The reactions were swift, impassioned and all over the map.

‘A little upstart, vulgar being, with her Mr. E. and her caro sposo, and her resources, and all her airs of pert pretension and underbred finery.’

Above all, the 48-page timetables of the new service, which have been distributed free at every station in the scheme, are a model to the rest of B.R. For the first time on British Railways, so far as we are aware, a substantial timetable has been produced, not only without a single footnote but also devoid of all wearisome asterisks, stars, letter suffixes and other hieroglyphics.

A gruffy, almost sleep sounding voice answered the phone.