IF WE’RE honest, travelling on planes is not a lot of fun. We’re all herded into halls some two hours before departure, then crammed into a little tube and spewed out at the other end to spend another hour in passport control and the baggage hall.

I’m not a mathematician, but I suspect the ratio of actual travel time measured against the faffing about before and after is appalling. Indeed there are some trips I’ve made that have given me insight into the world of cattle trucks.

The only real thing going for planes is they can take you a long way, which is fine if you plan on visiting America or Australia. Unless you’re lucky enough to have the time, the capital and the stomach to make the trip by sea there is no other alternative.

Closer to home, however, the options open out. A couple of years ago my wife and I – being the big kids that we are – decided to celebrate our wedding anniversary with a trip to Euro Disney. Instead of flying to Paris we took the Eurostar and what an excellent experience that turned out to be.

Train travel is evocative. It’s lodged in the same part of our brain as picnics in fields on sunny days, playing on the beach, ice cold lemonade, climbing trees. It is from another, more relaxed age.

We also recently enjoyed a day on the Orient Express from London round Kent and back. There was a five-course lunch and excellent service from the staff – and all on a steam train. Of course I accept that a trip on the 7.45am into Marylebone may be a slightly different experience, but trains are trains.

With air travel being a pain in the neck and our roads becoming so overcrowded that you get nowhere fast, the railway is on the brink of becoming the main choice.

Last week it was revealed a Government study is underway to look at ploughing more than £30billion into expanding our high-speed network.

Lord Adonis, the new Transport Secretary, said that he would like to see the end of not only domestic flights, but also short flights into Europe over the next 20 years.

So, probably, would most of the air passengers. Rail travellers would arrive in Glasgow from London while air passengers were still being frisked for bottles of water.

This news came just days after the Association of Train Operating Companies called for the opening of 14 main routes in England which had been shut for decades.

If this was accepted it would reverse the disastrous and short-sighted report from the now rather infamous Dr Richard Beeching in 1963. That saw the closure of 2,000 railway stations and the loss of 5,000 passenger routes.

It’s not all perfection, of course. The day after Lord Adonis championed the future of railway travel, another report emerged revealing that passengers on the main London to Scotland route are still suffering the poorest punctuality despite a £9b upgrade.

Of course the Adonis plans are a couple of decades down the line, but the ATOC’s plans can be achieved much more quickly and would improve access to the rail network for over one million people. It has initially identified 14 schemes that would cost £500m and involve reopening stations in a number of fairly large towns.

There is also talk of a much-welcomed rail link between Wycombe and Oxford.

As it is, for my fairly frequent visits into London, I only ever use the train. It’s so quick, easy and hassle free. The only danger is that I may nod off and wake up in Birmingham on the return trip.

Of course, a further 100 years down the road the whole transport will probably collapse anyway because oil has run out, climate change has made it too hot to move around much and we revert to living and working in our own communities.

Then, of course, the best form of travel will be by horse and cart.