Afraid not; Hugo Swire would only be concerned with the branch line to Exmouth as the Tarka^▸ (Line from Barnstaple to Exeter) Line does not fall within the East Devon constituency. This must therefore refer to the long promised 4 car 150/2 services.

My MP^▸ (Member of Parliament) (Hugo Swire - East Devon) has just written on social media that GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) have told him they will '...phase in updated rolling stock in January and February...'.

This was apparently in partial response to issues raised in a meeting with Mark Hopwood last October.

Obviously my breathing reflex will not be temporarily suspended - although being fair to GWR I did actually travel from DIG to EXC last week in a 4 car (2 x refurbished 150/2) consist for the first time in over a year.

How does the author of the signs know this? Have they taken up permanent residence at the station?

35/35 and I have never held a full UK^▸ (United Kingdom) driving licence so would suggest this ‘quiz’ doesn’t tax the brain cells too severely.

The sign on the right-hand platform appears to show directions to a school but even with maximum zoom I can't properly read the name.

When out on my bike I always carry a couple of spare inner tubes, a pump and the appropriate tools to effect a puncture repair. This stuff occupies very little space. I don't think cyclists should be relying on others to fix their problems.

...and I wouldn't go anywhere near Halfords for anything to do with cycling!

Excellent idea. Digby & Sowton station currently has a regular 'For their own safety, passengers are reminded to stand behind the yellow line' announcement. Which might be considered OK if said station actually had a yellow line. But it doesn't. Pillocks.

Previous Post Spelling Alert: Offense Offence, Loosing Losing 

As per usual with reports of this nature I doubt we have yet been presented with the full story and certainly not with both sides of it. But if the customer was requesting transfer to a different service than that booked at no additional cost when holding an Advance ticket then the response should have been a polite 'No' regardless of the circumstances.

An appropriate juncture to resurrect this thread (?)

Wednesday 17th October 2018 - My First Conveyance By An IET^▸ (Intercity Express Train)
2B80 1643 DIG > 1655 EXD^» (Exeter St Davids - next trains)
Class 150/2 + 153
Service ran a few minutes late due, not unusually*, to waiting a late running Exmouth-bound service at Topsham. Conductor not doing proper ticket checks (the fact that I had one was deemed sufficient) because, he explained, the revenue protection team had taken up residence at Polsloe Bridge. I failed to see the connection between these two events.

*Perhaps Sir Tom Jones could be persuaded to catalogue the many failings of our railway system in a song.

1A93 1702 EXD > 1920 PAD^» (Paddington (London) - next trains)
Class 80x 9-Car
The wrong type of IET! 9 cars instead of the apparently rostered 10 so no reservations (not that it mattered as there were plenty of spare seats). I found the seats to be acceptable in terms of comfort and the increased legroom was a welcome improvement. I thought overall ride quality was a slight step up from the HST^▸ (High Speed Train) and background noise was noticeably reduced. The positioning of the power socket information panels (partly obscured under the lower window frame) was obviously the work of an imbecile and I found that my 3-pin plug (a USB adapter) would not seat fully into the sockets and it was a struggle to get the juice flowing. I have never had the same issue with this adapter anywhere else.
Pedant Alert: I dislike the internal scrolling displays because I find the repetition of the final destination as a calling point annoying unnecessary.
And, finally, the really poor bit: Service arrived at Paddington 17 minutes late following a delay in the Lydford area (c. 5 miles west of CLC^▸ (Castle Cary)) due to a cow on the line. Why the hell is this still allowed to happen? 

SWR^» (South Western Railway - about) services from the Waterloo line generally use the New Yard at EXD^» (Exeter St Davids - next trains) to swap from Platform 3 to P1.

Exeter Airport will see its first scheduled Ryanair services starting April 2019 initially for the summer months only.

Twice weekly to/from Malaga (Wed/Sun), Malta (Tue/Sat) & Naples (Wed/Sun)

No, they should not. Fares should be entirely distance based with no variations save for Season Ticket discounts, higher prices over certain sections of the network during the peak and a First Class premium.
The Fares application/database would price tickets according to the above guidelines so that ‘split ticketing’ and ‘break of journey’ queries would be rendered redundant.
Railcards should be scrapped.
In terms of the ‘Anytime’ v ‘Off Peak’ pricing issue the fare, for example, from EXD^» (Exeter St Davids - next trains) to PAD^» (Paddington (London) - next trains) in the early morning would be calculated as EXD to NBY^» (Newbury - next trains) or RDG^‡(resolve) at the base price + NBY or RDG at the ‘Peak’ rate. The rail industry should have enough data to figure out what the base pence/mile figure should be and everything else flows from that. (This is a summary of my Fares Consultation submission - I have no expectation that the industry/government would adopt any of these ideas).

Grockle Western Railway

That is what I thought as well. But the RMT^▸ (National Union of Rail, Maritime & Transport Workers) are now accusing SWR^» (South Western Railway - about) of intending to expand their DOO^▸ (Driver-Only Operation (that is, trains which operate without carrying a guard)) operational area, something which surely means the complete removal of guards/conductors (I haven't figured out the difference yet!), while SWR say this is completely untrue ('...offered repeated reassurances that we are guaranteeing jobs, salaries and terms and conditions of Guards...') so, as I say, one of the parties in this dispute is lying.

So while SWR and/or the RMT continue behaving like spoilt children the travelling public can go hang.

I would be very interested to learn, if the 'insider' information is available, which side in this dispute is lying.

The RMT^▸ (National Union of Rail, Maritime & Transport Workers) website says:
'...the Company sabotaged the talks by confirming they intend to roll out the extension of DOO^▸ (Driver-Only Operation (that is, trains which operate without carrying a guard)) regardless.'
and
'Our members are striking today to put public safety before private profits and it’s about time SWR^» (South Western Railway - about) took note of what is going on elsewhere in the rail industry, and the settlements RMT has struck that underpin the guard guarantee,...'

while SWR state:
'...We have also offered repeated reassurances that we are guaranteeing jobs, salaries and terms and conditions of Guards. ...'

They can't both be correct.