Thanks for the heads up.  I have added it to the forum calendar.

Ticket prices:
Adults £20
Children 4-15 £10
Group (2 adults + 2 children or 1 adult + 3 children) £45
VIP Tour £70

There is also a payment card fee.  For one adult ticket, it comes up as 52p for a Visa Credit, 30p for a Mastercard Credit, 24p for Mastercard Debit and 24p for Visa Debit.  Oddly, it is 25p for a foreign issued Mastercard Debit.

http://oocopenday.com/tickets.html

Welcome to the forum.  There is a placeholder website at http://oocopenday.com/, but no opportunity to purchase tickets yet.

I am sure there will be a contignent of Coffee Shop members attending.  I plan on going, but will have to double check my diary nearer the time (it potentially clashes with travel to a conference).

It seems any of the First Group websites are best at the moment, since you earn Nectar points.  GWR sometimes offer discounts on their own Advance fares.  For journeys involving other TOCs^▸ (Train Operating Company), it is worth checking out their website(s) too for specific discounts.

As for debit card, there is no credit card fee (on GWR anyway), so it doesn't really matter which card you use.  A cashback credit card may be the best, if you have one.

I just came across this myself on a slightly different journey.

For the journey grahame quoted above, the fare offered is a Anytime Day Single (Route Not Via Bristol) at £17.10.

The booking engine doesn't offer a berth.  Maybe there is a minimum travel distance?

Unfortunately, four years on, The Train Line powered websites are still not offering tickets for collection immediately.

Travelling to St Andrews via a bus connection from Leuchars.  As the bus element is not railcard discounted, it was cheaper to split the tickets into two: one to Leuchars and another for the bus only from Leuchars to St Andrews.

TVM^▸ (Ticket Vending Machine) at my origin (a ScotRail station) only offered tickets from that station, so bought my ticket to Leuchars only.  "ST ANDREWS BUS" was a destination I could select on that machine.

On arrival at Leuchars, ticket office was closed whilst the staff member performed other duties.  TVM (a different type of machine) did not offer "ST ANDREWS BUS", only "ST ANDREWS ROAD" (the one on the Severn Beach Line, sigh).  Bought ticket online at ScotRail website (tried GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) for the Nectar points, but they didn't offer the destination).  Ticket purchased, went to collect it.  Booking reference not found.  Gave it about 10 minutes.  No luck.

By this time, the guy from the ticket office was back behind the window.  He tried the booking reference on his computer.  Again, no luck.  Fortunately, he was able to sell the ticket I needed.

Straight on the phone to ScotRail (aka Train Line) to ask for a refund on my uncollected ticket.  Telephone operator didn't seem surprised by my predicament.  Seems like they get this situation often.  He offered to refund the ticket immediately, without needing to collect and return.

You really would think, in the year 2017, that adding data to a database and retrieving it from a machine could be done in realtime.  Obviously not.

I'm sure there will, but there is no way of proving a specific railcard holder purchased a specific ticket.  This is probably less of a problem for season ticket holders since the journey has to match that of the season.

It depends on the ticket held.  Someone who forgets a season ticket from Clifton Down to Temple Meads will be out of pocket by £2.  Whereas a railcard left at home on a Bristol to Edinburgh anytime return is £125 out of pocket.

This is definitely an important factor.  I have previously overheard senior railcard holders telling others to "share their railcards when not in use".

I've done a few day trips to Scotland in recent years (both Glasgow and Edinburgh) for business (I've been teaching a class there).

It's great to have a (reasonable) sleep in your own bed, then go back to sleep in your own bed the same night, ready for work the next day (in all cases I've been home between 9pm and 10pm).  I live alone, but if I had a family, this would be a massively important factor in the decision making.

Also cheaper to fly.  No sleeper berth needed, fewer meals out and less time spent away from the office.  Less luggage to carry*.

* = Even on day trips, I carried a change of shirt and underwear, in the unlikely event the flight was cancelled.

Regardless of what I've written above, the sleeper definitely has it's uses.  If I were making a longer business trip, I would consider using the sleeper either side.

A useful display would also be an indicator of how many seats are available in each carriage.  Weight or pressure sensors could be fitted to the seats, similar to the seatbelt warnings in some cars.

Interesting.  Have the seats themselves been changed, or just the cushions?

I notice Ryanair managed to gain an additional 1" on legroom by installing thinner seats.  It wouldn't have surprised me if TOCs^▸ (Train Operating Company) do something similar in order to fit more seats into a carriage.

I never saw the fares for citywing, but the previous operator (Links Air) were offering flights between £19 and £39.  Far too low for an airline that does not offer any upsells.

I'm taking a Loganair flight next month (for a work trip).  The journey is £75 each way and is about 2.4x the length of the Holyhead-Cardiff route, so the fare is probably similar.  This is also subsidised under a PSO.  Considering train fares (about £50-70 each way) or flights to Edinburgh (about £40 each way), if the flight were any more expensive, my employer would tell me to take the slower route and stay for another night away.  Is the subsidy actually doing anything?  No, since I need to travel there regardless of what transport options are available.  In fact, it's reducing the number of nights I would be spending in a local hotel, reducing the number of times I'll be eating out, etc.

As an aside, it is good to see citywing (or the CAA^» (Civil Aviation Authority - about), or the WAG^» (Welsh Assembly Government - about)) arranged for ticket acceptance on the railway.

No, the battery is fixed.

My phone does have a removable battery, but the slow startup process seems to consume about 10% of the battery.  I carry round a couple of USB power banks which generally provide around 90 minutes power on each.

Yes, I do.  The battery usage in my phone is high when the screen is in use.

Normally, I would charge in the car to/from work, or at work if I'm taking the bus (unless we get one of the new coaches with USB sockets at the seat).  Then again in the evening at home.

When I travel, I want my phone to be "alive" not just for the journey, but also well into the evening since I often don't have any opportunity to charge it during that time.

I could manage without, but a lot of my life is managed from there now.  My diary, notes to myself, security to access work network remotely, authentication for personal emails, banking, etc etc is all done through this one device.

Thanks for all the replies.  Good to hear that wi-fi has been fitted.  Phone signal on parts of that route were always patchy (using my "state of the art" 3G dongle back in 2008 was almost a waste of time between Bath and Romsey), so the wi-fi will be interesting.

Shame about the plug sockets.  I'll ensure my USB power banks are fully charged for the journey, since I'd like to arrive with a fully charged phone to last the rest of the afternoon and evening.

I'm travelling from Portsmouth to Cardiff next week.  Realised this will be my first journey on that route in about four and a half years.

Are the 158s still operating the route?  If so, have they been refurbished recently?  I seem to remember them starting to look a bit knackered.

Also, are there any plug sockets or wi-fi installed these days?  I know the HSTs^▸ (High Speed Train) and sleeper gained this, but doubt the "local lines" were every provisioned.