It's the uncertainty of train delays (in the UK) and your powerlessness as a passenger that's really painful. You get at least one of:

- delay announced increasing by 1 minute with every minute that passes

- no time given, just "delayed"

- trains that were delayed cancelled after 20 minutes wait

- except when you find another way, then they turn up

- additional stops, not announced until you're onboard (so useful to nobody)

- skipping stops/terminating early, again not announced

- announcements that the train will terminate early, only for the driver to announce he's heard nothing of the sort and carry on

etc...

I've been on a train twice in the last ten years.

On the one ride, it was hot so it expected to arrive about 45 minutes late. You can't go full speed on hot tracks.

On the same ride, there was construction, so we sat and waited for about 45 minutes in the middle of no where, in the dark. It was long enough they told us to just let our kids run around and brought the snack cart around for free.

That's a lot of delay for a 3.5h ride.

Ontario, Canada.

My in-laws use trains to travel between cities a fair amount. More delayed trips than not.

It says a lot that Ontario was my first guess when you started listing your complaints.

Not Amtrak, not some third-world country with a corrupt government... Ontario.

The LRT in Ottawa is going well too!

Who would have expect it to snow? Or be warm?

I didn't expect it to fall off the rails though. Not that soon.

I have relatives like that too. They always want us to pick them up at the train station. I have never seen a Canadian passenger train arrive on time.

Canada is not a train culture.