The triumph of the system

Over the last few days I have cycled over sixty miles (for pleasure - business is not going that badly). Somewhere around mile 50, it occurred to me just how amazing public transport is. I can get further in an hour by train than I can cycle comfortably in a day under my own steam, and it costs me much less than I can earn in an hour. Imagine what getting around would be like without the kind of multiplication of effort that railways provide - if we all had to provide our own private infrastructure. The state really did do some things well, and even now, in these denuded times, those advantages have not entirely disappeared.