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To a point you're not wrong, but he hasn't really missed out anything as he's always resumed from where he left off after bureaucracy etc have forced him to divert. This answers your points A and B. Yes, he could swim across the channel, and of course it wouldn't be all that much of a hardship...

Around ten hours walking time (3mph) ought to be sufficient. The question is whether the authorities actually cannot accommodate him under any circumstances, or whether they just don't want to? If the service tunnel is required for operational use then what would that involve? A member of...

I've covered this point in my OP. There are virtually no "special cases" ever, that involve such a huge achievement over such a length of time. Refusing to assist in this as a one-off is churlish and unnecessary, a decision made by small minded people. Seeing this as a potential can of worms...

Has anyone heard of Karl Bushby? He's the guy who is walking from the southern tip of Chile to his home in Hull, without using any transport whatsoever. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_Bushby Impossible? No. He started in 1998 and has taken 28 years, including perilous sections through the...

I reiterate, its the TOCs AND the system that need to change.

As indicated in my post that you’ve replied to, it isn’t just that the company needs replacing, it’s the over-arching system too. There is no point in replacing one incompetent company with another when the same general system of rules applies. Here’s a thought. The Wrexham and Shropshire...

Coming back to this point, XC have absolutely excelled even their own abysmal standards this weekend. I'd like to know how a large company such as XC can be permitted to continue to operate when they demonstrably have little or no backup plans for failures. And how any self respecting...

Interesting that you believe your speedo to be fairly accurate and you're still happy to publicly state that you set it to an illegal speed. What does this tell us about traffic enforcement? Quite simply it tells us that there is such a huge disregard for these laws that we might as well not...

You've hit exactly on my point. The answer is NOT to suppress demand, because that's the negative approach. What I'm wishing for is a positive approach, ie to increase supply.

Yes, but it was written out of despair. As I've demonstrated upthread, I've encountered many occasions when rail staff have not shown the care or competence that passengers have a right to expect, and then when making complaints about shoddy treatment, customer services have been horribly...

Well a good trip back yesterday with XC - at least our train ran as scheduled and on time all the way from Southampton to Wolverhampton. The extra hour to go via Guildford was expected, so no problem there. Interesting that the barriers at Southampton were unstaffed and no-one came to check our...

Absolutely. I completely agree with you and I've never doubted that there are many very helpful and dedicated staff (and managers) in the rail industry. The sad thing is that there are also many who are less helpful. It's just a lottery when bad experiences strike, but the very fact that I've...

No offence intended, it was a question, not a judgement about you. It just sounded like you thought that people having enthusiasm for their work wasn't all that common. Apologies if I misunderstood.

Well I had quite a variety of jobs over my working life, and I can honestly say I was pretty enthusiastic about every single one of them. I have a lifelong enthusiasm for railways, and I still believe that they could and should serve the public well. I struggle to see why staff and management...

Thanks 8-). Yes, we're expecting to go via Guildford, that was forecast several weeks ago. At the same time, we booked Wolverhampton to Shrewsbury which was then a train, but when I checked a few days before leaving home, it had changed into a replacement bus. This is not ideal when we have...

The sad conclusion I'm drawing here, is that almost no-one on the supply side of the rail industry, is particularly interested in providing a decent rail service. Many, if not most staff, and similarly in rail management, are only there to earn a wage by being present during their contracted...

That's a sure way to alienate customers. Provide perfectly functional carriages running exactly where and when people want to use them, but locking them out, and forcing them to stand in seriously overcrowded adjacent carriages instead. It doesn't matter a jot what the reasons are, this will...

I didn't think it was worth writing back since their responses clearly had little bearing on reality. However, just out of interest and since I had a spare few minutes, I did write back a polite query on that very point. They didn't respond :s. I guess they thought they'd already answered the...

The no brainer bit was aimed partly at Government, who you might think would be pleased to find a way to make a reduction in pressure on road travel. Other than that, do we want to spend our time seeking ways to achieve things, or would we rather be spending it finding excuses not to? Once...

You're not wrong about demand, however it's a very odd way to run a business. Most businesses with a huge demand would do whatever they could to cater for it, in order to seek to improve their profits. Moreover, this is something any credible Government should be addressing. Our roads are...