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With 20,000 miles of track and seven million neighbours, the railway has to manage its local communities as best it can. Millions of pounds are spent on the track teams who deal with fly-tipping and picking up dog mess thrown on the track. The MerseyRail revenue inspectors must try to clamp down on ticket evasion while having to deal with drunk passengers.

In the Welsh Valleys, a line that was closed in the 1960s has been reopened, helping to regenerate the area. Slovakian Lukas finds that his new job as a train guard not only helps him to become a fully fledged Welshman but also, he admits, a bit of a trainspotter. But not all communities welcome the railway - when Network Rail wants to close a manned level-crossing box in a picturesque village and move it up the line for safety reasons, they have to contend with the locals intent on keeping 'their' level-crossing keeper.