Recent content by W14Fishbourne

This is probably too late for the OP but as a former ticket clerk at Woking we regularly sold London Terminal tickets as being valid to London Bridge, Cannon Street, and Charing Cross. Indeed, we could never understand why passengers paid extra for the tube to go from Waterloo to Charing Cross...

Yes. That's to replicate the situation with paper tickets. You can buy a discounted One Day Travelcard with a railcard, but you can't buy a discounted Underground single ticket. You should, however, be able to buy a discounted single ticket on an interavailable NR route (eg Harrow &...

It may well be, I can't say that I've ever looked at one on a curved platform. AFAIK, cant always has to be marked lineside to ensure that the proper cant is maintained, through platforms or not.

As I said. It's an insurance company that decides to write off an asset that it has covered and pay the owner its value. It would normally do that only if the cost of repairs were greater than the value of the item insured. The insurance company would then pay out and the item in question would...

This is the correct answer. It's to ensure that the rail top is maintained at the correct height relative to the platform after maintenance (eg tamping). A pity that they don't have similar markers to ensure that rails are kept at the proper horizontal distance from platforms and all...

Tiny - probably less than 1,000 a year. The income is divvied up between the TOCs in the same proportions as their total fares income, so most TOCs get diddly-squat from the exercise.

AFAIK, all 66s operated in the UK are owned by leasing companies. It would be up to them, not the operators, to decide whether to scrap a locomotive and that would only be likely with such modern machines if there was an insurance payout, as would have been the case with 66521.

I have one online picture of Verney Junction here.

AFAIR the rule has now been changed. It used to be that if you bought a ticket today, you pay today's price, no matter when you're travelling. Now, as soon as increased prices are announced, you pay the price which would apply on the first day of travel. In other words, if you buy a ticket to...

A few bus loads of passengers (even if the buses were full) don't provide an economic basis for running a train service. Even peak hour trains during the holiday week barely carry enough to justify their operation. They're quieter than normal off-peak trains. You can tell how quiet they are by...

No, TOCs only submit requests to Network Rail, it's NR that has responsibility for the final timetable and its maintenance. And what if it wasn't FGW that sold the ticket??

AFAIK, FGW telesales were to stop issuing airline style tickets. Have they done so yet? If so, these tickets weren't issued by FGW but by someone like The Trainline, and it would be their fault, though they, in turn, could justifiably blame Network Rail for not maintaining TSDB correctly.

The government's contracts with the TOCs are to operate trains 363, not 365, days a year. That is all the TOCs are paid for. Would you be happy if your employer announced that you were to work on Boxing Day and that, as you already get an annual salary, you wouldn't be paid any extra?

Correct - just south of the junction, served by Reading-Basingstoke trains. There's a big new office development there. See: http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/basingstoke.html There were also plans to build a new station on the line at Chineham, on the outskirts of Basingstoke, but adding...

Spend as much as you can and be prepared to learn how to use the camera properly. A fully-functional DSLR will enable you to exercise complete control over the photographs you take. If you are a keen photographer and you go for a cheaper, less functional solution now, you will only regret it in...