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The NHS is *extremely* efficient. This isn't a political opinion, just a fact: it provides comprehensive health cover to the entire population for far less than other rich countries spend on health.

It's not too bad actually, by myself. I grew up in an area where the train to the nearest city took an hour to cover 50 miles, so that feels about 'right' to me. Besides the toilet, the main advantage of fewer stops on the faster train is fewer obnoxious announcements!

Cheers all! But when you have a kid with you it's much easier to walk down to an (admittedly filthy) toilet on the train than to ask them to wait 10 minutes then gather up all their belongings, etc. Paying a fare for her is worth it to avoid that!

Thanks everyone! Hadn't considered splitting at Maidenhead, cheers. No disabled concessionary pass for me (TBH I do qualify for the disabled railcard, but I don't think I "should". I'm in on a technicality but not going to look a gift horse in the mouth.) When I'm by myself I'll just continue...

Hi all, I've been reading into this but am finding myself a bit confused! What exactly is the cheapest route from Reading to London these days, especially for off-peak leisure travel? A couple of complications: I have a disabled railcard, which can be loaded onto an Oyster card but *not*...

I'm not OP but I often do delay repay (and request travel vouchers rather than electronic refunds) out of something close to pure spite. The latter bit me in the behind once though, when I lost a paper cheque.

It's quite striking -- I have a ticket with restriction code 6L which includes "Not valid on Dublin Swift services" and another coupon which is the reservation for a Dublin Swift service! Given that fare evasion is a strict liability issue, I wonder if I technically broke the law when...

Interesting thing happened last week. I took sailrail from Dublin Ferryport back to England, using the Dublin Swift boat in the morning. Tickets bought at a UK station. But they sold me the wrong ticket -- they sold me the cheaper one which isn't valid on the Swift, but only on the slower boat...

Interesting! I didn't know Tab was still sold in the UK.

Well I don't want to get into an anecdote-off, but put it this way: in the US, a good fraction of the time when buying a drink, you'll be asked "do you want to start a tab?", same way "cash or card?" might be asked here. I don't think I've ever been offered, unprompted, to start a tab at a pub...

Not to the same extent. You can walk into any bar in the USA (more or less) and ask to start a tab, and leave your card behind the bar. They will have a whole system for it. Not that you can't do it here, but it's far less common and many pubs will only do it for regulars. I've lived for over a...

The main difference is in bars/pubs I think. It's absolutely standard to run a tab and pay at the end in a bar in the US, even if you order at the bar, and even if it's your first time ever going to that bar. You just leave your card behind the bar.

Manchester Oxford Road and Picc are both very central.

I would imagine eating place includes a wider range of venues, including those like fast food outlets where there is no table service.

They can, but then you have to prove who was driving etc, beyond reasonable doubt. Far better if they don't steal in the first place.

The waiting rooms by the platforms I care about (10/11 for the London trains normally and 12/13 for the stopper to Didcot/Oxford) just have the little on-platform waiting rooms, which only have about 8 seats each. Never enough even when you have just a few people waiting to change to the...

Agree about Reading. There's also totally insufficient seating, so it's a cold place at night. Coming from London to Cholsey I know a few people, including me, who prefer to take the stopper from Paddington rather than save 20 minutes by changing at Reading. The toilets are very poorly signed...

Yes sorry, I was talking about when you are paying cash. In the USA it's basically impossible to steal fuel, because it won't let you take any until you've either paid cash or put your card in for pay at pump.

Maybe I'm being too cynical, but in the long-run this will allow the train companies to collect a lot of evidence of intent to evade.

Just to add some Yamanote Line fun: