Seems weird that they discovered new problems as they went along. I mean, it's all above ground and easily inspectable before starting, no?

-> actually I've just seen that the problem was that they discovered an arch underground......

The Botley Road closure was supposed to start on January 9th, but that's been delayed now.

Thanks very much, everyone.

Hello. This morning at 7am there was a huge tailback along the Botley Road in Oxford because of temporary lights due to roadworks. It would have been handy if there was some way that I could have known about this in advance. Oxfordshire County Council have a website where they list major projects, but this looked more like a utility firm digging the road up. I see there's a 'live roadworks ' link on the OCC website, but nothing there. I looked on twitter in case there was anything posted there, and tried a few of the media sites like the Oxford Mail, but couldn't find anyone passing on useful info about ordinary delays happening now. How do other people find out about potential delays to driving trips  please? Do you rely on apps like Google maps to know about them? Any tips or information about there will be a similar delay tomorrow morning on the Botley Road would be very gratefully received. Thanks.

The thing that really annoys me about this is that both the journeys are ones where they sent me an email to notify me that I can claim. So the GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) system is aware that I made these separate journeys. Still, on the range of things that annoy me about GWR the fact that I have to email customer service to reclaim my fare is minor compared to the fact that they are going to block access to the car park at Oxford station for a year.

Oxford City Council probably asked for it to be as long as possible. No-one hates their residents more than Oxford City Council. I think the secretary of state for transport ought to step in here, though. Whatever the benefits are delivered by the railway improvements cannot possibly be worth the devastation caused by closing the only road into Oxford from the west for a year.

I bought a load of tickets for different journeys in one go recently. Unfortunately a few of those trains were late, so I've been using Delay Repay. I discovered that once I've claimed for one journey under a particular booking ref, any claims for other journeys under the same booking ref are automatically refused - the machine thinks they are duplicates, even though the travel dates are different. Anybody else found this, please? wish

There's an appeal button on the delay repay website after a claim is refused. Doesn't work though - just takes you back to the 'enter a fresh claim' screen.

Sorry - I've just realised i should have posted this in the rights and redress section. Oops.

I have a few tickets stored on the GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) app. Every now and then I go to check the app to see what tickets I have so I know what city I'm going to be in when. But regularly when I do this the app says "sorry can't connect" and is unable to display my tickets. I think this is a problem with the GWR server as opposed to my phone, so I'm just wondering what's going to happen on the inevitable occasion when I roll up to the ticket barriers and say "Look, I've bought a ticket but your system won't show it for me". Will I be able to get on the train? Has anyone had this happen to them, please?

Thanks Graham and Chris, big help. That bit about the Chiltern lines is super-useful, I would never have thought of that.

Hello, everyone. I am thinking of taking the plunge and buying a GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) annual season ticket for the first time. Could I ask a couple of silly questions about the practicalities of how this actually works, please?

1) The website says that I need a photocard, which I can get from a ticket office. I already have a GWR touch smartcard which has my photo on it - can I use this for my annual season ticket instead of a photocard?

2) Previously I bought daily tickets on the GWR app, and scanned my phone to get through the ticket barriers. Will my new season ticket also be loaded into the app on my phone, allowing me to get through the barriers with my phone? Or will the annual season ticket only exist on my touch smartcard, so I need to use that to get through the barriers and hence can't swan about wallet-free. Or in fact will they post me a physical plastic season ticket, perhaps?

3) I notice it's the same price for Didcot -> London as Oxford -> London. The train from Oxford runs through Didcot to London. I'll generally be travelling from Didcot to London each day, but every once in a blue moon coming home I'll stay on the train through Didcot and get off one stop later at Oxford. Am I allowed to buy a season ticket for Oxford -> London (since it's the same price) and get on and off each day at Didcot? ie can you start/break/terminate your journey as often as you like at any intermediate stations on your season route?

Thanks very much for your help.

Thanks, Phil

1. Network railcard
2. Three times a week, probably
3. Gaining in 7am, coming back 6pm

And I'm assuming travelling 47 weeks of the year, allowing for holidays etc

Hello. I think I'm going to be travelling in to London from Didcot regularly from January. I understand that season tickets normally go up at the start of January, so I am intending to buy one at the end of December to avoid that. I have done the calculations and  season ticket appears to be slightly better value than the flexi things plus extra daily tickets with a railcard. Just wanted to ask of there's anything smart I should be aware of before splashing the cash. Any advice gratefully received.

Hello. On Sunday evening I bought a ticket from Didcot Parkway to Paddington for the 6:48 am train on Monday morning. The website sold me on off-peak ticket for £27. Seemed a bit weird: i'd have thought that 6:48am on a Monday morning was about as Peak as you can get, but the mobile ticket clearly had that train time written on it (although it threw an error when I tried to reserve a seat).

I rolled up at the ticket barriers, and they wouldn't open. The guy on the gate wouldn't let me through, since I only had an off-peak ticket which wasn't valid. So the GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) web site sold me an invalid ticket. There were other people at the barriers having the same problem. I bought a new ticket to complete my journey, and called GWR web sales afterwards - the guy on the phone says that all his systems indicate indicate that journey is off-peak, and my ticket should have been valid. But he did agree to refund my £27.

I've just looked now for Friday trains out of London. Website saying off-peak tickets are valid on every train, although I know for a fact some trains are peak only. What's going on? Looks like there's a fault on the online ticket buying system. Can anyone shed any light on this mystery, please?

I take the train from Oxford/Didcot to London roughly twice a week. It used to be the case that every journey I took (as in, literally every single one) was late. Usually not enough to claim, say fifteen minutes or so, but always enough to be annoying. Since the summer of 2018, they've all been on time. The change is dramatic. Thinking back it seemed to coincide with Oxford being shut for a fortnight - the improvement seems to date from when the station re-opened. Have other people noticed the same thing, or have I just been lucky, please?

My guess is that the study is about the traffic chaos that will ensue if they close the road under the bridge. It's a genuine choke point.