Dear Reader

WE ALL thought the 17.36 to Plymouth from London’s Paddington on Thursday would leave from Platform 8. It normally does. But at 17.35 we learned that it would depart from Platform 4, triggering a minor stampede, during which a young mother pushing her buggy fell to the ground.

In other words, a completely normal scenario at a British railway station — but one made worse on discovering that rather than having nine carriages, the train only had five.

I managed to squeeze on, amid vacuous messages over the tannoy about ‘sorry for any inconvenience caused’ and how seat reservations would not apply. Others were left stranded on the platform, including, most likely, that mother with her buggy.

All this on the day that Boris Johnson’s plans to shake up the rail network reportedly were shunted into the sidings because Rishi Sunak ‘doesn’t see the railways as a priority’.

Johnson and his then Transport Secretary Grant Shapps wanted to set up Great British Railways in an attempt to make travelling by train fit for purpose, not least tackling the absurd ticketing system, of which there are thought be some one million combinations.

It’s a classic case of if it’s broke, don’t fix it. Keep kicking rail reform down the track and then take refuge in the argument that it’s all John Major’s fault for selling off the disparate companies in the first place.

Sunak and his baseball logo socks are in Japan for the G7 summit. No doubt he is being ferried around by limousine. Certainly, he’d be embarrassed if he were to take a train.

On my last trip to Tokyo, I picked up an English language newspaper. A front page headline read: ‘Inquiry launched over rail failure.’ I assumed something bad had happened. But, on closer inspection, it became clear the inquiry was tasked with finding out why one of the bullet trains from Tokyo’s Shinagawa Station to Osaka, (pictured), had arrived at its final destination three minutes late.