pay £42 for a one way rail ticket to Poole, admittedly a little further but not by much.

So it came as no surprise to read that Britain's railways are the most expensive in the world. The reasons are not hard to fathom: a back-log of investment in long neglected infrastructure that has to be paid for, private operators who need to make a profit and a Government that has never regarded the railways as a national asset, but only a drain on revenues.