Richard Madeley: "British Rail, which actually did become a national joke" I'm old enough to have used BR regularly, and I don't remember it being a national joke. I do remember it being starved of funding by Thatcher, though.
@SaulStaniforth British Rail sandwiches ....? More importantly tho there were trains, they ran to timetable & as far as I recall you could get a seat
@SaulStaniforth She was determined to destroy it, and it did in its later days become a joke, due to underfunding. The irony is that now the privatised system costs the taxpayer far more for a far worse system that's beyond a joke.
@SaulStaniforth Same for me; used BR all the time and it was nowhere near as shite and unreliable as the last 10 years or so…
@SaulStaniforth Richard Madeley can FRO. I worked for British Rail in the 80's under Thatcher who did nothing for us.
@SaulStaniforth If you ever read old Meccano Magazine from the 50s and 60s they had articles about train journeys majority of arrived early or on time. The BR joke was mainly down to the press of the day.
@SaulStaniforth He certainly knows all about being a national joke.
@SaulStaniforth I am of an age where I travelled with BR. On the whole far better service, but I may be romanticising the 70's when Summers were longer and hotter, strawberries were sweet, and life felt good.
@SaulStaniforth "British Rail was a National Joke." So says national Joke, Richard Madeley. Takes one to know one, I suppose