My season ticket request went in on 20th April, and nothing yet apart from the 'still processing' email.  Agreed that more communication would be good - even info about the numbers of claims received and handled so far would give some context and some sense of progress.

I think it's also worth noting that the airlines and supermarket being held up as examples of good customer service (which they are) are all companies that are well-known for being far from the cheapest in their respective markets - in fact, one of the top suggested questions Google comes up with for all three airlines is "Why is X so expensive?"!

I do like my tea strong, but possibly not so strong that it's sliceable

Unfortunately, the GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) app & website said it was restarting at 0835, not 0823 (and still says that now), so I got to Shipton 5 mins before it was due there (0906 - the platform display agreed) but 5 minutes after it actually stopped there according to the workmen on the platform. There's really not much point running an extra train if you're going to run it 10 minutes or so before you're advertising it. If I'd known, I'd have gone via Kingham or Charlbury, but I've now missed two trains from there thanks to the incorrect info.

Other countries (e.g. Switzerland, Germany) appear to be able to cope with the idea of railcards available to all - at differing levels of discount in both of those places (e.g. it looks like Germany offers 25%, 50% or 100%).  There are sums to be done to make sure that it's revenue-neutral (or, ideally, gathers extra revenue) but it's possible to do so. 

No doubt if were introduced here, it would have so many restrictions and easements applied that the rules would be almost completely incomprehensible...

The screens at Kingham yesterday & today still seemed to think it should be 06:20.  Luckily, I don't need to catch it tomorrow!  I'll be very glad if it reverts to 06:23 - three minutes more in bed is important to me at that time in the morning, and much to be preferred to spending an extra three minutes sitting at Charlbury waiting for the line to clear.

I'm afraid I've no useful information to impart about this, I just wanted to thank you for flagging this up!  If I hadn't seen the post above, I'd have arrived just in time for the 0623 on Wednesday & quite possibly missed the now slightly earlier train. 

True to form, yesterday's train then waited at Charlbury for the single line again.  No wait at Charlbury this morning, but that's because it was already 7 minutes late when it left Kingham 

It was a little crowded on the platform - now three train loads of people on the 1725, which unsurprisingly took a little time to load. Going to be interesting for people trying to get to the right door for the shorter platforms with this many people standing.

The 1421 from Paddington ground to a halt just past Wolvercote Junction: broken horn means it's now proceeding at caution and will probably terminate at Moreton-in-Marsh.

In general terms, I'd agree with this.  However, this particular problem is one that I've repeatedly heard people ask the Cotswold Line train managers questions about, since the beginning of January.  When people have grown used to HSTs^▸ (High Speed Train) and 180s, having to spend 90+ mins on 3+2 seating with inadequate heating instead is something that they don't tend to accept silently the first time it happens.  You can imagine the state some have got themselves into after being stuck with Turbos for over a month now - those who can, have changed their commute time, but that's just not an option for everyone.

Or the 'Please stand well away from the platform edge.  This train is not scheduled to stop here.' announcement just after a HST^▸ (High Speed Train) whistles through the station.

Snug was not quite the word that sprang to mind (and, yes, it was delayed at Wolvercote Jn).  In carriage A, there were at least a couple of people who were on the phone to arrange to be picked up from Charlbury as there was little chance of them getting through to carriage C to get off at Hanborough.

According to the Train Manager, there was a signal not working at the Bruern Crossing, so trains were being talked across on caution.

What quantity of extra stock are we talking about here?  The numbers that would ideally be added for the public holidays are of a completely different order to those for the sporting events - though I'm not denying that any number of extra carriages would be handy.  (And other events omitted could well include the other smaller music festivals that happen all over the place in the summer - there seem to be at least four every year along the Cotswold Line, causing minor chaos & delays there). 

The other significant issue is pathing these trains.  At most of the biggest flows, there's little or no capacity for extra trains to run - though, again, with a bit more rolling stock available, some of the existing trains could be lengthened without having to cannibalize other services.

Thank you - it's useful to have some understanding of why we get such confusing messages.  It's particularly annoying to sit at a station along the line and watch the GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) app reporting on your train's progress along the line, when you know full well that nothing's come past!