£50bn down the line, trains are worse than ever

Far from the grandiose promises of ministers and the Queen's Speech, there's a more simple statement that sums up the start of the day for thousands in the nation's capital.

As I tried to struggle on to a packed train yesterday morning and gave up, the mantra crackled from the speakers: "We'd like to apologise for the overcrowding today. This is due to a lack of carriages."

Another day, another hassle for London's weary rail commuters. But this has been a bad week for the railways, even by their dismal standards.

Thameslink drivers have been refusing to work overtime because of a pay dispute, causing around half of services on some days to be cancelled.

Earlier this week Transport Secretary Lord Adonis issued a damning report on the disgusting state of Clapham Junction and many other stations.

Meanwhile, a few days ago, the Government finally took the East Coast line back into public ownership after operator National Express abandoned the franchise.

Delays, cancellations, overcrowding, eye-watering fares: despite more than a decade of promises and total public subsidy of around £50 billion, this Government has left us with a disgraceful rail service.

Sure, ministers show the occasional spasm of concern: I don't doubt Lord Adonis was sincere about the stations. I just don't expect it to make much difference.

Anywhere in the country, this state of affairs would be annoying enough for passengers. In London, the motor of the nation's economy, it beggars belief.

I know that we're upgrading the Tube. But above-ground rail services carry a million people around Zones 1-6 every day; another million rail journeys daily start or finish here.

The companies may change: Railtrack and Connex South Eastern are long gone. The service is still rubbish. It's no way to get people to work in one of the developed world's great cities.

Not that I think the Tories would do any better, as things stand. They were responsible for the madness of rail privatisation in the first place.

Does anyone believe they'll stand up to today's robber barons, the operating companies, who swallowed £254.7 million last year in public subsidy and then, like National Express, simply walk away when the going gets tough?

Across the political spectrum, rail privatisers think in bizarre ways.

I remember once listening in wonderment to a strategy discussion in Blair's Downing Street prompted by some latest row over the railways.

The difficulty, said one adviser, was that people still blamed the Government for the state of the trains, "even though the train operators are nothing to do with us".

Of course people blame the Government: it's still their taxes paying for the railways. The trouble is that outside London, few enough people rely on them to make it an issue that really counts at the polls.

In the capital, though, it's different. And there is one man this chaos could really hurt: London's Tory Mayor, Boris Johnson.

If I were Boris, I would start to bang heads over the capital's commuter rail services - and if he lacks the powers to do that, then he should demand them from the next Conservative government.

Meanwhile, I resolve to brave these rainy, windy days on my bicycle: I may get wet, but it's always better than the train.