Having skimmed through the new Penalty Fare guide, something interesting stood out at me: "Promise to Pay Coupons".

After a bit of Googling, they appear to be Northern's replacement for Permit To Travel machines.  Where someone boarding at a card only TVM^▸ (Ticket Vending Machine) station wishes to pay by cash, they have to obtain a Promise To Pay from the TVM.

I cannot find any further information, such as whether the passenger has to provide any personal details to get one, or whether it is simply to prove the station of origin (preventing passenger from getting a cheaper fare).

I wonder whether this option will be spreading further afield?  No more "honest, guv, I only got on at Bemmie" when they actually boarded at Nailsea.

Providing transport to the other airport is a requirement in the EU261 legislation, whether the delay is within the airline's control or not, unless you opt for a later flight voluntarily.  My understanding is that BA^» (British Airways - about)'s standard policy is to refund the reasonable cost of reaching the alternative airport (i.e. the tube/DLR^▸ (Docklands Light Railway) fare on a normal day, or a taxi where there is no public transport).

The EU261 regulations also require re-routing, regardless of delay cause.  In practice, you'll only be booked on an alternative carrier if there are no flights on the same or next day.  And then you'll likely only be offered a oneworld flight (in the case of BA).  Even the likes of Ryanair, although not part of an alliance, will only book on certain airlines (easyJet, Jet2, Vueling, CityJet, Aer Lingus, Norwegian and Eurowings, for reference).

You actually get a lot more rights as an air traveller (on journeys covered by EU261) than a rail passenger.  Things like food and drink, telephone calls, hotels and transport are all a legal right, regardless of the cause of delay.

Experience suggests BA will allow hand baggage to be checked in before security free of charge (not advertised).  They even have a "hand bag drop" desk at LHR T5, you just have to know about it to realise what it's for

Provided the ATM uses the chip (instead of the magnetic stripe), then yes, it will reset the counter.  Virtually all ATMs in the UK^▸ (United Kingdom) will read the chip.

I haven't had a chance to test whether an online banking card reader would reset the counter.  I will give that a go at some point in the future.

Also, I haven't had a chance to test whether the card can still be used on TfL^» (Transport for London - about) services when you are on the 10th transaction.  I know they don't count towards the 10 as no transaction is registered on the card.  The Nationwide card cannot be read by my phone after the 9th transaction, so I am unsure whether the Oyster^▸ (Smartcard system used by passengers on Transport for London services) readers would be able to read it.

It depends on what's programmed into the card by the issuer.

My Halifax card allows dozens of contactless transactions before requesting a PIN - I think it may have a monetary value instead of a transaction counter.  Whereas the Nationwide consistently requires a PIN on the 10th consecutive contactless transaction.  Any non-contactless transaction resets this counter.

Break of journey is always allowed unless specified in the restrictions.  As you say, 9A does not have this restriction.  Annoyingly, the wording was made less clear in the new NRCoT (compared to NRCoC^▸ (National Rail Conditions of Carriage)), but the same still applies.

I would suggest going armed with a copy of 9A (just in case) and hope that the ticket gets issued in a format on which the restriction code is printed.  I did (last week) hear one of those annoying "off peak tickets are not valid on this service"  at Reading, but hopefully the on-train staff will be more knowledgeable to the restrictions.  If you see any on-train staff, that is.  Made it from Ash to Redland (and back), total of 6 trains over a period of 3 hours each way, without seeing any on-board staff and with no-one checking my ticket at all.

It would appear, IMHO^▸ (in my humble opinion), that this ticket has been allocated the wrong restriction code.  But that's not your problem, it's Greater Anglia and GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway)'s issue.

I wonder if the TOC^▸ (Train Operating Company) will be using their byelaw powers to recover the costs of removing the vehicles and/or prosecuting for obstructing the car park?

There's actually quite a few YouTube videos of this:
Leicester University - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=upgVoZKvP3M
Vienna City Hall - https://youtu.be/bCmGz8zgGJc?t=90 (sign says something like "get off, last floor"

New TVMs^▸ (Ticket Vending Machine) installed at some Great Northern stations have a QR^▸ (QR Code - Quick Response code) code scanner above the touchscreen.  As I can see, this serves no purpose at the moment.  I understand that the new app based railcards include a QR code.  I could see this possibly being used as an authentication measure at some point in the future.

Also, on-train QR code checking will become more common (tickets issued on rolls of paper, and some tickets from ticket machines already include a QR code), so I would think checking of the app railcard's barcode could become part of this process.

In the case of the 16-25 railcard, a three year purchase is not available in the final two years of eligibility.  So regardless of whether you buy one or three year versions, the latest you can keep the card is the day before your 27th birthday (except for students).

Oops    Only just saw the news story today.

There is an article on MoneySavingExpert about speculation of a 26-30 railcard being trialled by Greater Anglia (see https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/travel/2017/10/new-26-30-railcard-to-be-trialled-from-december).

As someone who is in this age group and doesn't travel by train much now due to the cost, I'm rather supportive, but it will just delay my lack of usage by another few years.

I'm also concerned about the digital only aspect of the card.  Great for short journeys, not ideal for a longer journey where you may runout of charge.

There are indeed cheap fares, I've just booked one for December.

Had to do a bit of work with the booking engine (Red Spotted Hanky, redeeming my Tesco vouchers) to get it though.  It offered the following itinerary on the 08:25 from Ash at £57.00 advance:

Ash - Reading 08:25-09:00
Reading - Bristol Parkway 09:11-10:04
Bristol Parkway - Bristol Temple Meads 10:12-10:24

But, specifying "avoid Bristol Parkway", I managed to get the following at £11.50:

Ash - Reading 08:25-09:00
Reading - Bristol Temple Meads 09:29-10:43

I'm happy to delay myself by 19 minutes to save £45.50, and also reduce the number of changes.  Presumably the cheapest fare is still available because most people don't know to add an avoid to the search.

I had exactly the same issue at Ely last year, except the member of staff wouldn't budge on anything but selling me a new single.  He didn't seem to understand what I wanted by an "excess fare", despite me seeing a "Excess Fare" button on his computer screen 

Managed to get the zero fare from the East Midlands Trains conductor on my next connection, who was rather helpful.  Turned out it's the first time he'd ever issued a ticket to Berney Arms.  Sadly the train (one of two per day) was cancelled so I never made it there.

I've moved house (yet, again) back into GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) territory.  I'm currently looking for advance fares from Ash (or Ash Vale) to Bristol Temple Meads.

Selecting origin Ash gives advance fares starting at £11.50.  North Camp gives the same fare.

But choose Ash Vale and the fare is £12.00.  Only difference in the itinerary: "Walk from Ash Vale to North Camp".  A 50p  charge to walk under your own steam.

I wonder if there is any logic to this?

Photographs on Twitter today of armed officers on-board trains: https://twitter.com/elliotwagland/status/867749792084099072

I can't help but think the size of the weapon is totally inappropriate for the limited space in which they are working.

Personally, I find the thought of police with machine guns on-board trains to be more worrying than the minute risk of a terrorist attack.  Without putting officers on every train, what's the chance of a police officer being on the same train as a terrorist?