FOR THE country that invented railways, Britain has shown remarkably little interest in them lately. New networks have been built around Europe in the past few decades, but the only significant stretch of track laid in Britain in a century is the 67-mile (107km) HSI railway that links London to the Channel Tunnel. Indeed, the country has half as much track as it had in 1963. Yet while Britain has an almost American reluctance to invest in railways, its commuting patterns are European: 10% of journeys are by rail, compared with 9% in Germany and less than 1% in America. The result is a lot of angry commuters.
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