Let me tell you about a journey I made at the weekend which typifies a few good things and a lot of bad things about travelling by rail these days.

I was with a party of 11 friends going for a cycling weekend in Kent and was the only one to make the trip by train.

At Brighton station there was the inevitable huge booking office queue, which means you have to get there early.

The elderly train to Hastings is faster than in the past, getting there in just over an hour.

But how much quicker and more inviting it would be if the Polegate link were restored and you did not have to waste time shunting in and out of Eastbourne.

If I thought that train was old, how much more ancient was the diesel to Ashford?

I cannot imagine there can be an older train on the railways in Britain and I had genuine fears about its managing to scale the slopes as it clanked along at a sedate pace.

This should be an express line with trains direct from Ashford, close to the Channel Tunnel, along the South Coast.

Instead the line is single track on the Sussex section and has not even been electrified.

We had to wait, irritatingly, at Ore for about 15 minutes so that another train could pass.

Those minor irritations were nothing compared with the return leg.

Sunday rail travel is always dodgy but I had carefully double checked there was no engineering work on the line.

Sure enough, on arrival at Ashford, there were no trains and the replacement bus service to Hastings did not take bikes.

I had to make a complicated journey involving changing at Tonbridge, Redhill and Gatwick Airport.

On arrival at Haywards Heath, we were suddenly told there was more engineering work on the line and more replacement buses, which did not take bikes.

It's a hilly journey from Haywards Heath to Hove, not what I wanted at the end of a hot day's cycling and carrying luggage.

But there was no alternative.

On the way I saw buses laden with passengers coming back from Brighton.

Sunday was a sunny day with the Festival in full swing.

Was it really necessary to arrange engineering works on the line to London that day?

Why can't they be done at other times as they are in many Continental countries, such as Holland?

And why can't there be more crossovers, allowing some sort of service to continue?

None of my friends are inveterate motorists.

Yet all of them, wisely in the event, opted to make this journey by car rather than train.

It is part of the reason why I think transport should be a key issue in the general election.

There's not room now in crowded counties like Sussex for everyone who wants to travel by car to do so.

In Germany and other nations there is higher car ownership through prosperity, yet lower car use because of good public transport.

The private railway companies are doing their best. There are more trains running to more places more often from Brighton than there ever were.

Yet huge investment, far beyond their reach or that of Railtrack, is needed to make a fundamental shift towards train travel.

Projects such as four-tracking the line from Brighton to Three Bridges (possibly through tunnelling, revamping the Coastway line, electrifying the Ashford to Hastings service and reopening the Lewes to Uckfield line) would all cost money but they must be done.

Forget about fuel duty.

My vote will go to the party which can sort out public transport in a way that will benefit us all.

Unless we see action, rail will rust while road transport of all kinds becomes slower and more intolerable.