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Just had a circular through the door telling us Network Rail are about to lengthen the platforms at Radley. They say it's because they are electrifying Paddington to Cardiff, and ''this will enable GWR to introduce new electric trains". Do they mean that GWR may be introducing refurbished...

Have I got it right that every driver has an (old-fashioned, actual paper?) 'route card' which lists all the routes they know and have been tested on and are regularly driving? If so, I'm curious to know how the 'signing' works. Does the driver sign a declaration on the lines 'I've thoroughly...

Oxford one month off-peak return to Maidenhead, £29.60, is priced more than London Terminals, £29.00. Is that because the London price is forced down by the competition from the X90 and "TUBE" buses? Perhaps not worth bothering for 60p, but should an impartial retailer sell a Maidenhead...

I was at Didcot today waiting on the advertised pl 3 for 2L44 to Oxford, which is formed from 2L41 from Oxford. There was a light engine, a 66, sitting in platform 4, looking ready to go westwards. Electrostar 2N37 from Paddington was running late, and was put into platform 5. The departure of...

Sir Peter Hendy has interesting thoughts about making the Big Railway more like the tube. (from his George Bradshaw address, 2018): https://cdn.networkrail.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Sir-Peter-Hendy-George-Bradshaw-Address.pdf The implication (possibly?) is touching in and out for every...

Sir Peter Hendy hopes the timetable will become irrelevant on well-served lines, eg London-Bristol. From his George Bradshaw address, 2018. https://cdn.networkrail.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Sir-Peter-Hendy-George-Bradshaw-Address.pdf

We will be travelling from Montreux to Geneva on Wed 11 April. Am I right in thinking that we can get cheap(ish) billets dégriffés limited to a specific train? If so, how and when do I buy these? On the website, x weeks in advance, after first having acquired a swisspass login (but not wanting...

If I hold a return ticket from A to C and back which is valid via B, restricted on the outward journey to travel at or after 0930, may I start my journey short at B shortly after 0930, even though if I had started from A, I would have had to board before 0930 in order to be on the train I am...

I've posted a trip report London to Varese including P&O Dover Calais. I mention that the French frontier police are currently checking all passports at Vallorbe on the overnight Milan to Paris. So you get woken at 0410 in the unlikely event that it's on time.

I dislike the airport-like faff and milling about and waiting in a dungeon at St Pancras, so I went the old-school way. I was at Charing Cross in good time for the 0836 to Dover Priory. I'd already bought my day return to Calais, £26.70 with a senior railcard. The front of the 12-car train...

Original post left below, so that subsequent posts make sense. Update now follows: Fares from Oxford Parkway appear to be a work in progress. This morning (2 August) there were no fares from Oxford Parkway to anywhere via Oxford. The advice at the gate was: "we will issue you with a (free)...

Sorry if someone has already posted a link. A band of crusaders seeking a rail ticket finds, at the top of a mountain, a machine that offers wisdom concerning the meaning of "off-peak". Made me smile, anyway ...

Apologies if this has already been covered in previous thread(s); I have attempted to search. My local station (A) has no ticket office or TVM. The trains are Driver Only Operated and it is usually impossible to buy a ticket on them. If I travel to a destination station (B) which has either (1)...

My wife and I are arriving at Hoek on Saturday morning 28 May and continuing to Köln, in no particular hurry. We will of course have day chipcards valid to any Dutch station. My plan was to stop and have a wander in Utrecht. But from 26 to 29 May ICE trains Amsterdam > Köln and beyond are...

On Sun 13 Dec, xx47 departures from Oxford Parkway were retimed to xx44. Could any kind expert elucidate how 1Y37 remained in the timetable in duplicate, at both 1444 and 1447, showed in duplicate in NRE live departures, and on the screens at Oxford Parkway...

On Sun 25 Jan it's change at Ipswich and be dropped at Stratford. No advance fares are currently showing. Any views/knowledge on whether they might appear nearer the date?

Any theories on why, asked for a 0630 depature from Oxford to Combe, DB Hafas gets it right (double back from Charlbury); NRE says double back from Kingham, and First Great Western says double back from Moreton in Marsh ? NRE and FGW also wrongly say "buy two tickets", although I believe this...

At some big stations (eg Reading) there are a few boards which claim to display the Next Fastest train to popular destinations (eg Oxford). They mean "The train that will get you to Oxford soonest unless there is some mess-up we don't yet know about". So, in this example, they will display...

The man in seat 61, who knows everything, says that I can't do that. What stops me (a) in theory (b) in practice? I find it a bit hard to believe that P&O record which ticket numbers they accept at Dover, and don't let you on at Calais with ticket number n unless their computer says that...

As I read the rules, I can use (a) a Norwich - London International CIV return ticket with (b) a London Terminals to Calais day return plus (c) HS supplement to do the following route: Norwich to Stratford walk through Westfield hell to Stratford International Stratford International to Dover...