At the start of this week, I took a trip around East Anglia by train.

I enjoy travelling by train, and the region has some very attractive routes that are worth riding just for the scenery. Greater Anglia also does a very good 'Rover' ticket deal giving you unlimited travel on its network north of Ipswich and Cambridge for a fixed daily fare.

I've occasionally taken trips like this for many years – but this was the first time since the first lockdown that I've travelled to Cambridge and used the line from there to Norwich and compared to what the journeys were like in previous years the contrast is massive.

The company's new Stadler regional trains are amazingly comfortable in comparison with previous generations of trains – especially those of us who grew up using 1950s diesel units to get around off the main line!

On the day I travelled, all the services – to Cambridge, Norwich, Lowestoft and back to Ipswich – were all on time to the minute. I actually arrived in Ipswich a couple of minutes early but I hung about on the platform in a desperate attempt to get a good picture of a celebrity diesel locomotive parked nearby – sadly the sun was in the wrong place to get a decent shot.

However, at the end of my trip, I had two conflicting emotions.

The rail network in East Anglia is now as good as I can ever remember it – with comfortable, reliable trains offering a pleasant travel environment.

But there was also a slight sense of sadness that this is probably as good as it will get.

In the wake of the pandemic and the shake-up of the rail industry, bold plans to improve the current network in this region are almost certainly bound for the sidings at the DfT.

Remodelling of the junction north of Ely station would double the number of trains that could head on to Peterborough, Kings Lynn and Norwich. That is particularly important for freight trains from Felixstowe and Harwich heading to the midlands and north without the need to travel via London.

However because of the landscape there – it is very flat and there are a number of level crossings – changing the junctions at Ely would be very expensive and while Network Rail is working on a proposal transport ministers have made it clear this is no longer seen as a priority.

From comments made by Transport Secretary Grant Shapps, it also seems clear that the government is planning to pull the plug on the long-awaited east-west link that would have reconnected Oxford and Cambridge – with trains likely to continue to Ipswich.

That's been on the drawing board since the mid-1980s. It's unlikely to be formally scrapped – but it will likely be shelved and maybe revived in another 15-20 years when times are better again!

The rail industry is still suffering a huge hangover from the pandemic that is likely to continue for many years.

Put bluntly it's lost millions of passengers – the commuters who have discovered the ability to work from home some or all the time – and they're not going to come back.

The trains I was on in the middle of the day were as busy as ever, mainly I suspect with leisure travellers as there were a lot of families moving around.

But the guaranteed fares from commuters are still nowhere near pre-March 2020 levels.

That means rail finances are very stretched – a point rail unions need to keep in mind when considering pay and restructuring deals.

It also means the government is firmly in charge of the industry. Without continued taxpayer support, rail companies would be going bust and services would cease.

That does, however, mean that the government is pulling all the strings in the industry and it is ridiculous for ministers to pretend they have no role in the negotiations with the RMT, ASLEF and the TSSA.

Their insistence that only rail managers can talk to union leaders is unnecessarily prolonging the negotiation process and delaying attempts to reach a settlement.

The 25 years since the arrival of private money into the rail industry and the growing number of passengers has been something of a golden age.

New trains have been introduced. New services have been run and more people have been using trains regularly.

I fear now we have reached the end of that golden age. The new norm is that there will be far fewer commuters and other travellers will come nowhere near replacing the lost income.

It looks like we are now back to the stale days of British Rail when investment in the railways was minimal and bureaucracy kept every advance on the slow tracks.

A time when East Anglia was a region that the government could ignore because it was seen as a region that was "not a problem."