* The network railcard validity area map. Now that's a very shy animal - it's not easy to find a copy that's both from an authoritative source and at a scale that makes it useable.

But hang on a moment - what if our public transport system was treated as a network?  What if buses and trains talked to each other? 

All the lovely new stuff out the front, and Weymouth Station remains a disappointment.    I didn't comment on it earlier today; I had simply drawn a deep breath yesterday, sadly noticed in unimproved from this thread 4 years ago.   However, SWR^» (South Western Railway - about) asked me via a survey my opinion, so this is what I wrote.


Not really helped for newcomers to rail being faced with a train with a scrolling screen labelled "Barnstaple" which was (of course) going to Swindon.   

Old enough to remember hopping on and off buses by way of the open platform at the back.  I suppose that does make me really old.

But High Street Bank branch closures are not actually meeting the needs of customers.  Therefore they are not meeting the needs of the business.  Small businesses and others who need to bank cash now have to travel miles to do this.  I bank with one of the big four banks and I am fortunate that I have a branch within 3 miles, but the next nearest branches are 15 to 20 miles away.  There is much talk of banking hubs to provide for customers needs, but there are none anywhere I have been.  I can pay in a cheque using the app up to a certain value, but beyond that I need to find a branch.

Some of Paul Clifton's reports
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-oxfordshire-65249735

Mr Hopwood said GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) was also "looking at whether we can run some more trains from Oxford into London with Great Western using the Chiltern Railway route".

Solar panels are being rolled out “like carpet” on railway tracks in Switzerland.

Swiss start-up Sun-Ways is installing panels near Buttes train station in the west of the country in May, pending sign-off from the Federal Office of Transport.

As the climate crisis demands that we speed up Europe’s energy transition, developers have been seeing new potential in unusual surfaces.

Roadsides, reservoirs and farms are all finding space for solar systems. And Germany’s Deutsche Bahn is also experimenting with adding solar cells to railway sleepers.

Continues....