Hopefully she will advise that this is not an occasion when it is appropriate to use you personal firearm to enforce your right....

There's something on the BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page) News website - see - https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-berkshire-67926688,

Paul Clifton was also on the early evening news on the subject (not repeated after the 10 o'clock news)

Mornington Crescent!

...or indeed (if you stretch opposite to mean "different") - Reading!

To be fair Grahame, there will be people turning up looking for a train to the other intermediate trains, so I think it is correct to list them (albeit perhaps headed "this would have been the train for.....").

Otherwise I heartily endorse your comments!

To give an idea of what they are up against, here's what Newbury Station has been like-

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c72yvylpzdpo

I expect Network Rail will also be looking with concern at how various earthworks will hold up with all the soaking they are currently getting.

There's a more helpful post on National Rail as follows - "The emergency services are dealing with an incident between Didcot Parkway and Reading. Whilst they carry out their work, all lines are currently closed. As a result, trains may be cancelled, delayed by up to 90 minutes or revised.

Disruption is expected until the end of the day."

I appreciate that there's a lot going on this evening, but surely whatever is happening here merits a separate mention on the GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) Line Update section?

This is shown on Journey Check as "terminated at Reading......due to flooding", but is apparently a Hants & Berks routed service that should not be going via Goring & Streatley. It is however still Open Train Times as halted at signal 805 just east of Goring.....

Thanks Grahame for your thoughts..

I wonder - how did they account for season tickets? Does each ticket for the journey between two points count as "one"?

In my case, when I was doing two days a week as a consultant during my last two years, and usually travelling off-peak during the pandemic hybrid working regime (having acquired my senior rail card, to "replace" the discounts on my former Gold Card annual), I was buying a return each day I travelled rather than one annual season for the whole year, so potentially would have been contributing many more registrations between Goring and Guildford than when I was doing the journey most working days.

Perhaps of some relevance to this debate, I have had my first two experiences of cross-border rail travel since the pandemic this autumn.

The first was a trip to southern Sweden in September. I flew into Copenhagen, and had my second Oresund Bridge rail trip (the first being as long ago as 2007 – how time flies!), starting at the very convenient airport station. On the train there was a multi-lingual announcement that at Hyllie, the first station on the Swedish side, there would be passport checks for those leaving the train. I understand that checks were re-introduced on the border during he 2016 “migrant crisis”. We were though travelling onto Malmo Central, but heard no further announcements.
On arrival at Malmo there was no further announcement. There was a (closed) customs post at the far end of the platform, but we were able to walk of the platform and out of the station with no checks, nor sign of any or any signage indicating any need to have passports checked. There were no controls at all on the way back. What was the point of the Hyllie checks? To justify what from the train looked like security fencing at the station?

The second was a trip to Lille on Eurostar that my wife and I took early in November. Here I had a personal first in just over 50 years’ travel to France. Not only was my passport scanned at St Pancras by the French immigration authorities, but it was checked by two officials afterwards as well, the second of whom put the first ever French passport stamp I have ever had. Again, what was the point as my passport had already been scanned?

BTW^▸ (by the way) – my view is that controlling movement is a Canute-like endeavour. Movement of people around the world is a natural phenomenon, and has been going on since time immemorial. The biggest problem of movement of undesirables is the internal one of the county line drug dealers moving out from major urban centres to set up networks to peddle their wares on our streets, not those from overseas wanting to better themselves either by coming here to work or study. My vote would be for someone who wanted us to join the Schengen area, but I am realistic enough to know that there’s no chance of that from anywhere on the political spectrum.

Actually Sid, reading this through, it looks like you get all the behaviour people complain of over here, the exception being that the (fuss-pot?) guide to etiquette featured in the article seems to think it is acceptable to put your bare feet up on the seat opposite!

Oh yes - looking at this on the laptop, rather than smartphone, the waterway is far too wide for the Nene at Sutton Bridge! My guess is formally withdrawn......

3 Sutton Bridge?

4 - The delightfully named "Chittening Platform" station on the Severn Beach branch

....and to Oxford (better still Banbury as well so that all Thames Valley main line and "Oxford Canal Line" services can be run by those Electrostars that always seem to be hanging around the Reading Depot).