Torquay's claim to being the French Riviera is based on it having that rarity in this country - having a south-facing aspect that is sheltered from the prevailing winds. It must have been lovely in the 19th century when it began to develop, and I'm sure those who built their grand houses on its steep sided slopes enjoyed a wonderful vista. Those same houses are now quite faded, and it has expanded far beyond the original town's area.

Its aspect is still a plus, and I quite like the east-facing clifftop resorts of Babbacombe and St Marychurch, with their hidden steep drops down and their Fawltyesque hotels on the clifftop promenades. The palm trees on Torquay's promenade (assuming they are still there, I haven't visited for a while) make for a nice walk along that, but the town is down at heel and seems to have been in a perpetual struggle to overcome that.

No idea where number 1 is, but I suspect it may fit Graham's last category and have been taken from a cruise ship.

(not that I've ever been on a cruise ship, so I could be very wrong).

If the service at Hoek is a metro, presumably Interrail tickets wouldn't be accepted on it?

We are aiming to do our first interrail trip this spring, so it would be useful to know, in case we decide to head out or back that way.

With the line between Temple Meads and Weston-super-Mare being closed for these 9 days, Cross Country will once again be diverting their Bristol to the south-west services, presumably onto the line through Bath Spa and Westbury to Taunton.

IIRC^▸ (if I recall/remember/read correctly) on previous occasions, it hasn't always been clear if these services will stop at either of those two intermediate stations, though I think they usually haven't. Does anyone here know? I will probably be travelling from Bath to the south-west during that week and it would obviously be easier to use a direct service from here rather than having to change en route or going via Temple Meads and then bus replacement.

Would agree wholeheartedly about Plymouth.

My friends who spent many years living in Truro would undoubtedly support adding that to the list, which surprises me as it seemed reasonably pleasant when I visited.

Depressing is a very subjective term. What I find fascinating I'm sure many others would find depressing, and vice versa. To take two local examples from the list, I find both Warminster and Trowbridge fascinating, but I can understand why some people don't. Though I might be tempted to add Westbury to the list.

However, the many of the most depressing places I have visited are on the list - Rhyl, Jaywick and Barton-on-Sea (which I once described to a friend as the most boring place I had ever visited, only to find he was born and brought up there!). I would add Middlesbrough to the list, though I've only fleetingly visited it twice.

With the flooding in Sodbury Tunnel and on various other lines last week, we were left with just the line through Bath for any London to Bristol/south Wales trains to use last week.

Given that we had bad flooding near to Chippenham closing this line only last month, and recent floods in Box Tunnel, how did we manage to escape a complete closure of all lines in this area? There has been a real deluge of rain in the Bath area in the last week, including all of Wiltshire, and the river Avon was at its highest level I have ever seen it at the end of the week, so the fact that this line did remain open seems surprising to me. If it had closed, what would then have happened?

The forecast being made at 6pm on Wednesday was very clear - widespread heavy rain across all of southern England, with inevitable flooding risk due to the very high groundwater levels, leading to travel disruption. I don't think it could have been much clearer for GWR to act.

It was a pretty exceptional rainfall event, as it was developing as it arrived and was torrential in many places. But with the chaos of Tuesday still hopefully fresh in their minds, there really shouldn't have been any excuse.

We got caught up at Westbury yesterday at the end of a long and arduous journey, and yes, I did notice a difference between it and previous journeys there! Pretty much every train seemed to just say Delayed, with interminable announcements also saying the same (we kept expecting them to alter each time, but they never did). There did seem to be a myriad of random excuses for the delays. I did smile at the one for the journey we were trying to make, as the train from Weymouth back to Bristol was delayed due to speed restrictions on the line, on what must be one of the slowest lines in GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) land at the best of times, and the speed restrictions must have been severe to have made it as late as it was (whether it ever arrived I don't know).

Eventually a random unannounced train did arrive at one of the platforms (not the one we were waiting on), and we found out it was a stopping service to Bristol, so we rushed over and jumped on. Hardly anyone else did, so whether they all waited another couple of hours I don't know.

There is obviously "some" demand to travel by rail every day. I suspect the demand on Christmas day is limited, but given the number of events that traditionally take place on Boxing Day, then demand on that day is likely to be high.

One of the arguments against providing a service on those days is that it allows the rail industry to use that time to do essential maintenance works. Railways are obviously in a unique position in that achieving ongoing maintenance is often going to mean a reduction or temporary closure of available lines. But what i have never heard asked, or stated, is just how much maintenance actually does take place over those two days, and whether any of it could realistically take place at another time. I would be interested in hearing whether anyone knows.

That presumably means that anyone from northern England heading towards Chester or north Wales will need to travel via Liverpool and the slow crawl down the Wirral.

We were due to be heading to north Wales today (though not from the north) and I'm fairly glad not to be doing it, given the general uncertainty, though sad to miss out on the festivities once we got there. Unfortunately my partner has gone down with a winter bug and we won't be travelling anywhere.

I have one brother in Perth and the other in Canberra, and a nephew in Brisbane. However, I've now heard that one of my brothers may come to the UK^▸ (United Kingdom) for a visit next year, so that would rule out me travelling there in 2024.

When I did look into this in some detail, and had decided that it would be more practical for me to fly there and back, I did look into going first to Perth, and booking onto the train that travels across the country to Sydney or Melbourne, and then go up to Canberra and Brisbane. If I did the journey, I expect I would also be tempted by the train going north through Alice Springs to Darwin, for the experience. I know that for the Perth eastwards train, it is better to book more than 6 months ahead, as that is much cheaper.

This sounds encouraging and fascinating. I would certainly be interested in hearing more details. How did you go about finding a suitable cargo ship? Did you have an opportunity to see the space on offer before booking? What space did you have (both yours and communally available). Did you eat with all the shipworkers?

I know Theo Simon, though not well. He has been campaigning on green issues for very many years, and his band, Seize The Day, have played at numerous fundraising events for green groups, and are very good. He also stood as a parliamentary candidate a few years ago in his home constituency, and got a good vote.

I have had the same dilemma, as my two brothers both live in Australia, and I have never visited as I don't wish to fly, largely for environmental reasons though for others as well. I did spend a lot of time looking at how to get there without flying and it wasn't easy, and I'm not keen on travelling on a freight carrying ship, so realistically almost impossible without finding someone who will carry you by boat. Trains and ferries in theory could get you as far as Indonesia, but there are no connections from there into Australia.

Having now reached my 70s, and finding long distance travel less inviting by the day, I may well take my one flight this century at some point soon to at least get to see them there. I live a low impact life as it is, so in terms of carbon output can probably "afford" it.

We are away over both Christmas and new year, but returning to Bath in between. Both will be long train journeys, and no doubt fraught with difficulties. I will be travelling on Sunday (Christmas Eve) to north Wales, and then we will be heading down to Cornwall for the new year. Given the experiences of train travel over the last few months, I can't say I'm looking forward to it.

The south Wales map has been put in to make the rest of us jealous! Many of those stations didn't exist when I lived in Cardiff as a student.

I think it has to be sometime from 2014 onwards (when Pye Corner opened).