In London we moan when trains and buses are delayed or cancelled. However, my wife always seemed happy that they turned up at all and she gasped in disbelief when the first ever train that she caught in the UK arrived promptly at 11.17, “They actually come at set times?” I remember her saying.

She could also never understand why if the next day the same train was delayed until 11.25 you would hear a chorus of tuts from passengers around you. “At least the train is coming” she would say optimistically.

However, her favourite thing about public transport when we lived in London was what she called “the talking buses” (i.e. the way they tell you the destination and what the next stop is). Similarly, when her sister came to visit in the summer of 2011 she thought it hilarious that the trains politely ask you to take your…