So am I Tony...............and I don't disagree with a word you say ! We all have to move with the times, I use my mobile phone for lots of things that not long ago I would have probably railed against.............the only time I use cash now is in the "dinosaur" supermarkets that expect me to put a pound coin in their trolley.

But what really infuriates me, and I dare say many others, is the pure clap trap trotted out by senior management in TOCs^▸ (Train Operating Company), Banks, Supermarkets, Pharmacies, Doctors, Councils, etc, etc, etc, when they announce "changes" (ie: closures) in the service that they purport to provide. The example quoted in the Guardian, from Claire Mann, is an absolute classic of its genre.

 "can offer a customer service that aligns with what customers actually want and need, in line with their expectations from modern retailing”.   
I got an immediate full house on my b******t bingo card from her full quote 

Pure unadulterated junk ! Does she really believe what she is saying - even worse, does she really think that rail passengers will swallow that ?? If she actually does - why are we (via taxpayer subsidy) paying her a six figure salary to spout such rubbish

Is it too difficult to tell the truth ? .............."We are closing the ticket offices because they are not paying their way, too few people are using them. Because the Unions would all go on strike over redundancies we are going to pay the ex ticket office staff to stand on the platform to try and help would-be passengers to use our extremely limited capability and user unfriendly self-service machines".

I'm off to Tesco now to see if they can offer me some "modern retailing that is in line with my expectations"....................

Coasting towards Heywood Jct on the way to Bath, this afternoon.

Worth a read..................
https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2023/sep/26/tragic-death-of-the-ticket-office-the-inhuman-isolating-change-that-could-ruin-train-travel

..............summed up in this brief extract:

"In developing our proposal to modernise and update our stations, we have focused on delivering improvements for our customers,” says Claire Mann, the managing director of South Western Railway (SWR^» (South Western Railway - about)), which runs Ryde Esplanade station. Nothing to do with reducing staff numbers at stations to save money, then. The train operators say that ticket office staff can be retrained and moved to a new, multiskilled role, while SWR “can offer a customer service that aligns with what customers actually want and need, in line with their expectations from modern retailing”.

None of the customers I meet today say that closing the ticket office is what they want or need, or that it is in line with their retailing expectations. On the contrary, they call the decision “disgusting”, “ridiculous”, “gutting”, “inhuman”, “isolating”, “diabolical”, “ageist”, “ableist” and “heartbreaking”.

The usual meaningless double-speak waffle from TOC^▸ (Train Operating Company) senior management !!!

The Beeb have found it now...........................
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-66925314

Oh dear ! - I think you need to buff up your pronounciation ! 

I'll have to give you that one..............just noticed a typo in the mileage I quoted. The website gave a mileage of 41 m 51 ch - I must have copied the wrong two numbers     
Start point is WMN^» (Warminster - next trains), split at SAL, WMN to SAL on an OPDR is £6..........bargain !   Interestingly, I checked your suggested starting point of Bath - the direct through ticket is the cheapest option from there.
As I have plenty of time tomorrow I shall take the scenic route via Southampton on the way out 

Getting warm.................!

This Wed I have to travel from A to D and back, (51/62 miles each way). I have to change at B or C en route. My appointment is mid afternoon. I have a Veteran’s Railcard. These are the fares that I eventually gathered.

Off Peak Return from A to D: £21.35
Split at C  (most obvious change/split point): £13.35 + £2.95 = £16.30
Split at B  (not so obvious) £6.00 + £8.25 = £14.25  (My choice)

I consider myself to be fairly wordly-wise when it comes to rail fares but I have to say that I was astounded by the sheer complexity of this “simple” journey.
My journey times fitted in well with the “cheap” off peak fare options available but anyone who was travelling at peak time and/or needing a period return would be absolutely lost, or fleeced. I cannot see anyone getting anything approaching a “reasonable” fare from a platform vending machine – even a very good ticket office clerk would struggle to find a ticket, if he had the time/inclination, other than the “full fare” open direct ticket.

I look at this and wonder how it would ever be possible to rationalise this existing system. There is a mix of day/period/anytime/off peak/special tickets – each with their own complicated availability conditions. Who would expect an “Evening Out” ticket to be valid from midday (apart from during the Waterloo “Evening” rush  !!) ?   It should be called an “Evening Out Day Return” anyway (I think !!)…….”Evening” and “Day” on the same ticket – that would really cause confusion.
One section of the journey will cost me £8.25 return…………that bit returning the next day would cost me two singles at £11.50 ea……………or possibly two (half used) Evening Outs at £8.25 each day ……………….sheer madness !
There are two direct routes from C to D; one of 5 miles, the other 16 miles – same fare ……………that knocks a simple pence per mile future system on the head – or does it ?

If anyone thinks there is any way to sort out the shambles of the fares system……….good luck !!  Closing ticket offices IS NOT the way.

PS: If any of the figures above are wrong ………it proves my point, AND just for good measure Trainsplit couldn’t/wouldn’t offer me anything !.

One of the pinks was very "dusty rose" ish !!! 
The Baker-Miller pink would drive you round the bend:   "In 2017, model Kendall Jenner painted her living room Baker-Miller pink – and raved about how it made her feel much calmer".................If she "raved" about it - surely that proved it didn't work !!

I was once told that pink was a colour which tends to calm people down and stop sudden impulsive urges to do rash things. For example, all the equipment in the Missile Control Centre on the Polaris submarines was painted 2 shades of off-pink..........to stop someone starting WWIII on an impulse !! I also remember reading that some police stations have a pink cell to calm down the most obnoxious drunks.

Sainsbury's had Stollen and Mince Pies on the shelf last week - now you have already been to 2 "pantomimes" in the last few days ! Christmas seems to start earlier every year   

A couple of extra points about the present "service" on this line.

1. The extra GWR trains you mention (to Salisbury) only run during the "quiet" part of the day - during the morning and evening busy periods you are back to 1 hourly service and the 58 minute wait at Salisbury for a train to Warminster.
2. It would appear that the rolling stock for these additional GWR trains has been obtained by reducing the length of the Cardiff - Portsmouth trains throughout the day.

The so called improvements on this line are very much a smoke and mirrors box ticking exercise !! Lots of extra trains/seats (say GWR) - but at entirely the wrong time of day...................

(I put my daughter on the SWR 1051 to Waterloo at Warminster yesterday - it seemed well populated. I noticed that the GWR service was down to its usually dire state with a later train already showing as cancelled - one of 6 cancellations according to RTT^» (Real Time Trains - website) today)

Undoubtedly !....................but what is/was the true "original" vegetative state of the track shown in the photos ?  The green lobby would be loud in their claims that the bushes/trees were the true state and they must be afforded a similar preservation status to Stonehenge, but the 1938 photo would seem to disprove that. I think we can say with some certainty that there was no vegetation along this track from 1856 (when opened) until some years after the 1938 photo.

How much to buy & run a fleet of RHTTs^▸ (Rail Head Treatment Train) ??

To "blame" one poor summer for the state of trackside vegetation is disingenuous to say the very least.

I recently tried to recreate an old railway photo - I couldn't take the new one from exactly the same position as the the old one because of............you've already guessed it !  The photos speak for themselves.................

I seem to recollect very similar photos appearing after the Salisbury tunnel accident.