Understood - but that doesn't necessarily affect the total number of castles and classics available for service?

Seem to be back to just 3 'castle' diagrams on Cardiff-Taunton in recent weeks.  Today I think it was only 2.  One diagram was a 3-car dmu.  I think everything else was 2-car.  Not very impressive, and no reason to think anything will magically improve next month.

The Fishguard line is also closed for a similar 3 week period - to deal with dangerous trees.  I'm sure that's long enough to cut down a whole forest!

When the Chinese first introduced their high speed trains, they had a system of passengers getting off at the front door on each carriage and getting on at the rear door.  However, I don't think that system continued for very long - so presumably it was either not as efficient as expected, or unpopular with passengers.

You're right - I just downloaded the app again and now it does give me mobile ticket as an option.
Maybe they've made some changes since I first tried.

I thought the Severn Tunnel had something more like a rigid metal bar than a normal contact wire?

Is the idea of using aluminium instead of copper that it's a more reactive metal than steel, and therefore it is the aluminium which will preferentially corrode?  Which I suppose is better if the corrosion is not then be concentrated at the point where the OHLE is fixed to the tunnel.

Very poor information from TfW about services on the southern end of the line.  Until sometime today, their website made no mention of the fact that trains are still running between Newport and Abergavenny, only mentioning the timetable for the replacement bus service.

Right now, if I look on the NR^» (Network Rail - home page) journey planner it shows all services running to a normal timetable tomorrow, which of course contradicts information elsewhere that the line would be closed at least a week.  The reality is that there is an hourly service running between Cardiff and Abergavenny - but how are people supposed to plan their journeys for the rest of the week when this information is not being made publicly available?

This morning when I joined the 0714 at Pontypool this morning, the already-confused regular commuters were all consulting their phone apps because the train was showing twice - once as cancelled and once as running - because the short working from Abergavenny had a different headcode to the usual one.  I wish Network Rail would fix that problem and somehow 'hide' the duplicate cancelled one. (I've seen other strange mis-reporting by CIS^▸ (Customer Information System) when a substitute train runs in the regular timings.)

I've had some rather similar responses from TfW, including my last grumble a couple of months back about the fact their mobile app doesn't issue e-tickets to stations not on their network.  A dismissive reply accompanied by a £10 travel voucher!  There does seem to be an attitude in customer services at both GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) and TfW (and maybe the others) that they can solve all customer woes by paying out a little cash.

 

To be clear, I'm talking about paper tickets with barcodes, not the ones with magnetic strips.  They seem more temperamental when the print is blacker.
Bristol Parkway is the station I'm most often passing through the barriers with one of the things.

I had a bad experience with buying an e-ticket using the GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) app a couple of months back.

I was entering the details for my journey while waiting for my train on the platform, and had just pressed the 'pay now' button as the train rolled into the platform.  Unlike previous times I have used it, I was asked to answer several multiple-choice security questions, after which there was an unusually long delay followed by a message to say it had been unable to collect payment.

By this time I was already on the train and the conductor was doing his rounds.  So I bought a ticket from him, of course (I had joined at an unstaffed station without a ticket machine, so no issues there.)  A minute or two later, I discovered that GWR *had* taken payment, *and* issued my e-ticket - so now I had two tickets for the same journey!

GWR subsequently gave me a full refund for my ticket - I wasn't sure they would. since this type of issue isn't listed as a valid reason for a refund - so all ended well.  However, it didn't do much at the time for my confidence in the GWR mobile app as a good way to buy and use tickets.


One other (unrelated) point on mobile e-tickets.  I find the barcodes scan more readily at ticket barriers that the ones printed on paper tickets.  Sometimes it takes me 2 or 3 goes to get a paper ticket to open the barrier, whereas the one on my phone normally works first time.  Has anybody else found that?

I wonder whether he's the same conductor who sometimes welcomes people to Wales in Welsh on the approach to Severn Tunnel Junction?

If a cancellation and a delay are 'costed' the same way, won't that mean there will sometimes be an even greater incentive for a ToC to turn a train around short of its destination to make up time?  And missing out Weston Super Mare can buy back easily 10 minutes.

And do they include services cancelled for part of the journey?

At some future date, isn't there going to be a change to measuring punctuality at every station on a route?  In which case, trains skipping stops or not completing the whole route can't really be disregarded.

Last year, a major cause of crew shortages was given as driver training.  Surely this is no longer a significant factor?

Do GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) currently have the numbers of onboard staff specified in the franchise terms, and are these numbers actually set a high enough level to cover summer holidays?

Fixing things may not always be simple.  The listening bit ought to be.