Presumably the reduction to an hourly service is to save fuel rather than due to a lack of time to make 2 trips per hour.  The train normally only uses the points at the start and end of the day so there's effectively no change at other times.

It seems rather a shame to assume everyone will react like that based on one poor experience. Surely there have been other times when an offer of help or a seat has been gratefully accepted, or politely turned down?  I certainly see it a lot in London. I tend to offer a careful choice along the lines of - "Would you like some help or are you okay?"

Those GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) documents (just use the rotate button on your pdf reader if you don't want a stiff neck!) are very big on the consequences of avoiding buying a ticket, but far less helpful where for all sorts of reasons the passenger cannot buy the ticket they want.  It would be far clearer if they said what to do if you needed something the machine couldn't handle (Group save, a different payment method, a ticket type not shown, an excess/extension of some sort etc).  I know the machines barely exist now, but I do particularly like the bit about Permit to Travel machines where it says you should "insert the maximum amount of coins that you have".  Can't I keep even one 10p piece for an emergency phone call?

I was briefly baffled by there being an overcrowding problem on late evening trains until I realized that 2020 was the year not the time...

BOJ is far clunkier than you might think and relies on a matrix of valid origin/destination pairs specific to that station being supplied to the gate. It doesn't do anything clever with Journey Planner data or similar, and also has a fairly low limit on the number of stations which can be stored. All this means that some fairly logical journeys will not be given BOJ by the gate, so gateline staff have to intervene...

Contrary to what the Standard claims, a SPAD^▸ (Signal Passed At Danger) is highly unlikely to derail a train as the signal positions are designed such that the train will be stopped automatically short of any danger.  It does seem that LU are ignoring the process they themselves have in place relating to trainees who have problems during their training. It may well be that this trainee does prove not suitable to be a driver but LU shouldn't be trying to circumvent the agreed process. It may for instance actually reflect shortcomings on the part of the trainer.

I've coincidentally just found a 1992 map in a jacket I rarely wear. Its title of "Journey planner" was much derided at the time, but it could actually be used for that purpose as it showed Thameslink across central London plus the Great Northern Finsbury Park-Moorgate. I've no idea what TfL^» (Transport for London - about) now think people use the Tube map for, but it's apparently no longer intended for journey planning.

Highly recommended, although its location in a modern unit on a retail/leisure estate by a busy dual carriageway is a little disconcerting.

In my experience the Go-Ahead group generally seem rather better than other large bus groups at allowing the local management to get on with their jobs in the way best suited to the local area, with the support of a larger organization when necessary.

Go-Ahead generally seem good at buying well-run companies and broadly giving the management the flexibility and authority to carry on doing what they were doing well but with the backing of a larger organisation. It's often hard to tell that anything has changed, unlike say First or Stagecoach who immediately apply the corporate livery and style.  Carousel in High Wycombe and Metrobus in Crawley spring to mind. It looks as though this may be a little different.

Chiltern may look good to the outsider or the longer-distance traveller, but they have made few real improvements for local journeys south of Bicester. The frequency of service to many stations is no better than 40 years ago and any shorter journey times are only to avoid the local trains delaying their lucrative Birmingham and Bicester Village services. Without the requirements of the franchise they would have closed a number of stations long ago.

"There is no free car parking available, so we are suggesting you use the pay and display car parks/multi storey...". Or just arrive by train or bus?!

If he had as much railway experience as is being reported he would have been very aware of the risks involved in leaning out of a train window.  I would question the police assessment that his death was not suspicious.

Surely a few minutes allowance is realistic at the end of a 300 mile journey and gives a more dependable arrival time?

You have of course always been able to change your plans, get no refund on the Advance ticket and buy the cheapest walk-up fare applicable at the time of travel, provided you bought the ticket before getting on the train. The only change is that you can now take any train the same day and hope not to get charged extra, without any risk of penalty fare/prosecution; you could even intentionally buy a ticket for a cheaper time of travel and claim to have changed your mind or made a mistake, if you know that you are unlikely to have your ticket checked on the journey you are making.

The excuse that it's to avoid penalising anyone who makes a genuine mistake is a bit hard to understand as Advance tickets have the train time printed on them. If the ruling actually applies to all tickets issued in advance with the myriad time restrictions applicable but valid on a number of trains then it would perhaps make rather more sense.

What is also needed, particularly on lines with a frequent service, is some flexibility at less busy times.  I'm thinking particularly of a journey from Wareham to London on a quiet Tuesday late morning, where I turned up in good time to avoid missing the booked train and had to watch the previous train leave empty as I wasn't booked on it.  You could say that's just the downside of buying a cheap ticket, but it would have cost the TOC^▸ (Train Operating Company) nothing to allow me to travel and they would have made their "product" more attractive with no extra outlay.