Phew! Mission accomplished! I finished my trip on my 80th train – the 21.22 West Midlands service from Wolverhampton to Birmingham New St. It’s an odd train to end on you may think, but it gives me the opportunity to write about the redevelopment of Wolverhampton station and end the trilogy of articles on an optimistic note. Today I’ve covered railways old and new, from heritage stations and Victorian signalling to the very latest rail developments with new trains, new stations and also our new high-speed railway – HS2.

I’m now tucked up in my hotel, although Birmingham city centre feels a lot safer than the mad scenes I saw in Cardiff last night.

Tomorrow I’ll have a bimble around the West Midlands for myself, looking at a few developments here before heading home later in the day. Then, when I get back it’s very much ‘nose to the grindstone’ to start writing up my experiences.

In the meantime, here’s the picture of the day. I don’t normally do ‘selfies’, but on this occasion…This is me on my final train of what’s really been a completely unique trip…

The next time (If RAIL still want me to) do this trip will be in 2022, which would be my tenth time since we started the series in 2004. So much has changed on the railways since then. I wonder how much will have changed in the next two years?

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