double-decker trains – our rail guage (the distance between the tracks) is too small compared to europe making them unsafe on our railways. There is a great story behind this look up Isambalrd Kingdom Brunel. Anyway, the government wrecked things in victorain times is a short summary.
Even if we could fit them on the tracks we would have to rebuild all the tunnels which are too small. That is too expensive.

Over-crowding – We all have a choice about where we live and work, it is a free country.
However the biggest issue here it the botched privatisation of the railways. As consumers we have no choice and so monopoly companies are extracting as much as they can from us.
You could say re-nationalise, but then you just transfer the monopoly to the government, which achieves nothing.

More trains. I’ve got two problems with this. The first is that, as a shareholder in a rail company, I might have problems with the idea of spending large amounts of money on kit that probably wouldn’t bring in a great deal of extra revenue and wouldn’t be earning me anything very much for most of the day.

The second is that I’m never sure how this is supposed to work in practice. You’ll have to allow a few minutes between trains, just to the first one safely out of the station before the next one arrives, and you’re going to have to allow for hold-ups at junctions and crossings when trains from other departure points join the same lines into the main station. Then you’ve somehow got to get all the passengers off the train when it arrives at (e.g) King’s Cross and then take the train off the platform (because it can’t go any further, obviously) and into a siding somewhere before the next train can come in.

I just wonder how many extra trains, money aside, you could have running into London during the rush hour before you end up with a railway version of a traffic jam. I’m sure you could put more on, but I just wonder how many.

On Carbon emissions i have raise a number of queries about the environmental “consensus” on my ..feeble ..blog. I do not expect you to come over to the conspiracy theory Libertarian view ,..which I do not really hold anyway. I wonder if you could admit that that the problems are poorly presented and dealt with in the most superficial of ways .

I think there is a workaday problem to address but this hyperinfaltion and apocalyptic religionism only fuels the fears of those who suspect it is another state means of grabbing your life and your wallet.

As always this post is brilliantly backed with supporting detail which what I love about your blog . You will never get state monopolies to worry about the customer Ellee .
We need to start thinking of a future for activities not amenable to competition. Education, Health Transport. All these areas are hitting the right wall of the post 2nd WW consensus and ,predictably , collapsing .

It isn’t easy though. And politically it is a minefield. I believe myself that David Cameron has the right attitude and I hope that he will be able to navigate us away from the mess we have got ourselves into

Tejus, I have travelled on a double decker train in Amsterdam, I had never seen them before. It would mean raising the height of bridges or lowering the track perhaps, but all we do is delay making decisions that could make a difference to people’s lives.

What are the safety implications in a crash of of forcing so many people to stand? Coach operators and airlines provide seats for every passenger.

It’s also quite convenient that MPs live just across the road from the Palace of Westminster as and when required!