Recent content by vjm1975

Passed through Basel on Thursday late morning. We were first of 3 flights to arrive in quick succession. They were only allowing a few at a time to use the terminals. We waited about 20 minutes with about 30 people in front of us and 4 manual booths open. I’d dread to think how long those at...

Took my first ride on a 777 today in a few weeks. Travelling Ellesmere Port to Liverpool. Lovely and cool onboard. Also the delay from stopping to doors released was really quick. Sometimes pretty much straight away. Waiting for time at stations en route but then delayed by a minute or so before...

Just experienced the doors starting to close as they were opening when alighting at Chester. They got about 1/2 way open then as I stepped out, the door close alarm activated and doors started to close again. They reopened again as they hit me.

Chester trains still announcing as calling at Capenhurst when they don’t, with the guard having to do a manual announcement to say otherwise. Notice that the times were still present on the calling displays so assume the software not been updated yet on that particular unit.

The Ticket Barriers were done last year were they not? Still causes a massive bottleneck when a few trains arrive at once. A few Saturdays back about noon, even though pretty much first off the Merseyrail train, still queueing at the bottom of the stairs. Took best part of 20 minutes to get...

Apologies. I meant late Wednesday morning I seen the first suggestion Chester wasn’t included. Tap and Go went live at 9am on Wednesday. It was Around 30 minutes after that I first noted about the lack of inclusion of Chester.

Merseyrail claim it was advertised widely but first seen was late Monday morning where at the bottom of one online advertisement it mentioned Chester wasn’t included. Hadn’t seen anything beforehand, but was forewarned by a friend who works at Chester station who said their gate lines wouldn’t...

Merseyrails response on X to someone was basically ‘ it's tough you should have known as it’s been well advertised’. The person in question wasn’t happy about being made to buy another ticket. They will be even more peeved when they see a £10.55 minimum fare on top for failing to tap out...

Yes. This was said to me by the train manager heading to Liverpool. Looks like revenue protection teams do (Will that include Carlisle Security?) so the suggestion that a penalty fare may be in the offing was merely conjecture. Hope they get the Chester situation sorted though.

Luckily someone at Chester Station mentioned this to me last week. This will catch a lot out. I hope a solution is found pretty quickly. I’m trying it out today to Liverpool and back. Tapped in fine at Ellesmere Port 1772015196 Update. Just had a ticket check on train. They have no idea how to...

I didn't really find it any hassle really. Only asked for onward travel details, though I had everything else printed off just in case. Whilst the process was thorough, it was all fairly relaxed. From arrival at the Transit Visa Desk to getting land side was about 20 minutes, this includes...

You can now. Was changed earlier this year. And entry/exit via Hong Kong using rail was added in November. However, as mentioned, visa free transit is for heading to or from a third country and Uk-China-Uk would not be permitted. With using Hong Kong as an entry point, not sure that would count...

That’s happened a couple of times to me on the Basel flights. Usually the return to Gatwick when there’s an early afternoon flight which gets binned off. The time is convenient for me needing to drive back North afterwards. So ended up on the late flight around 21:30 as the morning flight is a...

I work for a company that manufactures fuel tanks for petrol cars. I would say now at least 50% of cars on our works car park are now electric. This time last year that would have been pretty much 0. My next car when I will change, most likely next year will be electric most likely too. Not...

At Chester you only need to use the main tickets gates unless changing trains, in which case use validator on Platform 7B. That's what Merseyrail told me anyway, not actually tried it as don't have a Metro Card and Ellesmere Port station never seems to be open to get one if I did want too. I'm...