Having just returned from a trip to Britain and France, travelling by
rail in both countries, I was once again struck by the generally tidy
appearance of the railways in France (and on the continent generally)
compared with Britain. Apart from the ubiquitous litter and junk on the
right-of-way in Britain, there appears also to be a considerable amount
of engineering debris left on the lineside---odd pieces of rusty rail,
tangled cables not stowed in their concrete culverts, unused sidings
disappearing into thick undergrowth, disintegrating old rolling stock
etc.  Who is responsible for this mess? Even as scrap metal, this
superfluous material must be worth something.