It's not a bad song. It's just a cigarette burn on an otherwise beautifully woven tapestry. It doesn't fit. It's an afterthought single crammed in at the last second.

"Train in Vain" was added after the deal for The Clash to write a song for an NME flexi disc fell through, and as Mick Jones commented, "The real story on 'Train in Vain' is that originally we needed a song to give to the NME for a flexi disk that NME was going to do. And then it was decided that it didn't work out or decided the flexi disk didn't work out so we had this spare track we had done as a giveaway. So we put it on London Calling but there wasn't time because the sleeves were already done." The result of its late addition was that it was the only song without lyrics printed on the insert, and was not listed as a track, although its presence is announced as the title and position on the original vinyl record was scratched into the vinyl in the needle run-off area on the fourth side of the album.

Not trying to be a snob about it. It's just a weak song at the end of a powerful album. Revolution Rock is a far superior swan song.