When you're standing around on a dirty platform waiting for a train that never seems to come, it's tempting to hark back to a golden age of rail travel.

The times when services were fast and frequent, staff were pleasant and helpful and the whole experience was a transport of delight.

But there never was such a time. People who moan about the privatised rail company now were incandescent about British Rail, apoplectic about the regional rail operations preceding it and, doubtless, they disliked the original private companies.

It's true there was a time in the last century when there was a vast rail network with few parts of a county such as Sussex more than five miles from a station. But services were slow and on main rural lines there were no more than six trains a day. The operation was generally remarkably overstaffed and inefficient.

Now, many people find it romantic to chug along on a steam train such as the one operated on the Bluebell Railway. But I am old enough to remember these trains in active service. They were sources of pollution.

They also made a major loss. Most of the old railway lines were uneconomic and that's why they closed. Although Dr Beeching takes the blame for most of the cuts, the truth is that many services had shut long before his appointment.

It was simply a great pity that railway finances were not sorted out years earlier so that some of the lines could have been salvaged, albeit with tram-like trains to save money rather than a full service.

There is hope that the Lewes to Uckfield line can be revived as there has been little development on it.

But what a pity that the little line running through Bramber and Henfield could not have been kept as this would have been equally useful. They said when it closed more than 30 years ago, buses would fill the gap but they have proved to be pitifully inadequate.

Despite all the many disadvantages, which all regular passengers know, train travel is booming. There are more services on most lines to more places than there have been for years.

From Brighton there are now two fast trains an hour to Victoria and four Thameslink services. You can also take direct trains to Portsmouth, Bedford, the Midlands, Scotland, the West Country, Wales, Reading, Seaford, Eastbourne and Hastings.

Now that a long franchise will be offered to either Connex or Thameslink, the winning rail operator will be investing millions if not billions into providing better lines and a better service. Railtrack, too, will play its part, especially in helping to pay for the Thameslink 2000 scheme.

Putting commerce into the railways was seen by many as a privatisation too far, but it has injected a welcome breath of competition into a moribund industry.

Now, the Government needs to play its part by helping the rail companies with the millions needed for ambitious projects. These include the cross-London link and major improvements to ease the pressure on the London to Brighton line. This will be the crucial test of whether the Government means what it says about public transport.

There will still be problems with rolling stock, providing information and with some of the staff and passengers. There always will be. But I fancy we will be nearer to achieving a new golden age on the railways in the next couple of decades than ever we were in the past.