Just over a week ago, I was going to post a thread entitled "England v Germany" ... on the eve of a rather embarrassing football match that ended England's World Cup Campaign.   I'm glad left it a week of so, because what I was going to post was that we could learn a lot on the English rail network from the German one which I used, rucksack on back, in the middle of last month to get to a place I was giving a course.  The place was a city that's comparable in size to Bristol.

Actually, the German team looks rather good and there are some things that the England team could learn from them - and it's the same on rail.   What did I notice?

a) Four recycling containers / rubbish bins, nicely integrated with the train. And the same four recycling points at stations too.

b) Good information, off and on train, when there was a diversion because something had come off the tracks just a short while previous.

c) Decent integration Bus / Train / Tram / U-bahn at the Bristol-equivalent's Haupbahnhof, including the U-bahn out to the airport

d) Tourist tickets at cheap prices, network maps easy to find,  dynamic timetables and departure board - all the information I would love to have in Bristol

e) Integration even out to the industrial / office areas.  Change from the U-bahn to a bus, and the bus went to where I needed to go

f) Leaflets handed out at ticket check, telling us where the train was calling and showing all the various connections at each upcoming stop, including the platform to change to for the connection.

g) Good shopping malls, excellent food and stores at stations - and not just at the one place.

Perfect?  No - a metro sign at one station that couldn't make up its mind and kept changing the next train. One train 60 minutes late and another 30 (but then they were diverting around a blockage).

Expensive?  No - the one fare I had to buy along the way got me a seat in First Class on a 320 Kph train, breakfast included.  And the cost was significanly less per mile that I would have paid to be crammed in (seated if lucky, some of the way) Paddington to Chippenham.

Expensive to provide?   Some of it, yes - but some of the smaller things emphatically no.  And emphatically commercial.  Those shops at the Hauptbahnhofs were buzzing.   And what do a few sheets of paper with information, and some nice rubbish recycling bins really cost?

Truely, we have a lot we can learn from the Germans