Why the trains are so bad - 11 reasons

As I squeeze on to my window seat, ready for the bedraggled multitudes of Romiley, Hyde and Guide Bridge to shuffle on in grave discomfort, we console ourselves that we don't live in Gorton as the train trundles in and no-one gets on. If we are able to move our elbows enough to turn the pages of our soggy Metro newspaper we will also be grateful we aren't commuting in from Wigan, Bolton and Preston. Or that we would attempt to travel at all in Cumbria.

I don't count these as blessings, or celebrate any of this. But I am pleased there's been an awakening. After feeling like I was just warbling like some eccentric uncle contesting the authenticity of the moon landings, I do feel a twinge of encouragement. Others are complaining, so I don't have to.

When I was a magazine editor, I campaigned forcefully for the Ordsall Chord - and all forms of rail infrastructure improvement. That it has been the catalyst for further problems, not eased solutions, should never be a reason to stop these improvements. There need to be more. Piccadilly station for a start.

Last week I had the good fortune to be in London, where I use the orange line. When I lived there in the 90s you just never would, it was horrible. Now, it's a high frequency service used throughout the day, connecting all parts of a bustling city. If you were looking for premises, or building a business it would be a major factor in where you'd locate.

Jonn Elledge of the New Statesman's marvellous urbanist arm, City Metric, has nailed it again. Please link here to his 11 reasons why the North's railways are in chaos.

Summary: poor planning, no investment, terrible industrial relations, more bad planning, indecision, poor stock management, the south matters more and dreadful regulation,