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Here's what happened to me yesterday. I jumped on a stopper home from Padd, after a training course (and, therefore, in civvies) with just one minute to go before departure. It was rammed, so I sneaked into 1st at the back. It's a DOO train, so no guard, but it was no surprise to see an...

Down here in commuter-land, we get it double. Metros left all over the gaff in the mornings, and Evening Standards ( recently re-launched as a freesheet) in the afternoons & at night. And the little bins on our trains are just too small to take it all...

Routes from Redhill are Gatwick - Reading and Reading - Basingstoke. Traction is Turbos only. --- old post above --- --- new post below --- Early turns at Redhill are quite lucrative, so I'm told. Also they get more Sunday work than us Reading folk. They don't sign Padd, that's a Reading...

Which is only common-sensical, really. I work the Gatwick-Reading service; normally Gatwicks get into Reading at xx19; say we're late off Gatwick and a customer is booked on the xx27 to Temple Meads, and he's on course to miss it, I'll annotate the back of the ticket with my headcode & ID...

Ben, you are quite correct; Oxford-Padd is DOO on a Turbo; Turbos working as far as Great Malvern will have a guard on board from Reading, or possibly Oxford.

You'll still see them on FGW Turbo services to the N. Cotswolds; they were until recently available on the Reading - Gatport Airwick service. Fantastic fun for us guards: try wading through a 3-car full of people with their luggage all over the aisles (especially if we get given a 165 with no...

This is a constant bane. Going through the train, leaving Gatport Airwick, I'll often find customers with tickets to, say, Exeter, routed Salisbury. So I'll advise them to change at Guildford for Woking and Woking for Exeter, and they'll go "Uh, no, mate, I'm going via Reading, that's what the...

Sorry, Greenback; I hate to be sceptical, but this is Modern Britain, and your idea is far too straight-forward and sensible. For that reason it will not be implemented.

In my experience ( 3 years), genuine customers will come and seek me out, or sit at the back of the train, when they are unable to use on-platform ticket machines. This is quite frequent, as cash is now not accepted in the machines along my lines of route because of vandalism, and many people...

In some places, I would humbly submit, it is already de facto free. Take, for example, a busy 3-car stopper from Reading to Redhill (e.g. the 0704); 3 minutes between stations which are in many cases unstaffed. You can get on at Crowthorne and get off at North Camp, sit in the front carriage...

As for unmanned stations (of which there are loads on my routes), it is, of course, completely unenforceable.

Why not change at B/stoke for Reading and then go to Wokingham? Saves changing stations at Farnborough in the pi&&ing rain....

Just a thought: have a look at Sheffield-Reading (XC) then Reading-Gatwick (good old FGW); a bit of a longer journey, but only one change of train, and none of the hassle of the Underground in London. Should be a bit cheaper than going via London, too.

I'd agree with that if it were not for the risk of an incompetent quango taking over. Such a quango would probably have some tame political appointee at its head (the 'chief executive', natch), who would doubtless require a huge salary, a PA, a board of management (all on six-figure wages, too)...

Similarly, at Reading, Paddington stoppers are shown as terminating at Ealing Broadway. Reading stoppers from Padd are shown as Twyford.

The whole thing's confusing. I work the Reading - Gatport Airwick route, part of which is in a PF zone, and part of which isn't. Also, all the automated ticket machines along that line of route have been made card-only payment. Owing to persistent vandalism, cash acceptance has been disabled...

Any idea why?

Wouldn't be surprised!:D Actually, it's probably more a case of getting rid of FGW stock somewhere, as presumably there's no room to park 'em at B/stoke.

Believe me, Halsebee, you don't want to know about FGW HSTs from Waterloo to B/stoke. Some of my colleagues are learning the route that's been allocated to FGW, and it's all round the houses - deliberately, of course, so as not to block SWT services - with a 2hrs-plus journey time from B/stoke...

I've just been listening to a discussion about this on the Jeremy Vine show. One contributor offered: "Drunken louts should not be allowed on trains". All very well and good, I'd say, at a main station like Reading, where there are lots of platform staff and a BTP office on the concourse...