A new mode of travel

Three of us travelled by train to Yeovil and back on Saturday and  I had not been on a train for years. Wow! What a far cry from my school journeys by LNER from Great Dunmow to Bishops's Stortford. Throw your bike into the bicycle shed at the station, be greeted by name by the guard, sit in a red plush compartment with its own door on to the platform, surrounded by homburg or bowler hatted men changing on to the London train.
Waterloo, for a start, is light, bright and clean. The train is sleek and apart from having to bend like an S in order to gets one's legs under the table, it is clean and comfortable. A trolley comes at regular intervals, to woo us with coffee and KitKats, an overhead display tells us the time and next stop. It's all astonishing in its elegance and efficient performance.
Our young neighbour across the aisle, spends the hours working on his laptop, slide rule and other electronic gadgets, three or four others in the carriage are on their computers.
Stiff British reserve has disappeared in general. Here, our workaholic fellow traveller breaks in an out of our overheard conversation with comments. He is going to a christening. We are going to a memorial service.
On the return journey, there is an anachronism. Yeovil station has a cafe on the platform which is a throwback to Brief Encounter: steamed up windows, dirty cups on the table, a massive pourer-out of tea. Thank goodness there is still something familiar!