[deckiedan]

I suspect there are a lot of other factors to take into consideration here:

- population growth over that time - percent of people able to afford cars and fuel over that time - % of those numbers that are in London ( and other big cities) - so the number of people able to afford to live in London compared to jobs there... Many people were priced out, and so have to commute, and pollution taxes and parking prices are now there to discourage cars - how much train line maintenance has been dropped, and will be coming up as needing replacement "soon" but not done - how much subsidy the private companies are actually getting still.

...

Trains in the UK are really not great at all... Compared to the rest of Europe anyway.