Trains of thought

Entries have been arriving for the competition to name the train on which vice-chancellors will travel to the annual Universities UK residential meeting, which will be held in Aberystwyth in September. UUK is planning to charter train carriages to transport vice-chancellors to the meeting because the only public trains available do not have first-class accommodation.

A reader contacted The Diary with: "It's so obvious, yet irresistible: it can only be a gravy train." Other suggestions included the "boffins' buffet".

Letters
Laurie Taylor