This was the rail network in the UK around 1920 (probably it's peak), pretty much every major town and quite a few villages had stations, over a third of it was shut down and mothballed in the 1960s (and more since) as cars became the preeminent way of getting from A to B. I think it's pretty much accepted by people now that that was short sighted, what with climate change and congestion on the roads, trains offer a mode of transport for both freight and people that (with sufficient investment and maintenance) is superior for medium to long distance journeys as well as travel into large urban centres where parking is limited.
I've used the train twice already this week and will again at the weekend, it's convenient but suffers from a couple of important limitations, it's too expensive and is relatively unreliable. I saw a couple of posters at the station today for "Great British Railways", a renationalisation of our train network, I wonder if that will improve things? I fear that trains will be too low down in the pecking order for cash from the government, the system is already creaking and desperately needs investment, I wonder if it will get it ahead of healthcare, social services and defence, I somehow doubt it.
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