It's not always as clear cut as that. We often faced this problem where I worked in a different industry but you have to weigh up the impact of the supplier going bust, losing key staff etc against continuing to support them. In my instance in the broadcast industry there were instances where we chose not to enforce the contract to the letter as it would put the supplier out of business and the loss of several years work. Even where we owned the IP getting a new supplier up to speed would be time consuming, expensive and increase the risk. It was an approach that was new to me but it could make sense and in some instances really helped on collaborative working.

Admittedly though the Scottish Government does not have a great record on ferries.

My nephew caught the service the next day and toilets all working. He was also quite impressed with the service generally although he's not a great train traveller so probably not too much to compare it to.

As Mayor he was quite into devolution for the English regions. Moving funding and policy away from the centre which would probably be good for some areas. I suspect though once he's in power that will all be quietly forgotten as it means given up control.

A friend who does have an allotment hadn't heard anything which suggests they might be.

I'm struggling to think where a new car park could go though. Allotments on one side, houses on another and the only open spaces nearby are playing fields and a Wildlife Trust reserve both of which I think would cause suitable levels of outrage if they were built on.

I did have to go back to Twyford for the first time in a couple of years and it was quite a surprise to see how far out the yellow lines had pushed commuters but also it felt quite challenging navigating all the parked cars. Pushing them to the village outskirts meant traffic speeds were that much higher along with some blind corners I'm surprised there's not more pictures of damaged cars on the local Facebook page.

I haven't travelled much overseas recently (well not at all...) but is the provision of information better when things go wrong?

My last couple of trips West Wales to South East England all had issues but it was the lack of information that frustrated me most.

A fire near Bristol closed all the lines to Cardiff yesterday afternoon (22nd).

This reminded me why I stopped using the train and really don't miss commuting.

I understand things go wrong but it's still frustrating to see that the train companies and/or network rail are still not able to communicate to customers.

Sitting on a train at Reading there was a delay but the train then left with assurances from on board staff it was going to Cardiff. Off course it was terminated early at Bristol and checking the website it had variously been cancelled, delayed, left 3 mins late (not the 30 it did). It was also apparent there were no trains getting through. At Bristol everyone was told to go to Gloucester. While that might have looked good on paper I'm not sure having several intercities worth of people stuck at Gloucester waiting for an already crowded 2 carriage Transport for Wales train was a great idea. Several trains later I managed to find a standing spot on a rammed 3 carriage train. This was then terminated early at Newport with an announcement to pick up the waiting services at platform 2.These of course were all cancelled and then the one train that eventually arrived was too crowded to board. Distinct lack of staff at any of the stations as well apart from various GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) train crew also trying to get home who were having to face a lot of angry people.

Interestingly at Gloucester I ended up next to a Network Rail person who was unaware of any delays - worked at HQ^▸ (HeadQuarters) but chatting to him he saw the problems in quite abstract terms and could see nothing wrong with sending people to x,y,z as the routes all aligned. Seemed surprised when I mentioned lack of information and sevre over crowding. Now not a very representative sample but my previous experience with Network Rail has shown great engineers but no customer focus.

And why do I have to create a separate account for delay/repay?

Anyway rant over.

I think the problem is that there's not a whole lot of options. It was an on going issue when I moved to Twyford in the mid 90s and the proposed solutions don't seem to have changed other than double yellow lines keep pushing the problem further out. There's also a lot more passengers - almost doubled since 1997.

I can't see most commuters switching to buses because of the catchment area and I suspect most would prefer to sit in traffic in their car than on a bus that they've just waited 30 mins for.

The only real option would be to improve the carpark which means building on the allotments which may not even be an option anyway.

I bought 600l of heating oil 10 days ago for 56p a litre. Current quote is well over 100p a litre. The local facebook page also has people complaining that some suppliers have been trying to put prices up on existing orders and threatening to cancel them if they don't agree.

Interesting to see St Clears is still being talked about although that's all it seems to be. A bit too much of the document seemed to be a wish list.

From a practical point of view I would have a new local station although I suspect it will be change at Carmarthen for most destinations. I do wonder where the station would actually go though as the train line is on the edge of the village and I can't see any obvious places for a station in the village itself. If it is a 'new build' out of town then I can see that creating a lot of different problems and I'd wonder how useful a station that you need to drive to would be considering the likely limited service? I'd probably stick to going to Carmarthen.

Without trying to delve into politics my first thought on reading about this is that it was a bit light on dates and actual commitment and will probably not get built.

Not railway specific but here in West Wales we're seeing areas being flooded that haven't flooded before. The local farmers who have been here ages say its never been this bad but I'm not sure human memory is that reliable. I think seeing roads blocked and parts of towns and villages under water that haven't been flooded before is probably a better indicator.

Subjectively based on being here for several years each year seems to be getting wetter. More and more rain but the lack of dry periods means the water table isn't emptying out which makes things worse. We also seem to have numerous amber/yellow flood warnings that I don't remember but that might just be better comms/more awareness.

Rainfall seems to be at or close to record levels (apart from where there's a hosepipe ban!) but there's also more concrete and houses so less places for it to go.

I think this is probably what climate change looks like - the seasons blurring into one another rather than us growing Olive trees and grapes instead of leeks and potatoes.

And most of them are bilingual here in Carmarthen so twice the information

Having just started to look at getting back in the job market most companies now seem to offering flexible working with the expectation you're in the office 3 days a week. A couple offer remote working but they've been for fairly niche or geographically diverse roles that I suspect would have offered something similar pre-covid.

One of the reasons in the past for not putting in a bigger or double decker carpark (apart from cost) is apparently it would need to take some land from the allotments which are next to it. That creates a whole set of different problems and a different group of people who will get very upset.

I'm also not sure extra buses or a park and ride are the answer as much of the traffic is quite early/late - before 8am or after 7Pm and even at every 30 mins I just can't see people wanting to wait especially as the Elisabeth line has drawn in commuters from quite a wide catchment area.

The car park seems the best solution although access to the station is through some quite narrow and crowded roads on one side at least and not sure there's capacity for more cars.

It's possibly that old adage "you wouldn't build it here" if you were starting anew.

Having learnt to drive at a mature age and then almost immediately been ill for a long time I never quite got that period where you pass your test and then drive at every opportunity. Means I'm a very nervous and reluctant driver.

I also wonder that as someone who recently passed their test am I more aware of other people's bad driving? Amazing the number of people who don't indicate, block roads, box junctions and so on. I watched some of the driving/parking near our local supermarket and maybe my driving isn't so bad 

I don't drive on motorways though but that's mainly because I've really not mastered slip roads but again I don't seem to be alone in that. The number of drivers who seem to think they have right of way joining motorways/dual carriageways is quite scary.