A small confession

Staying on the subject of Akela’s holidays I thought it was time I shared a small confession with you, and that is that I am a bit of a closet train buff. Now there’s no need to worry, I have never sat at the end of a platform with a thermos noting down numbers but I do have a real affection for the old choo choos and think that when it all works well (as opposed to a points failure at Hitchin delaying the in bound service etc etc) there is simply no other way to travel. It has a romance all it’s own!

Which is why First Great Western should be utterly ashamed of the way they have treated at least one of their stations (and I assume others) in the shape of Truro. Here is a wonderful old place, red brick, old fashioned, plenty of station buildings etc, it could easily feature in a episode of Heart Beat. The kind of place it should be a real pleasure to pass through. FGW however have allowed the place to deteriorate in a terrible way. Parts of it are rusty, half the station buildings are out of use, the old waiting room has had all its old fittings gutted and replaced with a plastic floor and metal benches, the paint is pealing everywhere, it’s pretty grim. It wouldn’t take much to tart this place up but while the railways are still privatised I can’t see it.

A crying shame.