Unlikely. Newcourt station is 0.7 miles / 15 minutes on foot from the Exe Vale Tesco Extra. They hold leases on various parcels of land in the vicinity and recently stopped, I am told, a new 'pound shop' selling foodstuffs.

Given the demographic of the Newcourt station catchment it might be suggested that having a TVM^▸ (Ticket Vending Machine) which accepts cash is not very sensible.

I am a reasonably regular user of the Eurostar service - all our European trips use the train for the vast majority of longer distance travel.

I think the criticism of the UK^▸ (United Kingdom) Borders Agency is completely unwarranted, believing that they are merely the delivery team for UK government policy - a policy with which I happen to strongly agree -  who usually do a pretty good job. Recent returns from both Paris & Brussels included departure station passport checks which lasted no more than a couple of minutes. The baggage scans were very quick as well.

Speaking personally I regard the view that trans-European rail travel will only work for journeys of up to around 4 hours as wrong - if I could catch a direct service from London to Barcelona I would be delighted to do so because I love just watching the varied scenery roll past while enjoying a drop of fermented grape juice and/or reading a good book; the novelty of airports and then having to play 'I spy with my little eye something beginning with C' for virtually the whole journey was lost on me a long time ago.   

Digby & Sowton station will quite happily accommodate 4-car DMUs^▸ (Diesel Multiple Unit) with some room still to spare; I think the usable platform length is just over 100m.

For absolutely top drawer fish n' chips I reckon the Tolcarne Inn, Newlyn would take some beating.

Bit of a hike from Penzance railway station, although weather permitting it would a nice boat trip.

SWMBO^▸ (She Who Must Be Obeyed) and I were returning home on the 1746 SWT^▸ (South West Trains) service from Woking (1715 ex-Waterloo) and all went swimmingly until just east of Yeovil Junction where we were held for a while until a platform became available. Once platformed there was a further c.10 minute wait for an eastbound service to clear the single line from Crewekerne / Axminster. Following a good run to Axminster there was a further significant stop at AXM West Junction for another eastbound SWT service and also what was described as congestion at Honiton. Arrived at EXC about 2120 so I reckon we are due a 50% refund for the one hour late arrival back at Digby & Sowton.

FGW^▸ (First Great Western) please note: The SWT train manager provided regular, pretty accurate, updates on the situation.

http://www.iea.org.uk/in-the-media/press-release/converting-commuter-railways-to-busways-could-save-passengers-40-in-fares

They obviously haven't realised this is old news - the same nonsense (personal opinion alert!) has been peddled in the past by people and organisations such as John Redwood MP^▸ (Member of Parliament) & the Institute of Directors. Perhaps the authors should pay a visit to Cambridge.

Some of this stuff SEEMS to be completely bonkers...my eldest son is travelling from London to Hong Kong in March with BA^» (British Airways - about) but saves himself c. ^150 by catching the Eurostar to Paris, staying overnight and then taking a connecting BA flight back to Thiefrow the following morning. 

The Bristol Post is of course quite correct - cattle never get a seat under any circumstances. 

Somewhat surprisingly, it seems that nobody has yet asked if travelling on one of these vehicles results in motion sickness.

Bet they don't publicise this outside Exeter St. Davids:

http://www.exeterexpressandecho.co.uk/Flybe-pilot-arrested-suspicion-drink-drive-limit/story-23774544-detail/story.html

I think I know the answer to this, but would be grateful for input from the many ticketing experts on the forum.

Today my wife travelled from Digby & Sowton (DIG) to Exeter Central (EXC) on the 11:10 departure. A return journey was always intended. On her arrival at DIG, at 11:05, there were 3 people in the queue for the TVM^▸ (Ticket Vending Machine) and, because they all used cards rather than cash, she boarded the train without a ticket. During the journey the guard did not appear (it was a 4 coach train and he was in the other unit). On arrival at EXC my wife approached the gateline staff and asked for a return DIG-EXC ticket. She was asked if the TVM at DIG was not working but explained this was not the case but that there was a queue which would have caused her to miss the train if she had waited. The gateline operator charged her ^3.10, the Anytime return fare, rather than the Off-Peak ^2.80, which is what I would have expected, at the same time saying 'you could have got a penalty fare'. When my wife queried the amount she was told that 'this is the price you have to pay if you buy the ticket at Central Station'.

I don't think this is correct - it should surely have been just ^2.80 (if he accepted my wife's explanation) or a ^20 penalty fare if he decided to play hardball.

I am not overly interested in the actual cost - it is the possibility that FGW^▸ (First Great Western) staff are 'making it up on the hoof' that concerns me more.
     

Basset...correct answer - that didn't take very long! The interior of Keleti is looking somewhat tatty but, in my view, the building itself is an absolutely wonderful bit of architecture.

(As per above note from Bignosemac, a few more pics to follow when I can get my PC to behave itself).

A few pictures taken during part of a splendid holiday jaunt across Europe between the 1st & 13th September. Given the time available we decided to fly outbound but the entire journey back home to Exeter was done using trains. Can you name these stations?

1.

(Moderator note: More pictures to come once uploading and attaching issues have been sorted. bignosemac)

Having just (Saturday 13/09) returned home from an excellent 12-day trip across Europe using trains, including one sleeper, for the entire return journey - we used Easyjet to get to our starting point and I was singularly unimpressed - I regard this as extremely disappointing news.