When considering whether Britain does have the worst infection rate in Europe it is important to look at the number of tests being carried out. Clearly, the more tests the more cases will be uncovered.  The latest statistics, from Worldometer,  show the UK^▸ (United Kingdom) has carried out 4,457,868 tests per million population. France has carried out about half as many -- 2,188,303 -- Italy fewer still at 1,547,649, and, perhaps surprisingly, Germany is well down at only 871,955. I am not at all arguing for fewer tests, just suggesting that our rate of testing skews our infection rate in comparison to others.

1950 Paddington to Hereford cancelled between Paddington and Reading 'because of flooding'. No doubt the floods caused by the tears of frustration from those who have to put up with this 'service'.

I'd recommend Deutsche Bahn. As well as having a very easy to use online timetable you can ring them up to book tickets. They have a phone number for English speakers and every time I've used them have been tremendously helpful and efficient.
https://reiseauskunft.bahn.de//bin/query.exe/en?ld=212.63&newrequest=yes&

Out of all the excuses GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) uses to cancel trains the 'shortage of train crew' is the most frustrating. It's the job of management to run an efficient railway which means making sure there are crew for the trains. That's just basic.  It's not like it happens rarely. It's a daily occurrence somewhere on the network.  It's no good having comfortable trains and an improved timetable if the trains don't actually turn up. Management really should be ashamed.

The Cotswold line service at the moment is totally unreliable. The number of cancellations is shockingly high and even when trains do run the punctuality is terrible.  So, yet again, I'm driving to Oxford Parkway where the Chiltern line does what a train service is supposed to do and the trains turn up and run pretty much to time.  I'd sooner not drive but I just have no choice. GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) just can't be relied upon to get me to my destination.

I'd definitely agree that the service has deteriorated over the past few weeks or so.  It's not just cancellations, it's the extremely poor punctuality.  A quick check with OnTime Trains shows that, for example, the 17.52 Paddington to Charlbury was on time exactly 0 percent of the time over the past four weeks.

While the retimed morning Halts service might indeed cause some problems for people using it to work in Oxford, it does mean there are improved connections for people going on to London.  It now arrives at Didcot at 8.41, in time for the next fast London service  at 8.46, arriving at Paddington at 9.30. Or, if that seems a bit tight, getting off at Oxford would mean plenty of time to catch the 8.44, arriving at Paddington at 9.37.

1: Reliability
2: Reliability
3: Reliability

Also the 8.35 Charlbury to Paddington was cancelled this morning -- not sure how many other stations were affected.

The short formations I was on - and there have been more recently -  led to passengers standing for long distances, and yet on some of those occasions there were two first class carriages with seats vacant. I notice that in a recent post Worcester_Passenger says that in similar circumstances the first class was 'declassified'. I wonder if any of the experts on here can tell me who takes that decision and in what circumstances?

That's hugely frustrating. All I can think of is involving the rail Ombudsman.
https://www.railombudsman.org/

 For those who haven't come across it, there is an excellent site, https://www.ontimetrains.co.uk/, which gives arrival times for every journey, the amount delayed, and whether compensation is due. It also has a useful link to GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway)'s page for making claims. I hadn't realised that delays of fifteen minutes are now eligible. 

Thanks, that's interesting. So it looks like the regulations are designed to incentivise controllers to make sure trains reach their destinations and are not written off early -- but there isn't a corresponding incentive to make sure they start from the correct station.

I have a question which I'm sure the experts on this site will be able to answer! Today, the 07.10 from Moreton in Marsh, which was started from Oxford, arrived at Paddington 'on time'. When the performance statistics are being compiled, does that show as an 'on time' train despite the fact that it was cancelled between Moreton in Marsh and Oxford?  If so, over the course of a year and if repeated on different lines, it could distort the figures.

I think a sense of GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway)'s performance can be found by having a look at the cancellation and amendments log for 2018 and 2019 to be found on the London to the Cotswold section of this forum. It doesn't make happy reading.
http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?board=14.0