Travel: Organised rail chaos

QUESTION 1: Now that British Rail has been split up, how many different organisations do you have to deal with on a journey from Clapham Junction to Gatwick Airport?

Answer: seven, and counting. To find out departure times, you have to call the telephone information service provided by South Eastern (whose other job is to run trains to Kent). Clapham Junction station, Europe's busiest, is owned by Railtrack; but the ticket office is staffed by Southwest Trains. You can use a Network SouthEast card to get a discount, even though the issuing organisation has ceased to exist. I caught a train owned by one of the three rolling-stock leasing companies, but operated by Network SouthCentral. I returned on a Thameslink train, run by the seventh enterprise of the trip. Presumably most of the pounds 4.50 revenue from my ticket was used up in accountancy fees to decide who got what. To have bought a cup of tea would have entailed who knows what financial intricacies. A good job there was no buffet.