That was the year that was.. and it wasn't pretty!

摘要

THIS has been the railway's annus horribilis. Nothing may have burned down, but almost everything else that could have gone wrong has done so. The list is almost too painful to go through: the timetable meltdown; the new Hitachi trains that seem to have endless problems and seats that make you wish you had brought your own cushion; the laughable failure of Crossrail's promise to be on time and on budget; a franchise system that has completely lost its way; and an investment programme, particularly on electrification, that is proving excessively expensive and has had to be reined back; and overall a system which, yet again, is being subjected to a review by an industry outsider.