Recent content by John R

Firstly, you are not the target market, which is for passengers west of Cardiff to have a through service to Bristol. And the service won’t be operated by Class 150s, but by Class 197s, which are about 40 years newer.

I’m guessing you’re not familiar with the road in question. It’s motorway standard, and in an area of great topographical challenge.

Looks like 398s are indeed out to play once more today, if this is to be believed. https://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/service/gb-nr:G39668/2026-10-14/detailed#allox_id=0 (Link shows the 0708 Cardiff Bay to Pontypridd, running with 398031 being the unit.)

Think of the parallel of the two hourly Bristol to Oxford service, which everyone seems to welcome. It could also be regarded as pointless duplication, in that the cities are connected with one easy change at Didcot. Now replace Oxford with "Major towns cities in South and West Wales west of...

A cursory glance of the current OS map and one from the 1950s would suggest that the Heads of the Valleys Road will have obliterated a fair chunk of the trackbed in the Pontneddfechan area. (As an aside, having travelled the full length of it a few months ago, it's now a very spectacular route...

It's probably not surprising that when railway staff encounter someone who is clearly travelling fraudulently (and thus committing a criminal offence) that they are unlikely to treat them with kid gloves. So long as they remained professional throughout, I don't think you or your friend can...

I would have thought the legal definition of how the railway is run will have absolutely no impact on how the railway is marketed (which is effectively what National Rail is). So I would expect the two new stations to be treated in exactly the same way as all the other valley line stations.

Made by whom?

An interesting comment, which is contrary to the usual story we hear, where inspectors tend to underplay the consequences of travel without a valid ticket. I wonder was that in part due to the clearly fraudulent nature of the offence?

I certainly wouldn't approach any contact in terms of "disputing" the charge, because, as others have said, you didn't have a ticket, they have every right to prosecute you, and may do if they feel that any approach is in any way combative. So any wording used would have to be very carefully...

I was astonished at that. If they had left Charles out for one more lap Lewis would have been a couple of seconds ahead, and there wouldn't have been the issue. I would have thought Lewis would have been mightily p***ed off at both the timing of Charles' stop, and that they didn't ask him to...

I wonder if you did a straw poll of passengers what proportion would say they prefer it?

Good to see that those wanting to sample the delights of a 387 ironing board all the way to Cardiff have to pay a full whack Anytime Single fare of £110 if they haven't booked in advance.

We often hear that similar words are used, to enable them to process the case and move on with little or no argument. Whether it's right or not that they do that, I don't think we have seen a case where it has in any way helped as mitigation. Ultimately, they were found to be without a valid...

I think that's rather negative. Hirwaun has always been very high up the list of possible extensions, and given the track was in use until a few years ago, restoration would be relatively cheap, given that it would run (as I understand it) as a tramway. I would have thought that four new...