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I see, there's consistency on the ticketing side of New Street now with the Ticket Office, Ticket Machines, Barriers and Excess Fares all being operated/manned by Virgin. Interesting to see an "Express" operator handling all revenue matters at a Network Rail station serving various...

Barriers operational and manned by Virgin Trains staff today, who seem to have taken over permanently from LM.

The station concourse opened today in full with Grand Central above opening next Thursday. It is impressive; modern, bright and airy. An awful long way from the dated concourse and dingy Pallasades centre above. While at platform level many feel nothing has really improved, the station above...

Passed through today and caught a glimpse of the shopping mall above. To be honest, I'm really impressed. Also wondering how much revenue LM are losing at the moment due to no one checking tickets/non-operational barriers at New Street these past weeks. :oops:

Of course I don't know for certain, but I'd imagine an airline with a turnover and passenger volume as large as Ryanair would self-insure against such instances. Many insurers also refused to pay out during the ash crisis. It's a debatable issue. It depends on one's viewpoint whether a £50...

EU261 / 2004 regulation comes into play nowadays, which gives comprehensive rights to passengers and obligations to all EU airlines in times of disruption. Certainly more rights than Eurostar passengers have! In times of mass flight cancellations, staff can become overwhelmed and supply of...

it's a good point, but on the flip side of the coin how many cancellations as a result of industrial action have legacy carrier Lufthansa's short-haul passengers endured this year? An awful lot. I was Birmingham Airport this Wednesday and both morning departures to Frankfurt and Munich were...

As far as I understand the terms of the Schengen Agreement, members are permitted to reintroduce general controls at certain borders under exceptional circumstances. Anyone who think that Schnegen is a completely free zone is mistaken, targeted controls are allowed and commonplace and do no...

Absolutely, it's dependent on the airport, time of day, handling agent, arrangement with the airport and the aircraft size. London City, one of the most expensive airports in Europe with lots of business travellers, has no airbridges at all and often uses (tightly packed) bus boarding. --- old...

Alongside those (especially on forums like FlyerTalk) who believe that British Airways is always cheaper after "hidden extras are included" and that passengers are being "conned" by Ryanair and easyJet. Granted short-haul BA can be cheaper especially out of Gatwick to leisure destinations, but...

Vueling, the Spanish low cost airline owned by IAG (British Airways and Iberia) are launching an assault on Ryanair and Easyjet by launching new flights from Barcelona to Liverpool, Leeds/Bradford and Newcastle. In addition to their flights to Belfast City, Birmingham, Edinburgh, Cardiff...

Aer Lingus are quite a nice airline but not that much "nicer" than Easyjet nowadays. Both have allocated seating and you have to pay for a preselected seat, both charge for hold bags and both offer no complimentary refreshments onboard. The A319s that EI use on Gatwick - Belfast City have worse...

Quite true :lol: I personally like smaller aircraft (<120 seats) such as the Dash, but also Embraers, on short-haul flights up to a few hours. I think boarding and alighting is significantly quicker and less stressful for all. Plus no middle seat. The Dash is pretty quiet if sat at the back, and...

Ryanair had a change of strategy in 2013 and they seem to have made a lot of improvements to their customer services and experience since then. They do still have the on-time jingle but it's quite subtle now (it's a pre-recorded message starting with "thanks for flying Ryanair"). I've done...

That's the thing with much of Central Europe compared to say the climate of the UK I find, generally warm or very warm in Summer and often very cold in Winter. When I am in Munich, it always amazes me that they manage to get trains running at all on some days.

One hopes not. I suspect if it's -10C outside or blizzard conditions you're less likely to risk leaving your camp in Hungary and walk to the Austrian border. Or camp outside Budapest Station. Then again, if you've left your country in a rubber dinghy out of desperation maybe you would.

It does seem such issues are not going to disappear any time soon, but it could be said that the cold of Winter, at Calais but especially in Central Europe, may quieten things down a little. Or for those outside, make it considerably worse.

I was just thinking particularly about those who are to be housed in certain parts of the East, cozy Munich it is not. :|

Not that it's really a legitimate reason for their introduction, but ID cards would have been handy for Brits living or staying for extended periods in countries where you have to de jure or de facto carry ID. The U.S. Government is happy to issue "passport cards" against a fee but the UK does...

I'm actually booked Munich - Budapest on the Railjet on 13th October, so I'll wait and see what happens in the meantime. I'm in Munich most of the year and saw a steady number of arrivals earlier in the year, but nothing like the numbers now trying to make the journey.