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Yes I think the same. In 30 years time, when I'm 70, I doubt there will be a state pension. I don't pay into a private pension, I just take care of it all myself. Since I started full time time employment at the age of 18, 22 years ago, I have saved 15% of my wages every month. I will keep doing...

A look at https://www.railwayherald.com/railtours for the rest of this week shows just what effect the strikes have had on charters.

Yes it's caused all sorts of confusion. WMR are away all week but GWR are running in between strike days. It hasn't been helped by the ticket office at Foregate St sticking a poster up in the window that says "No trains from this station AT ALL until Sunday". Which, of course, is a load of...

The last three times I've boarded a train at Paddington the barriers were opened due to the rush of people. I always arrive at Paddington and look on RTT to see what platform my train departs from, or I look at the arrival board to see what platform it will be arriving into. I then position...

I'm on an LSL charter to Penzance on 25th June, so it will be interesting to see what happens with it. LSL obviously won't be striking, so I guess it all depends on whether NR signallers in the South West will be striking or not.

I once boarded a XC service at Birmingham New St, heading to York. A young lady also got on, sat across the aisle from me. She had her headphones in, looking down at her phone. We stopped at Burton, Derby and Sheffield. This young lady never looked up from her phone once. Automated announcements...

The two remaining Cambrian Coast tours have disappeared from their booking system, so I suspect they are the next casualties. At time of writing they're still displayed on the main website but you can't actually book on them.

Mazey Day Cornishman cancelled due to the strike action. I believe this is currently the first charter the strikes have killed off, but I suspect it will just be the first of many. We could be in for a tumultuous Summer!

If you can get a train used by business commuters then you're sorted. I plan my itinerary around them whenever I can. I went to London last week as a leisure traveller and when I was planning my return train back to Worcester I deliberately chose the 18:58 from Paddington. Full of business...

I've got a couple of NHS workers in my block of flats and they both hated the weekly clapping, were glad to see the back of it. It put undue pressure on them, made them out to be some sort of superheros here to save the country. During their shifts it would put a massive weight on their...

On Saturday's Saphos trip we were stationary at Carnforth South for 40 mins whilst the steam changed over to electric and the discussion on board was all about that rusting rolling stock. We were right next to them during the loco change. They all seemed very dilapidated and beyond restoring, so...

I was on board yesterday. The 47 failed at Bescot during the first water stop. 2 other 47s were dispatched from Crewe to Barrow Hill, our next booked water stop. There 1 of the 47s replaced ours and the other took the duff one back to Crewe.

The Weymouth one would interest me as well, but unfortunately I've already booked on the LSL trip to Dartmouth that same day. I wonder how many others will be caught out by that conflict? Both picking up at Stourbridge, Kidderminster, Worcester SH and Cheltenham. Just 20 minutes between them.

Last time I went to Gibraltar I got the train from Madrid to Algeciras, which is the town right across the bay. It's a journey of two halves - from Madrid you whizz down the high speed line through mountainous scenery to Cordoba. Here you turn off onto the old branch line, built by the British...

Had a great trip on the Pennine Wayfarer on Saturday. The 37s performed flawlessly and we ran on time all day. I believe it was the last single day Pathfinder tour that DRS will operate (they're operating the Scottish weekender) so was extra special. Francoise Bourgeois was on board as well...

There are videos of the ECS move today Burton to Bristol on Youtube, and Standard is at the front. I'm not familiar enough with Bristol to know all the shunting moves but if it's just a simple loco run round for the morning then Standard will be at the back.

Should be a good trip. I'm looking forward to it. I've never done the Hope Valley line at all, believe it or not, so that will be the highlight for me. Looks to be a shorter train formation than usual as there's only 1 Premier Dining coach. A to E Standard, F to H First and J Premier Dining...

That raises an interesting point actually. Are hospitals/care homes etc going to expect people to pay for the test kits themselves? I won't be paying money for any so if there is a setting in which I'm required to test then I would expect the test kit to to be provided to me.

The York NRM say on their website that all visitors should wear a face covering and pre-book their ticket. I've emailed them asking if they just haven't updated their website yet and am awaiting a response. I'm on a railtour to York in a couple of weeks and was planning to spend some time in the...

All coal is imported, as the last UK coal mine that produced steam-grade coal stopped in January. Coal primarily comes from Russia, but with the Ukraine crisis it is now being imported from Kazakhstan and Colombia instead, which is putting the cost of coal beyond the reach of smaller heritage...