As to the resort itself, Wikipedia says: 'Graal-Müritz is among the most popular German destinations for tourism and health cures alike. . . . The town offers many hotels, restaurants, a 5-kilometre (3.1 mi) beach, a public Rhododendron Park and a well-being and fitness centre.' Again, not quite like Severn Beach (except, perhaps, in one's dreams . . .).

Graal-Müritz, in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern?

Having carriages of two designs, as far as the sizes of the windows are concerned, would also increase manufacturing costs, I suspect.

On Saturday 9 March 2024, there is a Pathfinder rail tour along the Cwmbargoed branch line, which lies between the Rhymney and Merthyr lines.

There may not be many further opportunities to travel along the line: the opencast mine and coal washery at Cwmbargoed have closed, and reopening to passengers seems unlikely, because there are few settlements of any size along the route.

The tour includes the Uskmouth branch and Margam Knuckle Yard (near Port Talbot).

The train starts from Burton-on-Trent and picks up at Birmingham New Street (07.30), Worcestershire Parkway (08.15), Cheltenham Spa (08.45), Bristol Parkway (09.35) and Severn Tunnel Junction (10.10).

Fares are £179 first class and £129 standard.

All I will say is this: if someone as tech-savvy as grahame can be caught out, what hope for the rest of us?

When I saw the line between Carlisle and Stranraer in the map on the cover of the Network North document, I wondered whether the government was considering reopening the Carlisle–Stranraer railway. But it turns out that the plan is to provide funding 'to deliver targeted improvements on the A75 between Gretna and Stranraer'.

Then I saw mention in the document of 'reopening Beeching lines to reconnect areas like County Durham, Burton, Stocksbridge and Waverley'. Could that mean extending the Borders line south from Galashiels to Hawick or even Carlisle? No: it turns out that Waverley is a proposed new station between Sheffield and Worksop.

More seriously, it seems counter-intuitive that electrification from Crewe to Holyhead has apparently been given priority over electrification from Chippenham to Bristol, Didcot to Oxford and Cardiff to Swansea. Chippenham to Bristol is mentioned only as a possibility, and the latter two routes are not mentioned at all, as far as I can see.

Let's hope they restore the clock that wasn't working.

We had to transfer from the Gare du Nord to the Gare d'Austerlitz in August, to catch the night train to Briançon. Line 5 of the Métro is direct (there's a bit of a walk at Austerlitz, perhaps because of the building works there), and you can buy Métro tickets from the buffet on the Eurostar.

I agree, Mark. I often find myself staring at the display, waiting for it to cycle through the ads, until it shows the next bus.

According to Real Time Trains, the 19.40 from Weymouth arrived at Melksham at 21.35 (one minute late).

3. Freshford.

5. Keynsham.

Thanks, Graham. My thought of a possible software upgrade comes from a vague memory that, when the old machine was first installed, you couldn't use it to buy tickets from another station, but that facility was added later.

While it's true that the new machine is quicker to use than the old one was, I don't think that the absence of the button in the corner of the screen offering tickets from another station (which is what we had before) makes a significant difference to the time taken to buy a ticket.

It's helpful to be able to buy split tickets from a station such as Clifton Down. When making an early start on a journey beyond Temple Meads, a through ticket for the journey may be available only as an expensive Anytime. By splitting, it can be possible to combine an Anytime ticket for the first leg (and Anytime tickets for the Severn Beach Line itself are very cheap) with an Off-peak ticket from an intermediate point.

It was also useful when travelling to Clifton Down from a local station which doesn't have a ticket machine, since if the guard didn't come round you could buy your ticket on arrival.

As to the advice to pay the train manager, the TMs^‡(resolve) on the Severn Beach Line are always very helpful, but since Clifton Down is a Penalty Fares station (and has a ticket machine), I would be wary of boarding the train without a ticket without first speaking to the on-train staff.

Of course, it's now possible to tap in with a GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) smartcard, though I haven't tried one myself yet, and one can also buy split tickets online and then collect them from the machine, or have them delivered as an e-ticket.

Indeed. Several ticket machines on the GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) network have been replaced in recent months. At Clifton Down, the old machine did allow purchase of tickets from another station. The new machine (of a different type) doesn't. I don't know whether we should expect a software update that will enable that facility again.

I don't know about Southern's machines, but I wouldn't rely on being able to purchase tickets from another station without checking the ticket machine in question in advance.

The bar at Sloane Square station is featured in Iris Murdoch's novel A Word Child (1975), along with a similar bar on the tube platform at Liverpool Street: both are regular haunts of the main character. I remember wanting to visit them, but they'd already closed by the time I read the novel. There's an article about the history of bars on the London Underground in My London, including a photograph of the Sloane Square bar with the station cat.