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Im sure I recall stories of trains being sent out along new lines whilst they were still finishing off the last bit of track at the other end!

Back in the days when you could smoke on stations but not on trains, if a train was due to sit at a station for a few minutes, it would usually be announced that people could get off the train to "get some air", or "stretch their legs", when of course most were just getting off for a quick smoke...

One fairly common complaint: The buffet being closed. I recall one particular lady complaining that if she couldnt get a drink on a train, then the service should be cancelled. I politely pointed out to her that as it was an evening departure from Paddington, the train was full and standing, as...

yes. any chance to get rid of cheaper fares will be taken. Apparently, surveys have said that passengers want simpler fares. Funny thing is, every time they get "simplified", they go up! (See LNER)

weirdly, the review is generally negative, until the final half sentence, which is generally positive

Weston-super-Mare was probably justified in being singled, since BR could not have envisioned how much the town would expand from the 70s onwards. Its been on the list of potential redoublings for many years. Although since GWR have dramatically improved punctuality and operations over the last...

Liskeard to Looe takes approx 24-28 minutes. So the service runs hourly all day. So there is literally no recovery time

Taunton to Weston is begging for improvement. With only one train an hour, most people simply find another way to travel If they doubled the service to every 30 minutes throughout the day, the number of passengers would more than double

I suppose its possible that even though station staff would empty the bins themselves, the refuse they collect would eventually be collected by the binmen who are on strike. So it may be to do with that. Of course, older readers will remember in the mid 90s when virtually all station bins...

totally agree. Aesthetically, its as good as any major station in England. But badly needs a revamp. so many conflicts of movement, the ends of platforms are terribly exposed, and the retail offering must be the worst of any major station. But very difficult to get done in reality. Even the...

Send the trains heading West right into the depot, Im sure people will find their way out! Or, more seriously, how about squeezing in some bay platforms at Grangetown? Seems to be plenty of room there. To the East, there are already a number of new stations on the way, so that may actually happen

if the demand was there, the facilities would remain open. but they cant afford to pay staff to sit there doing nothing all evening just in case one person comes along and wants a sandwich. As was observed earlier in the thread, its the same reason that the local shops will also be shut. You...

The main issue is that XC dont have enough units, which isnt really down to them. I still think XC are the best fit. People complain about cancellations, and trains being stopped short, but do you really think that would change under another operator? Surely EMT or WMR would be just as likely...

Or maybe people support it, and would happily use it, but they dont actually have any money to contribute due to the current financial situation

Starting a 14 day All Line Rover on the same day the The Beast from the East hit. Beginning at Weston-super-Mare, my original plan was to head to London, then up the ECML to York. At Didcot, the train was halted, and we were told that Paddington was closed. Then we were told that because of...

well youre never going to have infinite cover lined up. All it takes is a cold to spread, and suddenly youre 3 or 4 people down

Probably took them an hour just to find a volunteer! I wouldnt want to be the guy who has to make all those phone calls trying to find someone on short notice, on a weekend

Ive done about a dozen ALRs over the years. Sometimes the gates work, sometimes they dont. There is no real reason for this either, to the extent that I have had the same gate accept the ticket one day, and then reject it the next day! Ive never had the machine keep my ticket though, so its...

I'm amazed that nobody seems to have made the obvious comment yet. Labour propose to make Sunday services as reliable as every other day. Labour might actually achieve that - by making services on every other day less reliable!

One thing I will say for XC First Class: The Taylor's coffee bags that they now use are a massive improvement on the Starbucks coffee they used to serve!