As it was, circumstances contrived to force me out of my car and onto the train last week - and a first hand taste of the Arriva Trains experience leaves me decidedly worried about our sport's association with the brand.

Without the gory details: trains up to an hour late, cancelled or just simply missing in action (or should that be 'inaction'), trains eventually turning up groaning to the gunnels with irate passengers packed dangerously into every available space - it's an unpleasant way to travel. When you finally do actually get to travel.

Speaking to regular train commuters, I didn't just catch Arriva on a bad day or two. It's pretty much always like that. And when you start talking to people you realise that Arriva has a pretty poor reputation for reliability, punctuality and comfort - the basics of travel, really.

So I'm amazed that Rugby League - a sport that's built its reputation on speed, accuracy, athleticism, teamwork and commitment - should associate itself with a brand that is considered by many as the hallmark of slow, unreliable, couldn't-really-care-less, cattle-truck service.

Running such a poor service in the heart of 'Rugby League country', it's reasonable to assume that a goodly proportion of their peed off passengers will laugh at their positioning re. the National Cup sponsorship. Or maybe
that's the crux of it. Perhaps they want to imbue themselves with some of the attributes of Rugby League - a handy panacea to mask the ills of their service.

So, whilst waiting an hour for a packed train twice out of three days isn't a particularly scientific sample of their overall service, it's a pretty good indicator. Once is unfortunate - twice looks like carelessness and all that.

For the National Cup, the journey may well have begun. But for the poor sods on Castleton Station who are probably still waiting for Friday morning's train, it's a claim that rings a little hollow.

As for me, I'm back in the warmth and comfort of my car. Made by Vauxhall - who used to sponsor Carlisle, you know...