The services national express and megabus are running today are almost all running fully booked, demonstrating some demand. Most of their services are airport services today.

Aremiti 5 appears to be the vessel in question. Recently advertised for sale, and is an Austal 56m meeting all of the other specification mentioned

Hopefully an exaggeration but on a Facebook group I’ve just seen a post that Crewkerne tunnel has collapsed.
I’d assume it’s actually a landslide near the tunnel from the flooding?

Last time I went Salisbury to Portsmouth the 3 car train was full and standing with cruise passengers heading to Southampton, so not a problem unique to those up north

I don’t think he got lost as such.
A38 was shut due to truck hitting trerulefoot bridge, I was stuck on my way home from work, even on a Saturday night it managed it gridlock the diversion route- narrow lane only normally used by high sided vehicles to avoid the low bridge

Personally with Paddington closed, I’d choose via Salisbury and Clapham junction. Reading will I expect be chaotic.

(From down here in Cornwall i always choose via honiton and Clapham junction when travelling to Gatwick) personal preference

The Redruth example was the “Helston branch line” connection. The railway was selling through tickets so the railway was contractually required to ensure the service was available to those passengers.
Similar tickets were available via st Austell for mevagissey and Bodmin for padstow

Track defect shut the line for 3-4 hours. Would they have rather Avanti gambled and ran their trains over and derailed next time with the consequences that come with that?

Once I’ve applied the handbrake and switched the ignition off

I suspect morale is low all round as a workplace due to the ongoing disputes, which causes a knock on effect all round. Whenever I’ve worked somewhere with low moral I’ve found people don’t give 100%, or go above and beyond whether subconsciously or deliberate I couldn’t say.

This doesn’t apply to all staff but a considerable proportion. A few months I had an issue with some collect from TVM^▸ (Ticket Vending Machine) tickets not printing every coupon. Station staff told me to phone web support. Web support tried to talk the ticket office staff through how to rectify and reprint, and they refused to follow web support instructions as it wasn’t their job. Web support gave very clear simple instructions that even I could have followed with no knowledge of their systems.

Web support ended up supplying me an email with authority to travel without the full set of  ticket coupons.

I’m simply not booking anywhere near as much rail travel. Mileage on my car has gone up by around double this last 12 months. I’ve also used national express when suitable. I’d never used them until 2022.
When I have traveled by train it’s been an unpleasant experience. Cancellations, overcrowding.
Over 75% of my journeys have qualified for delay repay. Over 50% of those delay repays have been 100%.

Yes. FaL River, a private company ran it and contracted it to First. It was loss making so they withdrew contracting a bus.

Network rail cut a signalling cable on the Paignton line whilst carrying out maintenance

Stagecoach also has bridge alerts through the drive green system

He’s always the first one on the driving roster for heritage events too. As you say Froome it’s his passion and hobby as well as his career.

There are many others just like him. Look at many of us in the heritage bus preservation world, we are lucky enough to have day jobs in our hobby and interest. Many of my preservation friends spend their working life driving the modern stuff in service and majority of their spare time working on heritage stuff whether that’s mechanical, cosmetic or driving at rally’s and running days.
Just attend a running day event like Penzance (3rd Sunday April every year) or Isle of Wight may and October events, and look at the huge numbers of volunteers and enthusiasts to realise that buses are a huge hobby in this country.