It is all very well to have expectation about railway
improvements excited by two distinguished railway officials, but when you realise that they are only voicing their dreams we are left very much where we were. Everyone will agree that the two chief requisites, so far as passengers are concerned, are punctuality and cleanliness. Indeed in the case of railways (not actually a very godly institution) punctuality may be said to be next to godliness. After that I would put decent refreshment rooms. The provision for food and drink on British railway systems is, apart from a few exceptional stations, a scandal that stinks to heaven. The premises are bad, the food is bad, the service is bad. There is no reason on earth why it should be, As everyone who has travelled on Continental railways knows well. One of the best evening meals I ever had (I speak of reasonable meals for reasonable people, not caviare and champagne orgies) was at Basle railway station years before the first World War. If the British Railway Executive wants to convince the public that it is really alive—quite possibly, being a monopoly, it feels no need of that—it will appeal to the public through the public's stomach. As Dr. Johnson so justly observed, " I look upon it that he who does not mind his belly will hardly mind anything else."
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