Interesting - As I stayed on the 'cancelled' train, but it was still over 30mins late at TAU, I claimed direct with XC & got my comp.

 
Apologies for a slight delay. I've spent the last week in the Netherlands, and most of my attempts to access this forum were rebuffed, inasmuch as I understand it, on the grounds that it thought I was a wet arachnid.

But I am home now, and here is the photo:



This view is from inside the Old Station, but the staircase is very close to the first entrance as you head up the incline. The subway was more or less at the point where Brunel's original terminus meets the 1870's extension. So It seems very likely that it could have been directly accessed from the level of the tram terminal.

 

Slightly facetious but launching a "new" train with the previous operator's logos on day one might be more an own goal than a quick win.

 

A great test of the loading gauge calculations

We called them OGLOs - Out of Gauge Load

Signalled with the bell code 2-6-3 if it required adjoining lines to be blocked

The reaction of today's elf 'n safety to having these men loose on the wagons can only be imagined

 
I should have asked if your next move from Narbonne was going to be towards Béziers. That would give you a chance to see (or glimpse, more likely) the Etang de Montady as you whizz past. The other interesting feature there, the "three tunnels" crossing inside the ridge at Le Malpas, is a bit hard to see.

 
I checked the planner for a journey that I’m rostered to make - Maidenhead to Tottenham Court Road on 28th December.  This clocks in at a whopping 2 hours!!

I can’t help but think that the proposed journey is somewhat convoluted and not efficient for the passengers.  The proposed plan is train from Maidenhead to Slough, road replacement service to Hillingdon Station(?!?), Hillingdon to Paddington.

Why not take passengers to their intended destination of Paddington rather than doing half the job and dropping them at Hillingdon which incurs a further hour of tube travel after the road replacement service. 

 

Thank you for "biting", Chris.     My point was that it is easy to select a sub-group of beneficiaries that might be considered unworthy of the "benefit" of a railcard, and in doing so bring down opprobrium upon the whole group (see also various other types of benefit).

 
It gets better - the 8:26 Paddington Bristol service that I'm having to catch at Chippenham is only 5 coaches. More standing, but at least it's warm.

 

Rejected by GWR again, but passed to Crosscountry as they hosted the musical chairs episode at Bristol. This is quality service from the delay repay system as it's the opposite of that otherwise far-too-common practice of deflecting issues and asking the customer to do the runaround. An example of the latter was that I raised something with a national supermarket brand that has in the last few years been taken over by asset strippers. A faulty freezer being an injury accident waiting to happen. Their response 'Oh, that store (branded by us) is an independent one, nothing to do with us, raise it with them'.

 
Now on its way but the 07:45 from Westbury to Swindon is stuck at Trowbridge waiting for it to clear the single line.

 
ETA now 8:05, and the 8:02 Swindon service showing as delayed. Shouldn't be too much of a problem for the 8:02 passengers given that the Worcester service stops at Swindon. And the lucky so-and-so's haven't had to hang around in the cold for 50 mins

 
Yes, that would be nice. Unfortunately after departing Trowbridge at 7:39 it's now showing as delayed

 

Never mind, I'm sure it will be back on time by Foregate Street 

We could really do with a bit of warmth, a cup of coffee, a loo, and someone to reassure you that it really will turn up.   

 
Currently standing on a cold Melksham platform waiting for the 07:21 Worcester Foregate Street service, ETA 07:48 due to fault on train...

 

No apology needed, no offence taken, but thanks anyway.

 

 

"according to the class of travel on your ticket." - Eh?  the replacement id a standard class only train (and I suspect too short to cope at certain parts of the diagram) so under what circumstances would ticketed passengers using it have to be careful where they sit?

 
I woke early this morning, in the dis-quieting belief I might need to pour oil on troubled waters on this thread.  But it looks to me as I wake, before first light and at first glance, that our membership has done us proud in having hindsight and putting us back on a more even keel - thank you.

We have - and we do rightly - stray into some very difficult topics in the Coffee Shop and railcards and "qualification" for them ares such a topic.  I qualify for some journeys for 3 or 4 (age, disability, 2 together, and Network South East if I split an Didcot or Salisbury). And I suppose I could use friends and family if someone would hire me a child.   Extra expenses and restrictions that come with age or disability (and I hate that word) can be significant and hidden.   A topic worthy of dispassionate and much more general coverage - probably in a more general thread that this one.

 
I feel an apology is owed from me to TaplowGreen. Sorry.

You're post was just a hook to hang my anger on. My anger at how the issue has been framed by a large section of the media both traditional and social. I'm a DSB Railcard holder and some of the stuff I've read on Twitter and Facebook from right wing commentators is even more disturbing than the traditional media coverage. Piers Morgan, Julia Hartley-Brewer and their ilk have large audiences and their 'othering' and 'us and them' invective is lapped up by many. It's deeply disturbing.

Once again, TG. Sorry.

 
Video on preparing, emphasis not on stocks or supplies, but on discretion regarding your supplies.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RzU7ZV8UFWM

 
Interesting video of a large electrical transformer being transported  by rail.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P4nqWE26yqk

 

No. Annual leave is all rostered. Same number of people guaranteed leave during school holidays as there is all year round, and that figures depends on the size of the depot. Great workforce planning.

 

They are in the queue for their fault free running checks before going into passenger service. They’d also have to complete safety/acceptance checks.

 
Erm ... Excuse me. 

I was born in 1959 and I am certainly not a millionaire.  I reached the necessary age to qualify for a Senior Railcard - which I have to pay for - and I'm still a taxpayer in my retirement.

CfN. 

 
An update, from the BBC:

 
Funny that these newspapers rags don't holler about taxpayers money being used to support millionaires' train journeys just because they were born 1966 or before.

 
From the BBC:

 
An update to this topic, specifically regarding Pero's Bridge in Bristol Docks, discussed here previously.  From the BBC:

 
Meteorological winter starts on 1st December, but astronomical winter starts on 21st December - two days after the timetable change!

 
A somewhat misleading thread title. Although understandable given the way some sections of the media, and media commentators, have framed this addition to the qualifying criteria for a Disabled Person's Railcard.

The Sun went with, "Fury as prople with ADHD entitled to third off train tickets."

Piers Moron went with, "History will look back on this period in society and conclude we all lost our f***ing minds."

The Telegraph's angle was to suggest claimants were exploiting the system and to pitch taxpayers against claimants. Newsflash, Disabled Person's Railcard claimants pay taxes too.

The Tories' shadow transport minister's angle was, "... taxpayers should not be expected to fork out for people with low-level mental health conditions, some of whom already receive taxpayer-funded Pip [personal independence payment]." Failing to understand that if you get PIP you are already allowed to obtain a Disabled Person's Railcard regardless of the underlying physical or mental health condition(s) you have. And again, pitching taxpayers against (tax paying) claimants.

The LBC article is better than most on this news story but it's still using the words 'can get' rather than 'may get'.

Your diagnosis alone gets you nothing other than a diagnosis.

Here's the Department of Transport's statement on this change to eligibity. Used as the last paragraph in several news items AFTER they'e made their agenda and anti-disabled positions clear.


As for the perceived "rising volume of diagnoses" mentioned by the OP. Ain't medical science brilliant?! Diagnoses of a whole raft of mental and physical conditions have risen, and will continue to rise, with better understanding, research and education about said conditions. Diagnoses rise with population growth too.

The way this welcome addition to the Disabled Persons Railcard eligibilty criteria has been framed by a large proprtion of the media really pisses me off. Can you tell? 

Jaymac

Recently diagnosed with ASD. Scrounging PIP and DSB Railcard claimant for many years.

 
And when GWR go to GBR.....