Interlude

The station I set out from is 78 miles from Oxford. Our disastrously fragmented, privatised rail system meant that the journey back to Oxford station took me 2 hours 47 minutes, an average of 28 miles per hour. I would have got back an hour earlier (av 45mph) except that the train I wanted from Basingstoke to Reading left two minutes before my train was due into Basingstoke, then the train I wanted from Reading to Oxford left two minutes before the train I was on was due into Reading. Nothing was late according to the timetable - it's just scheduling that doesn't take account of other train companies. I know that timetabling is hugely complicated and that it has to take into account many different journeys, but I don't think the connections I needed to make are unusual.

Anyway, it meant that I had half an hour to look round Basingstoke's multi-storey car park and office blocks so not all was lost.