Hello and welcome to today's independent travel podcast with me Simon Calder the last of the week

of course the last of September indeed and it finds me well kind of hitchhiking through Wales

I say kind of because um on the road that I'm currently on, which is in

rural southeast Wales, mile or two outside the raglan, haven't actually been any cars.

So I'm only theoretically hitchhiking and there's a whole philosophical discussion there if someone is

If there is no traffic can someone truly be said to be hitchhiking who knows

But the reason it's relevant is that we've got well actually starting, Friday, a whole series of train cancellations,

89% of them cancelled tomorrow on Saturday, a similar number, likely to be cancelled on Wednesday,

when the train driver's working for 13 train operators will go on strike

and then about one in five trains will run next Saturday the 8th of October there's also

disruption running into Sunday due to Saturdays action and then Thursday Friday

Great Western Railways has problems with the

white collar rail union and that is going to lead to cancellations too as I was discussing only yesterday with you.

So the uphill bit has now begun doing a lot more hiking than hitching,

is hitchhiking possibly a short-term solution to the immediate travel crisis and maybe a longer-term

solution in terms of providing low cost transport.

Well, I know this even perhaps raising the subject could sound controversial.

And here I am. Certainly the fact I've been hitchhiking for oh hang on 54 years

means that I'm perhaps not exactly the typical hitchhiking demographic if there is such a

thing because few people are hitching these days I have typical hitchhiking demographic. If there is such a thing,

because few people are hitching these days,

I have noticed.

...