Interesting thread this
!
I'm not sure whether what I'm saying in this paragraph is relevant to this but regarding my visit to Plymouth on Saturday 7th April last year, for the first time since leaving there on the June 4th 2006 with Mum (then passing through there on an HST twice to and from Penzance in July both 2009 & 2010), I was gobsmacked at the timekeeping. The 08:13 from Didcot Parkway to Penzance (7-coach HST) arrived into Plymouth at 11:17 instead of 11:16 (that was with an additional call at Ivybridge). On its 16:00 back (but to Reading) plus the 18:58 from Reading to Didcot Parkway ran on time and so did the 08:13 basically.
Since my first ever 2 visits to Cardiff / Wales twice (23rd January and the 14th August) this year, I feel TfW do fantastic with the fleet they have!
An Edinburgh train at Kings Cross was delayed because of a faulty seat reservation system (last Sunday) - about time it's fixed before departure and not have a constant 'We need to get this train out on time' attitude!
Another one is if there's severe disruption because of a broken down train or anything to do with infrastructure, services being on the move in anything up to 3 hours I feel is fine - 4 hours (ok) 5 or more, unacceptable. At this rate I'll be caught up in a delay this long because of a broken down train (or the train I'm on breaks down) or broken infrastructure (for example: signalling or overhead wires). I say this as it's been happening slightly more frequently at the moment.
Theres more I can think of at how I'm impressed by the railway but that'll take me ages to think.