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Various financial websites are reporting that Trainline are considering an IPO. That's an Initial Public Offering where shares are sold to the public on the Stock Exchange. https://www.ft.com/content/068cb918-7c5c-11e9-81d2-f785092ab560 They announced this around four years ago, but then...

The Mail has a report that there's a proposal to slow down HS2. Specifically tunnels can be cheaper if they are designed with a lower maximum speed than previously proposed. I think there was something similar to save money during the construction of the Channel Tunnel. There's a lot of proposed...

Prompted by a sign at Paddington saying that Heathrow Express tickets were not valid on the Heathrow Connect stoppers now run by TFL Rail, I checked National Rail Enquiries. It's bizarre. There's a cheaper ticket not valid on Heathrow Express as one might expect. The Heathrow Express ticket is...

From the Mail http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5973847/The-M25-style-railway-takes-just-15-minutes-Gatwick-Heathrow.html If there's any novelty in this, it's the suggestion that the dead straight line from Redhill to Ashford be used to link up to HS1 and be upgraded in its own right.

Here's a press release by a new Government Minister. http://www.cityam.com/280397/transport-minister-jo-johnson-calls-diesel-only-trains Some points. He really should talk to his boss who has cancelled or postponed electrification schemes on the premise that bi-modes (with diesel power) will...

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5322427/Businessman-pay-64-shorter-train-journey.html#comments Slightly surprising East Midlands backed down, so what is the policy on starting short on an Advance ticket? Some of the comments refer to the Lancaster/Preston issue.

I have tickets (Advance + Single) for Harrogate to High Wycombe via London. Rather than an Advance for the whole journey, I found the combination of Harrogate to Kings Cross and London U1 to High Wycombe slightly cheaper. A quick check on one of the splitting sites didn't seem to pick up this...

The consumer magazine Which? has some material on TOCs and train fares in the February 2018 issue. It concentrates on leisure travel and ranks TOCs. Translink NI came top followed by Grand Central, Heathrow Express and Merseyrail. It gives advice on tickets, but some of it seems incorrect or...

This ticket seller has a deal with Tesco Clubcard where you can get a favourable conversion rate. There's a "but" though, because they charge a £ 1 booking fee. I am contemplating buying a week's worth of travel in one go, that will be eight tickets. Will they just charge the one booking fee or...

I was trying to work out what this story in the Mail was going on about. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5009131/Commuter-faces-court-getting-wrong-train.html Presumably the issue was that because Maidstone East is the other side of Barming to London, you aren't allowed to double...

Thinking back to the 1950s and 1960s, it was always called "trainspotting". But it wasn't. The Combined Volumes which were the source documents mostly only recorded the motive power rather than the carriages and never the goods wagons. DMUs and EMUs arguably confuse the issue. So why wasn't...

Is it one of those fare semi-anomalies where the cost from West Drayton (Zone 6) to Shepherd's Bush is the same at off peak hours, at least, as from Ealing Broadway? It would be a useful point to split tickets if coming from west of West Drayton on the local trains and travelling via Ealing to a...

A question raised on a more general non-railway discussion forum. You have a ticket for travel from A to B. You catch a train from A which is designated "pick up only" at B. You are challenged whilst on the train between A and B. Is your ticket valid? If you think this might be about Reading...

I recently received an email from VTEC advertising comparable times from London to Newcastle between air and rail. On the train, the times quoted seemed to ignore minimum connecting times at Kings Cross whilst using the recommended security times for Heathrow. Looking at the small print, they...

A recent email from redspottedhanky claims that Trainline claim its customers can save an average of 43% when booking in advance** Our customers save on average 50%* when booking in advance vs buying on the day It rather fails to point out that booking in advance saves nothing (unless...

The Guardian has a story that Luton Airport are proposing to replace the bus that runs from Luton Airport to the Parkway station by a light rail link. They claim that it would make Luton quicker to reach than Gatwick from Central London.

I'm not sure quite how I found my way onto a VTEC mailing list, but it was worthwhile as they are currently offering some extremely cheap advances for their services. You have to book within the next couple of days and with exceptions, it runs to just before Easter. The lowest price is £ 5...

The Daily Mail has noticed that tickets from a well known website are more expensive than buying directly from a TOC. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/money/bills/article-3246373/Train-tickets-thetrainline-com-no-cheaper-booking-direct-online-passengers-cough-booking-fee.html

The DOO on the Branch from Maidenhead to Marlow only extends to Bourne End. Thus during the current dispute, it's only the Bourne End to Marlow section that gets closed. Is it known why more than twenty years ago with the introduction of the Turbos, that they didn't extend DOO to Marlow...

If you are travelling into London from outside the Zones and only intend two journeys on the Underground or buses, it can sometimes be cheaper to buy the London Terminals ticket and use Oyster for Central London. Not so, if you have a Senior Railcard and are travelling in the Oyster evening...