As we live next to this line, we received a letter earlier this week form Network Rail, thanking us for our patience during the last 6-7 years of 'major improvements'.
My wife (whose only interest in the topic is that she's had quite a lot of disturbed sleep over the last few years due to late-night floodlights and heavy machinery, and that I've been making much more use of the main family car), asked "so what's improved then?"
Me: "erm..."
Her: "are the trains quicker?"
Me: "erm, nope, not yet, but they might at some point in the future, maybe"
Her: "do they have newer trains?"
Me: "not really, they've replaced 30-year old Northern trains with 30-year-old repainted Southern trains, but we might get some new ones next year"
Her: "do these trains have more coaches or seats?"
Me: "nope, we used to have 4 or 6-coach trains, but now they're either 4 or 2 coaches"
Her: "are they more frequent?"
Me: "nope, about the same, if not slightly less frequent"
Her: "and am I right that they go to fewer places?" (she's aware that our daughter used to get direct train to Uni at Glasgow, but this has now ceased)
Me: "yep, fewer destinations"
Her: "are they any more reliable?"
Me: "nope - if anything they've been much less reliable in recent years"
Me: "some of the trains are less polluting now"
Her: "but you travel by diesel car most trips now, cos the trains are so unreliable, and so does..." (she rhymes of 3 other friends/acquaintances who've completely given up on rail travel)
Me: "suppose so"
Her: "well that was a bit of a waste of time and money then"
I'd been quite positive about the work finally finishing, but put like that, I'm starting to agree with her.