Is it a tactile sign?  If so I assume it is so vision-impaired people know where to find the loo and the sink. 

The tanks concerned, DOT-111 tanks, are known (by NTSB, the regulator) to have poor safety performance and be at risk of rupture in a crash.  Money and tightening of regulations may well be needed even of the brakes are not the real issue.

I think I have confused you with my incorrect terminology.  By "west" I meant the local services around Bristol (as opposed to Thames valley).  Ticket almost always checked on these trains by lively engaged staff.  The HSS services I used are Bath-London and occasionally Cardiff-London and these services are almost always unchecked.  West of Tauton, I have insufficient data to comment on high or low speed services. 

The contrast between local "west services" and HSSs^▸ (High Speed Services) is noticeable.  Almost always checked on the former and never on the latter.  Is GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) not able to manage/incentivise its staff to do their jobs? 

I don't think our railways are the envy of Europe, but they are a long way from being the worse in Europe (except perhaps for walk-up ticket prices).  Have recently used DSB (Denmark) and experienced delays as the norm, lack of information, graffiti over many train windows and one DMU^▸ (Diesel Multiple Unit) which caught fire. 

I have been checked on my semi-regular Bath-Paddington morning peak service only perhaps 5% of the time in the last year.  I complemented the Guard on doing her job my last trip when she asked for my ticket.  She told me it her Polish father was to blame for instilling a work ethic into her.   

I know this will upset many, but I can't help feeling that the majority of Guards on the HSTs^▸ (High Speed Train) are simply too lazy to do their ticket checks.  Their laziness undermines the economic and customer service arguments for retaining the guard's role.   

As I understand it the train was an HST^▸ (High Speed Train) and the disabled space was in first class because the disabled coach was missing from standard.  GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) are of course 100% responsible for giving up on properly maintaining their HST sets. 

Made worse I expect by running diesel trains in the tunnel which chuck out acidic gases

Maybe they just need to stop offering advanced fares once the journey has begun just like better-run franchises do. 

There have been occasions where I have felt unsafe on a bus (both a FGW^▸ (First Great Western) rail replacement and a National Express coach to Heathrow booked during rail engineering work) due to dreadfully low standards of driving.  Whilst there are no doubt some excellent coach drivers out there, the general standard is pretty low.  Rail replacement buses do seem to scrape the bottom of the barrel in terms of the quality of vehicles and drivers used.  I find First is especially bad for this being keen as they are to use vehicles and drivers from their generally poorly run bus companies.  

If I was in charge, I'd continue/restart the GWML^▸ (Great Western Main Line) electrification programme (at a much slower rate over 10 to 15 years which the funders and engineers could cope with better) to Swansea first then, W-S-M, then Taunton, then Exeter.

During that time I'd use some off-lease HSTs^▸ (High Speed Train) to boost capacity and comfort on XC^▸ (Cross Country Trains (franchise)).

In 10 years time, I'd start replacing some of our 5-car IEP^▸ (Intercity Express Program / Project.) trains with 9 car all electric models capable of 135/140 mph under new signalling on the basis that 5 car trains are and always have been stupid on main line trunk services, and cascade the 5 car IEPs to cross country where their bimode capabilities could be used and they would be a step up in terms of capacity and quality (and maybe speed on the electric bits) from the Voyagers.  The Voyagers could live out their final days before scrapping on secondary XC routes (Cardiff-Derby) and on interregional services like the Welsh marches lines.  Once GWML electrification had been completed at least to Swansea and Exeter (both ways), I would start picking off gaps in the wires on XC routes  starting with Cardiff-Derby (allowing Voyagers to be scrapped), and finishing up with Birmingham to Plymouth and Edinburgh to Aberdeen getting wires in 30 years time in time for the IEPs to be retired. 

IMHO^▸ (in my humble opinion), the blame here lies not with companies but individual managers who are simply not up to the job.  In BR^▸ (British Rail(ways)) days there were successes and failures and that wasn't due to the ownership structure but whether the people in charge of the project were good at their job or not.  The problem with the railway seems to be that it has too many places for incompetents to hide.  Both the private and public sectors have ways of winkling those incompetents out.  Trouble is the private sector performance management techniques are not used because the companies concerned are in theory private and the private sector mechanism for weeding out bad managers (their company going bust) doesn't happen either.  

agree with all of that.  Once we have fully moved to smart ticketing, you could abandon seasons completely and simply use the technology to allow a modest discount to frequent users. 

Carnets are good but they are only a good idea because they correct a perceived unfairness/imbalance caused by the current imbalance in price between seasons and walk up fares.  If we simplified the current system to remove the effective subsidy of those on season tickets, the need for carnets would disappear.