You don't need to be surprised -- rail is more widely used than domestic air travel. (Reminder: regular express services run at up to 125mph; the HS1 -- Channel tunnel -- route maxes out at 180mph, and the HS2 line in development is due to hit 220mph eventually. This isn't Amtrak!)
The real competition for trains is automobiles and coaches, due to road-building having been prioritized since the 1950s. Also, rail fares have risen faster than inflation ever since privatization, and the surplus were siphoned off to the private-sector owners rather than being reinvested in modernization. Hence the current poor state of affairs.
This is right. Generally, rail dominates air for journeys of up to three hours, and is competitive up to about 5. Many of the domestic air routes (and closer international routes like London to Paris) are really only for people connecting onto long-distance flights rather than a popular way of going city-to-city. The more general-purpose flights are either longer (London to Scotland, or Exeter to the North) or over water (mainland to NI, for example).
The main competition for medium-distance routes is absolutely road, which has the majority share (cheaper, but normally slower on the main intercity trunks).
Many of the train operating companies are in fact owned by foreign governments. Abellio is Nederlandse Spoorwegen, Arriva is Deutsche Bahn, Govia is SNCF.
I've travelled by train in the UK since the early 80s and it's far worse now. Feet on seats, bags on seats, people talking on phones using speakerphone, watching videos without headphones, dreadful music leaking out of headphones, eating smelly food, failing to discipline riotous children, overcrowding. The sad truth is that unless you really enjoy environmentalist self-flagellation, car or plane are infinitely more preferable.
Changing this would need to start with a cultural change, but the traditional values we'd need to go back to are out of fashion.
100% disagree with this. Our local line, which in the 80s was a backwater being considered for closure or at the least major service cuts, now has an hourly fast intercity train with a quiet carriage (mostly observed), decent free wifi, and reliable service. Driving and, more significantly, parking anywhere just can't compete.
Not everywhere in the UK is lucky enough to have a good train service, but overall the service today is much better than the 80s.
Well, I've also been travelling on trains since the early 1980s and I don't really recognise that at all - are you in the South East?
I'd actually say my normal commute into Edinburgh from Fife is actually quite enjoyable - getting a seat isn't a problem in the mornings and maybe once a month I have to stand for 10 minutes on the train coming back, which is hardly an ordeal. Fellow passengers all seem fairly pleasant as well!
I would say that 95% of my train travel has been between Edinburgh, Glasgow and up to Inverness and beyond.
The only thing I miss about trains in the 1980s is that for a while the line between Aberdeen and Inverness ran ancient old 1st class carriages with compartments (think Harry Potter) as standard.
