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This evening, I was in the last carriage of a northbound Victoria Line service, and was right at the back of the carriage. Within a minute or two of the journey’s start, I thought I could smell weed. Not uncommon in London these days, of course, even on the Tube (at least residually on...

https://www.ianvisits.co.uk/articles/nearly-20000-people-prosecuted-for-fare-evasion-on-londons-transport-70089/ Further down, the article mentions this case: This bears a remarkable similarity to a matter for which our help was recently sought...

Can anyone please tell me what kind of train this was and why it ran? https://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/service/gb-nr:U92053/2024-02-21/detailed Furthermore, is there any publicly available information I could have looked up about this myself without bothering the good people of RailForums...

The attached was seen at Reading (P12/13) just now. I’m just saying: it doesn’t exactly inspire confidence. EDIT: I see someone has appended a description of the images to my title. I apologise for not doing so in the first place in accordance with the accessibility rules.

I am well aware that those requesting our help here may feel they have every incentive to exaggerate, if not entirely invent, the RPI rudeness or worse that we often see reported. They may feel that gaining our sympathy will elicit better advice from us, or that their case will somehow be...

Today, the intermediate stations between Reading and Didcot Parkway (at least those with Main platforms) were graced by a few additional calls from various express services which normally wouldn’t touch them with a barge pole. There were a couple from Paddington to Cheltenham Spa, and from...

At Paddington, there is a large gate between P1 and P2/3 which swings open under power when one of those buggy things needs to get through, then closes again afterwards. Actually, it’s a pair of gates. Yesterday, unusually, it had been left open, and passengers were casually walking through...

I’m talking about the barometer-looking things that are set in to the seat housing, near the floor. They seem to climb as the train progresses, only to climb more when the doors open, followed by a rapid decline to nothingness. What are these, why do passengers need to see them, and why don’t...

Posted in General due to the thread’s frivolous nature. Please move if this is in error. I’ll start off, naturally. Many moons ago, at Paddington, I was running for my train which was either on P2 or P4. Having got through the ticket barrier, and while running at full pelt, I looked up at that...

Wouldn’t it be great if RTT et al could tell you how busy each train (or maybe even each carriage) was? And I’m not talking about the hit-and-miss “reported full and standing” that one sometimes sees. Something nerdy and automated, please! Let’s say you’re waiting at Reading for an up fast. The...

My interest was piqued by this post: I’ve been trying to think how I would deal with this. Finding some pretext to get the errant colleague to go and assist with some other task (“I can finish up with the customer”), maybe? It seems to me that the only way of immediately giving the customer...

After my up train ran slow for a while and moved onto the relief lines, I just passed what I presume was the reason: this service from Hereford was apparently being evacuated at Iver. Sorry if that doesn’t merit a thread but it’s one you don’t see too often (thankfully). Looks like it only took...

On the 1850 London Paddington to Didcot Parkway, I just saw several people alighting from Coach 12 at Twyford, despite the announcement saying that the doors would only open in Coaches 1-8. Has Twyford really had its platforms extended to accommodate 12 coaches, and, if so, then why?

I would like to be able to calculate the number of rail passengers that pass through a particular station each day/year, including not just those who don’t join or alight there, but also those passing through on services not even booked to call there. Is there any way of getting even a ball park...

From playing with the GWR journey planner, it seems that you can get an Advance ticket from Swindon to London Paddington (subject to availability, of course), but not from Didcot Parkway or anywhere further up. Is there some list or map somewhere that tells you the above information for each...

A discussion mentioning the Penalty Fare regulations requiring valid signage at every platform entrance prompted me to wonder which station has the most separate platform entrances. Without looking anything up, I can think of 25 at Reading: 1 for each of P1-P6; 3 for P7 (the one from the...

A few times lately, I’ve witnessed passengers boarding trains as the doors are closing and ignoring platform staff shouting at them not to, with no obvious repercussions. What are people’s opinions of these passengers? Would anyone here ever board as doors were closing, and, if so, would a...

As above, really. If a settlement offer is accepted and the amount paid, are the TOC then no longer able to prosecute for the offence(s) “covered” by the settlement? Does that still hold if the TOC subsequently discover additional aggravating factors (but not any new offences)? I suppose that...

GWR service just now. Not sure what flavour of inspector he was (I don’t like to peer too obviously at people’s badges), but when I produced my contactless card and said I’d touched in (which I had!), he produced a yellow machine and appeared to scan my card with it. I seem to recall that a...

Let’s say, entirely hypothetically, that there’s significant disruption between London Paddington and Reading, and announcements advise using London Waterloo to Reading instead, and that tickets will be accepted on the latter services. Contactless is valid on the whole route from Paddington to...