There are other things at play that are Mammon-fed and don’t give a toss for the commuter. The small, Victorian railway station here is in the middle of town (a 15 minute car journey from the suburbs). Parking is limited to a couple of hundred places, though the station is used by several thousand every weekday. Here’s the rub; the suburbs to the east of the town are where the majority of people live – three massive housing estates with several thousand homes in total. The main line from Liverpool Street to Colchester, Ipswich and Norwich literally cuts through the three suburbs at a place called Boreham. For thirty-odd years there have been plans to build a station at Boreham (there’s plenty of land for it) but it’s never materialised because neither the council, developers or the rail operators are prepared to fund it. Consequently there are traffic jams and an overcrowded central railway station every day with people trying to get to and from the suburbs to the central station instead of being able to walk, cycle or get a short lift to the Boreham station – if it existed.