Snow and ice have descended on Britain for the second time this (2010/11) winter, and the entire transport network has again ground to a halt, except for the railway.

Anyone who has ever read the wonderful Thomas the Tank Engine stories, of the Rev. A. W. Audrey, will know that snow is no obstacle to a train.  Thomas himself only ever became stuck when he refused to wear his snowplough.  There is even less excuse for any modern train to fail in the face of foul weather, of any kind.  Points can be de-iced by electric heaters, and signals can operate by radio.  The only reason why the railway sometimes fails us these days is that drivers will often depend upon the road to get to their depot, because the railway itself now reaches only around half the country, after closure of around a third of the network and the rise of sprawl.

And yet the media, seeking sensation, give equal measure to the 10% failure of rail services as they do to the 90% failure of road transport.  As much time yesterday was devoted to the 20% reduction in international rail services (due to speed reductions) as to the 70% reduction in aviation.

Rail remains the mode of transport by far the most secure against foul weather.  Furthermore, rail is the only mode capable of mass evacuation in an emergency.  If New Orleans had seen the same investment in rail as it had in roads, far fewer people would have suffered and died.  The same high integrity and high capacity that makes this possible also allows movement of the very high numbers attending major cultural events.  The London 2012 Olympics can be served only by major rail investment, which thankfully is going ahead, despite the fact that Britain has been all but bankrupted by its banking industry.

I’m looking out at a road still only safely passable in a four-wheel-drive vehicle four days after a blizzard which deposited ten inches of snow over eight hours, and reduced visibility to a few metres.  All roads here became impassable with an hour, and yet every train ran through our village that day, and within minutes of schedule.

How can we have allowed our entire economy and lifestyle to become almost wholly dependent upon a mode of transport which becomes useless for a full week after a single storm and a temperature just two degrees below zero?