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I've spent a lifetime advocating rail travel, to colleagues, friends and family, often against their scorn, but as I write this I am sadly beginning to doubt my own lifelong faith in rail travel. My wife and I are retired, heading for a cruise from Southampton. For reasons I won't detail here...

Yesterday I witnessed two lads of around 14 years old, board a train for an intentionally free journey. The train manager approached and asked for their ticket, to which they boldly and unashamedly said "We don't have any money". They were well-spoken, reasonably well-dressed and it appeared...

The UK Government is crying out for money at the moment, accompanied by a war of words about there being no money for defence (or the NHS, or other things) not least because so much is being spent on welfare. Why then, is there such a massive reluctance to put, say 5p on a litre of fuel, which...

In a technologically advanced country with a supposed interest in road safety, why do we have to put up with such woefully inadequate traffic enforcement systems? Rail systems are pretty good these days, especially when it comes to driver behaviour which carries heavy sanctions for breaking...

It's pretty safe to assume that HS2 will be completed to Birmingham and provide some benefits for Manchester. But if (okay a BIG if) there was both public and political support for significant further rail investment, what might be a reasonable next project?

Watching GMTV over breakfast this morning (https://www.itv.com/goodmorningbritain) it was very noticeable that Susannah Reid seemed obsessed with mentioning fuel prices. If there's one thing we know, it's that many drivers share this obsession, and so her comments that fuel prices have already...

If you could re-design HS2 with hindsight, knowing everything you know now, would you do it differently?

Today's (meaning 21st Jan) 67-hauled 15.10 from Crewe to Cardiff was in the platform less than 10 minutes late, but the 15.19 all stations stopper to Shrewsbury was allowed out in front of it. By Shrewsbury it was 40 minutes late because of this, which was then further compounded by additional...

A relative has a weekend job as an on-board host in the Exeter area, which he really enjoys in his early retirement years. I wondered about looking for something similar based at Shrewsbury (for TfW) or Crewe (for Avanti), but I can't seem to find anything available, I can only find similar jobs...

Politicians are usually scared of increasing fuel duty in case it risks losing votes, but Labour are already struggling on this front. As I understand it, just 5p on a litre of petrol could raise around £3bn per year for the UK's beleaguered coffers, and when Labour came to power this was...

This morning (Saturday) my wife and I travelled from East Croydon to Gatwick Airport. The advertised fare (on the National Rail app) for two with senior railcards is £5.40, but it's seemingly impossible to actually buy these tickets. The ticket machine price is significantly more, as is the...

For the first time today, in many years of rail travel, I was on a train which overshot the station. I wouldn't have posted this as I have no wish to incur trouble for anyone, however the fact that the train was cancelled soon after, due to (according to RTT) "an issue with the traincrew" tells...

Mrs Shrop and I had a lovely day in Llandudno last week, taking the train from Shropshire but once again leaving me with a question. As we stopped in Llandudno Junction at 10.53 I was aware that there was a train from London just a few minutes behind us, due in at 10.59. We duly departed before...

Some comments suggest that rail staff aren’t all that keen on the Class 67 sets which presently run every other hour on the Cardiff-Manchester route, however passengers seem to love them. What do people on this forum think of them?

Yesterday I dropped Mrs Shrop at Whitchurch to catch a train to see her daughter, and I returned there today to pick her up – here are my observations, it seems wrong to be able to find so much at fault. There is free parking at the station but the car park was almost completely full. A small...

Yesterday evening (18th February 2025) at 6.50pm a pickup truck crashed on to the level crossing at Onibury in South Shropshire, completely blocking the railway. It was only by good fortune that trains were able to be stopped, as a train hitting this at line speed could well have been derailed...

Today's 1W55 train, the 08.54 from Cardiff to Manchester made an impressive run after starting out 29 minutes late, to arrive almost on time, and without any lengthy dwell times en route to assist. All credit to the train crew :D

Presently sitting at Manchester Victoria and 10 minutes late, so far. Train ready, driver ready, train manager ready, signal ready, the only reason we can't go is because there is no train dispatcher. Hmm ...

While out walking today near to a good rail viewing vantage point just south of Yorton (Shropshire), I noticed on Realtimetrains (RTT) that a loco-hauled train was due shortly, so I waited. This was the 1331 (passing time, using the detailed search) MAN-CDF, which had just passed Whitchurch one...

A recent discussion between friends about train punctuality in the UK raised various points, and I offered to ask the question among people who may know more than we did. It was discussed that the Japanese manage to run their trains almost always on time, a lot more so than we do in the UK, and...