A map with the announcement would have been easier to take in! They've definitely gone for the easy bits first, for instance stopping short of Milton Keynes and not going as far as Reading by the SWR^» (South Western Railway - about) route, or Reading-Gatwick, to avoid journeys where there is currently a choice of fare depending on whose services you use, whereas all the way to Shoeburyness is no problem. Rationalising operator or route-specific fares will involve much hand-wringing at the DfT^» (Department for Transport - about) as it might mean less income for some journeys unless the higher fare is charged which would result in negative PR^▸ (Public Relations) for the government; London-Gatwick does have it, but rather clunkily and it gives anomalies.  Interesting to recall that Chiltern nearly did PAYG^▸ (Pay as you go) all the way to Bicester around 5 years ago but this list still only gets out as far as High Wycombe.

I'm guessing the linking of Railcard and other discounts has been kicked into the long grass with the data privacy/security/fraud aspects proving too complex, and I see there's no mention of the swathe of forthcoming ticket office closures, probably in the forlorn hope that they can sneak that out a bit later.

The National Rail website also already lets you see live running info, though it's a little buried. I suspect the only revolutionary aspect of this one is telling people about it and making it easy to find, though I suspect having scanned the QR^▸ (QR Code - Quick Response code) code you still have to jump through a few hoops to get to the display shown in the article.

...and no guarantee that it won't fizzle out at the next side-turning or take me off in a different direction (up to the gates of a school for instance). One reason I rarely use cycle tracks in areas I don't know unless they are very well signposted.

Agree entirely. Being fussy, it's not in my view even a particularly good heritage railway, mostly using former 1960s DMU^▸ (Diesel Multiple Unit) trailer cars painted in a pseudo-heritage style. I see Greenway Halt is also no longer served; I've used that previously to visit Agatha Christie's house which made for a great day out.

On the other hand they're making a go of it so perhaps I should just accept that their approach works for some people.

...and in the absence of any specific statement to the contrary, best to take the exclusion of London Underground at face value and assume that it's not even valid on the bits that other NR^» (Network Rail - home page)-only tickets are accepted on for specific journeys (Baker St-Amersham, Tower Hill-Upminster etc).  Chances are any revenue or station staff you encounter won't be sure either (though some may claim to know and refuse to budge!), but it's really not worth opening that can of worms.

A fun thing to use and the flexibility apart from a few time restrictions is handy, but I'd say you really do need to enjoy rail travel and make at least one long journey each day for it to pay for itself. If this leads anywhere we'll be following the week with interest!

Off to visit the Swanage Railway tomorrow, so here's hoping things are sorted by then.

Was the Alton-Winchester line ever double track?  Maybe my view of it is skewed by seeing it now only with its heritage operation, but it always strikes me as a sleepy branch line that happened to form a through route. Unless it could have supported itself with fairly local traffic, the money needed to turn it into a viable main line and keep it that way over the years would probably have been better spent elsewhere, say on maintaining the current SW main line.  I don't know Winchester well, but it strikes me as the sort of place that would suffer from road traffic congestion so the rail link would now be seen as useful, but sadly the time has passed.

I still struggle to see why local government is nearly always organised on party lines. The services they organise really needn't be defined by political beliefs, and it becomes doubly illogical when people vote based on how a party is governing nationally rather than on proposed local policies.

I'd be interested to see the figures behind the claim on the petition page that "Scrapping Day TravelCards could cost YOU an extra £9.30".  It will vary greatly by each person's mix of journeys, where they change to LU and so on. It's true that many people will pay more than they currently do, but the add-on to the London Terminals price isn't fixed so far as I know, and some people do buy Travelcards when it would be cheaper not to.

It's also worth noting that the proposal applies only to Day Travelcards, not weekly and longer period ones, though far fewer people are buying these now of course thanks to working from home, and TfL^» (Transport for London - about) have refused to join in with the Flexiseason scheme which would help. They may be hoping that period Travelcards will just die a natural death.

I'd say yes if it keeps the kid quiet!

...which is sort of irrelevant as the main aim (despite the media focus on high speeds resulting from calling it HS2^▸ (The next High Speed line(s))) is to take much of the long-distance traffic off the West Coast Main Line to make more room for freight and shorter distance passengers. Trouble is if the journey from central London by HS2 takes about as long and is less straightforward, which it will be if you have to head out to Old Oak Common first, most people will still prefer to use the existing route from Euston rendering HS2 all but pointless.

Times are already aligned for (contactless) pay as you go fares as far out as Reading.  Real ticket times vary - often to the passenger's benefit - by specific journey so there isn't a simple blanket timeband. Many longer distance tickets via London are valid at all times on all trains, and even for example an Off Peak Day Return from Didcot to Paddington can apparently be used to leave London on most evening peak trains, though bizarrely not on the slowest ones.  Checking ahead by planning a journey for 22 May on the National Rail website the same seems to apply then.

It would be good to know exactly what GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) have said (or was it from another source?) as it looks oversimplified.  Some gateline staff at Paddington I gather do try to enforce a simple rule when a ticket is rejected, as they have neither the tools nor the training to deal with the full complexity, and the gates themselves are limited in what they have been or can be programmed to do.

Me neither. I don't like the way the ball dodges out of the way when you try to hit it.

Denham Golf Club (the club rather than the station) has recently upgraded the access path onto the course from Denham Golf Club station, though they still don't seem to be actively promoting it.  They don't give directions by public transport on their website and the only mention of the station is a warning to avoid car satnavs sending you to it.  I did once come across a golfer arriving by train, but it's very rare and not encouraged by the poor train service.  The name is a nice historical quirk but the station really should have been renamed Higher Denham long ago, perhaps at the same time as one of Chiltern's renamings of their station at Wembley, or the Bicester Town/Village change.

Either the people who run the East Lancs Railway are complete idiots or there is more to this than we're being told.  I really can't work out which though.

Grahame really ought to work for the DfT^» (Department for Transport - about) in their PR^▸ (Public Relations) department! That's a marvellous way to spin it, but to my way of looking, it's a 66% reduction on any single day, giving far less flexibility in choice of travel time on that day though admittedly an overnight stay is now an option.