Ben Elton: The Great Railway Disaster | Preview (Channel 4)

The railways are in crisis, with cancelled and delayed trains, rising ticket prices and creaking infrastructure. An increasing number of lines are being taken back into government control.

Over 30 years after comedian Ben Elton was performing stand up about the demise of British Rail on TV, he argues in The Great Railway Disaster that privatisation is a failed experiment which should be put out of its misery.

On this rail misadventure he travels north through Manchester to visit the Ordsall Chord - an £85 million feat of engineering which currently only runs one train in each direction per hour. In Huddersfield, Ben experiences Britain's worst railway line, the Transpennine Express.

Beyond that he travels to the North East, where closed railway lines and deprivation tell the opposite of a levelling up success story. Ben reveals the results of a Channel 4 survey which asked 2000 adults about their experience of using the trains, questioning how problems on the railways have impacted people's everyday lives, changing the way they travel.

Ben also looks at how well our trains are really performing, with the latest up-to-date analysis on the rail services that are causing daily disruption to passengers.

Airs Monday 26th June at 8pm on Channel 4.