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When BR first decided to axe full-iish Boxing Day services in 1975 it was criticised by ASLEF as a potential precedent for running no trains on any Bank Holiday. "Very nice for our members but a bad move for passengers", said Ray Buckton. That year Boxing Day fell on Friday and the thinking then...

The gravity of Leicester City Centre has moved somewhat through recent decades and Granby Street has seen a lot better days. For those that need it there is a free electric bus (Hop!) that runs every ten minutes between 8:00 and 18:00 from the rail station on a circular route that goes past...

There are already a not insignificant number of people who mistakenly attempt contactless payment to Oxford which get caught on board or at the gateline. On my last journey there were three parties doing so just in my part of the carriage, all of whom seemed to be foreign tourists.

Petrol rationing was brought to an end in 1950 only by accepting an arrangement put forward by Standard Oil of New Jersey / Anglo-American for them to supply all additional requirements of Britain for payment in sterling rather than dollars. Esso made great marketing material claiming to be the...

Within Oxford daily capping arrangements are somewhat deficient as they are not cross-operator, although daily tickets that are can be bought. It could be done as it is in some other cities.

A concept of some kind of transport link for the route Culham to Harwell via Didcot appears in the Didcot Garden Town Delivery Plan as the 'Garden Line' but what form it actually could be is very nebulous and mainly left to the imagination of the reader. Autonomous pod vehicles, or an elevated...

The Oxford Civic Society a few years ago suggested a network of gondola lifts. If I remember correctly one was Seacourt Park and Ride to the upper floor of the Westgate Shopping Centre and the other was Thornhill Park and Ride to the Headington Hospitals. Actual details though were scant.

The Culham station was named Abingdon Road at opening and if there had been a station in Abingdon proper would most likely have not been built or be short lived like the original Appleford station (presuming a similar route). I think the Oxford branch route via Abingdon was planned out from...

Before the branch to Oxford was built the connecting stagecoaches took 1.5 hours to do the ten miles from Steventon which shows how bad the road was - especially considering the rail journey from London took 2 hours in comparison. Didcot was also closer to the turnpike for local E-W road...

Maximising locally generated income favoured a Wallingford - Abingdon - Wantage route but this was rendered impossible by land and business interests in Abingdon. A more southerly route was roughly parallel to the existing Wallingford - (Dudcote) -Wantage turnpike and over easier terrain and...

Even more confusing is at Didcot when the announcement to change here for Oxford is heard on trains that are actually going to Oxford. I remember reassuring one confused Japanese couple that they could stay seated.

British Airways had shuttle services on various domestic routes from 1975. Turn up at the gate at least 10 minutes before departure and you were guaranteed a seat even if they needed to put on an extra plane. Pay on board by cash or credit card.

In Leicester even in the early 1950s, for going to London the choice of Leicester Central or London Road was often simply which side of the city centre you lived on, ie which station was quicker to get to..

I suppose it is just because they start from there. There were plenty of seats on the stopping service I arrived from Didcot on.

Advice being given on electronic signs outside of Reading Station is to travel on the Elizabeth line for London for the best chance of getting a seat.

One example of this: GWR calculated at a late stage prior to the introduction of the IET-based timetable that it was better from a revenue point of view for both Bristol TM services in the hour to call at Didcot compared with the previous practice of one Bristol and the Cardiff which had been...

The advert promoting the introduction of the diesel Pullman via Retford attached.

They were both there.

A number of lifelong Fulham residents in my family usually refer to the District Line as 'the train'. They haven't needed to be more specific, although I suppose the Overground impinges a bit on this now.

There was some S106 money set aside for new pedestrian / cycle tunnel from the house building, which wouldn't have been right at the station but nearer than the Cow Lane "mouse-hole". However after some years this was diverted and spent by Oxfordshire County Council on the main station entrance...