British Rail
A parody of WH Auden's "Night Mail" by Richard Heeley
This is the train that's still out of order
Stuck on the track with no-one on board her
Passengers rich and passengers poor
Still all standing at the station door
Profits for the city, profits for the board
Promises broken, warnings ignored
Mothballed tests and dodgy tracks
Papering over the safety cracks
Once the pride of a once great nation
Crumbling away leaving you at the station
The Government says it's all going to be fine
But have the railways come to the end of the line?
The poem was written for a trailer of an edition of the BBC's Panorama current affairs program. The trailer is available for download though at rather low quality.
