Who's behind you?

I usually catch the train to work, but my very much better other half offered me a lift home tonight (just for info, we work in the same city, but usually work vastly different shifts, making lift-sharing impossible).

To be honest, I'd rather walk the 35 miles to work every day than have to battle with the traffic on the M5, M4 and M32 motorways.

Whenever I venture onto these tarmac nether worlds there is freqently a moment of heart-stopping terror.

Tonight, someone made a last second change of mind and dived in front of us to join the M4. It meant my wife had to slam on the brakes at high speed to avoid crashing.

Why anyone would choose this torment over a trip by rail goodness only knows. Okay, you are restricted by the train timetable, and the fares build up over time (although my ticket is actually reasonably priced), but aside from that the train is infinitely superior.

I can relax with a book or a magazine, surf the web on my iPhone, even chat to fellow passengers. On some trains, I can get a drink and a bite to eat and even nod off to sleep in the deliciously comfortable seats.

What's more, the train is far superior to the car in terms of environmental friendliness.

In February, my wife and I celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary by travelling all the way to Seville, Spain, by train from Gloucestershire in the UK. This included a fantastic sleeper train from Paris to Madrid - eating top class food in a sumptuous restaurant car - and a trip on a magnificent Spanish AVE train to Seville, watching an English film on overhead TV screens as the train flew south at 200mph.

It was a wonderful way to cross Europe and it made our holiday. If we had done the same journey by car, we'd still be recovering from it now.