I was first pleased, then amused - a bit - by the information system at Dubai Airport's Terminal 3.

When I got to the reclaim belt, the tv screens said that the last bags from my flight would be on the belt within 24 minutes. Very efficient!

The number counted down - 23 minutes, 22 minutes, 21 minutes....

When it got to 1 minute and my bag was among several which had not appeared, I wondered what would happen next!

The message disappeared - and about 5 minutes later, more bags - including mine - appeared on the belt!

Nice try, guys!

When Barcelona Airport's new South Terminal opened, the old Terminals 1 and 2 were collectively renamed Terminal 2, and the new one is now known as Terminal 1.

However, if you look out as you taxi away from the gates at Terminal 1, you'll see that the gate numbers start in the 200 series - as if Terminal 1 is actually Terminal 2!

What is the numbering sequence for the gates in the old Terminal?

I've just been to the kind of presentation which I find quite irritating. It was by an architect closely involved with the design of Barcelona's new terminal 1, and he was clearly very pleased with the architectural masterpiece which had been created. Phrases like "swan's neck curves" and "Vitruvian columns" and "colours reflecting the Mediterranean, the beaches and the local forests" tripped lightly off his tongue.

One small - well, quite large, really - problem. Barcelona Airport's terminal 1 doesn't work.

Let me explain and qualify.

I reached it yesterday afternoon having got up at 5:15 in order to catch the first Dubai Metro of the day so that I could catch the 7:45 flight to Heathrow (a 7 hour flight) to connect with a 2 hour flight to Barcelona (which was an hour late because weather delayed the inbound flight).

You could argue that, four times zones from where I'd first started, I wasn't in the best frame of mind to truly appreciate the architectural splendours of the airport (and you'd be dead right) - but airports ought to expect passengers in my state to hit them. That's what real air passengers are like, guys!

Having got through the immigration smoothly, I then looked for the train - which I knew was there somewhere.

What I failed to realise was that, while it used to be accessed from a point between Terminals 1 and 2, those two terminals have now been merged as Terminal 2 and Terminal 1 (where I was) is somewhere quite, quite different.

I did manage - after a search - to find a train pictogram, which pointed me down to ground level. At ground level I hit the most irritating of signs - a train pictogram with, underneath, two arrows - one pointing left, one pointing right! Now that wasn't entirely useless - at least I knew not to go straight on - but should I turn left or right? A quick toss of a coin and up came the head of Her Majesty so I turned right. I did my best to follow the train signage - and got back to where I'd started from, having gone round in a complete circle!

So I went back up to arrivals level and asked - a sure sign, in my book, that there was a failure in the wayfinding.

"Oh, you have to catch the shuttle bus to the other terminal", was the response. "Go back downstairs and take the blue shuttle bus".

OK, did that. Not a wonderful experience because the bus was very full, and there were a lot of people standing with a lot of bags the floor and the route was quite devious, with quite a few roundabouts so people and bags were getting thrown around a bit. It was dark and you couldn't anticipate which way the bus was going to go.

Onece at Terminal 2, things improved. OK, the train pictogram had the magic word "RENFE" underneath (and EVERYONE knows what that means). OK, the moving walkway which used to assist tired and travel-weary old bones across the long connector bridge had gone. But the connector bridge still took you to the station, there was still a ticket office with a friendly English speaking person in it, and there were only a few minutes to wait for the train. A train from Barcelona had just come in and a great crowd of people flooded off, so it clearly has value!

The only other trivial issue was that the moving map on the train tv screen showed "Barca Sants" when I was expecting some variant of "Sants station" in Spanish or Catalan or both. Barca, it seems, is the abbreviation for Barcelona - EVERYONE knows that!

Other speakers from the airport authority at the conference said that the station at Terminal 1 was complete and so was the tunnel - it was just the train which was running late. Come back in 2012! Meanwhile 25 million passengers are going to use that terminal each year - and good luck to them!

But those speakers missed the point. The problem wasn't that the new train wasn't there. The problem was that the signage to the old train (which was there) was totally inadequate.

So, dear architect, the terminal failed. I wish you and some of your fellow speakers had been with me to experience my frustration last night.

The only justification for an airport terminal, dear architect, is that it is an intermodal interchange - and this one failed. The interchange facilities it offered between air and rail were bad - so bad that I, a dedicated user of public transport in general and trains in particular, nearly gave up.

Barcelona airport's terminal 1 doesn't work.

I have recently been able to compare two of the newest automated metro systems in the world, both connecting a major airport to a world city.

There are fascinating contrasts and similarities between Vancouver's Canada Line and Dubai's metro.

Service to Vancouver airport is more frequent and has smaller trains. Canada Line runs 2-car trains every 6 minutes, compared with Dubai's 5-car trains every 10. Vancouver has longer hours of service - a definite plus for a light metro system likely to carry airport-based employees.

Train interiors and exteriors are very similar. Both systems are obviously new, modern, clean, light, bright, airy, comfortable and with space for luggage, buggies and wheelchairs.

Dubai's has two classes - the car at the city end of each train is in two halves, with the front half for Gold Class passengers and the rear half for women and children only.

There is, however, little to choose between the accommodation in the two classes - which rather vindicates my own personal view of first-class train travel. This is that people pay extra to travel first class for one main reason - which is to travel with other people who have also paid extra! As a railwayman of long standing, my advice is always to provide it if it's culturally acceptable: some people are willing to pay extra, so take the money!

Both services provide a very smooth and comfortable ride.

Not all stations on the Dubai system are open - including the one serving Terminal 1, which is still being worked on.

Both serve stunning airports.

Dubai's Terminal 3 is a visual feast of glass and marble, with a beautiful garden area by the station - although sadly not in a place where many train travellers will see it.

However Vancouver Airport is more vibrant with trees, waterfalls and First Nations art throughout the building.

Vancouver Airport Authority invested in the railway and it shows: the stations on the island housing the airport are of a significantly higher quality than those on the mainland. Many stations have self-service check-in machines. Stations in Dubai are of a uniformly high quality - they have been compared to the lobby of a 5-star hotel, and it's a good comparison!

Dubai is clearly a country unused to public transport: a lot of people using the system are really just going for a ride (and why not - they paid for it!). To a lesser extent this happens in Vancouver too, especially since the airport has very wisely opened an excellent viewing lobby, with good access to the wide range of landside shops and cafes.

Vancouver can't compete with size for Dubai - it has a single platform on a single line at a terminus, whereas Dubai's Terminal 3 station is on a through line of a twin-track railway with two platforms (and these, like Hong Kong's, are on different levels to make it easier for passengers to reach the terminal - although there isn't level access for both arriving and departing passengers as there is at Chek Lap Kok).

Ticketing is possibly the least good part of each - some temporary signage at Vancouver Airport shows some passenger confusion, and in Dubai there are just too many options!

But that is really groping for faults: both services are excellent - and well used.

There is a theory around that 2+3 seating on trains - where there are 2 seats on one side of the centre aisle and 3 on the other - isn't worthwhile because no-one uses the middle seat of the three and therefore it is wasted.

Er - really? Where has this phenomenon been observed? Not on the trains I commute on! If there is a seat, it gets sat in - and if there is a seat with a bag on it, the bag gets moved!

It is, of course, true that the centre seat is unpopular and the last to be filled. But it's better than no seat!

If the journey is very short - 5 to 10 minutes - OK, people may choose to stand by the door rather than taking the trouble to find a seat. But even on a 20 minute journey - yes, if the load factor approaches 100%, the centre seats get sat in.

I can't help closing with the recollection of a journey last week when I did have to sit in the centre seat of a three. The aisle and window seats were occupied by quite big men, and the bloke by the window was taking up quite a lot of space. I did wonder, having sat down, whether or not I was actually touching the seat at all or just supported by these two guys on either side!

Where was the first concentration camp?

In Andrew Marr's "History of Modern Britain", a book currently being serialised on BBC television, the claim is made that it was the British, in the Boer War (1899 - 1902).

But is this true? I thought that their first appearance was about 5 years earlier, in Cuba's war of independence against Spain?

Is that true - or did someone else get the idea first?

I was fascinated to see a picture of a Russian double-deck passenger carriage built in 1904. Is this the first double deck passenger coach?

(And please note that my first law of railway history states that, "Nothing was the first anything" - because whenever you find a well-known first, there was usually something similar before it!).

The reference is in the magazine, Railvolution, issue 4/09. Page 34 has an article on the Tver Carriage Works, and an illustration of a 1904 double deck passenger coach. It had external steps up to the top level, and a top-deck inter-car gangway.