'We're not going to knee-jerk a reaction out of this because one element of one project of one big programme overran', Saturday's Financial Times, quotes the Chief Executive of Network Rail Iain Coucher as saying, apropos the West Coast line shambles. Do I lead a sheltered life? This is the first time I have heard the clichéd phrase 'knee-jerk' used as a verb. As fares rise again, trains run late, over-crowded or not at all, they could at least show mercy to the language. If Stephenson, Brunel or Gresley were living, they would feed Coucher into the fire-box.