They're struggling with demand and also with the age of their fleet of trains. A roundup from Chiltern on this link.

Mark

https://www.chilternrailways.co.uk/capacity-challenges-2025

Going back to route knowledge in 2021 60+ Bristol drivers used to sign Newport Hereford Oxford and Didcot as well as Worcester to Cheltenham. From next month that will be zero.

It used to be only the top link at Oxford signed the North Cotswolds, I don't know if that has changed since I finished.  The Worcester HSS^▸ (High Speed Services) drivers haven't been replaced as retirements occur. Again I don't know if there has been changes since retiring but the GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) drivers only signed Hereford to Oxford whilst HSS did Paddington to Oxford, Didcot to Worcester via Kemble and Standish to Bristol Parkway.

So there will be shortages from the timetable change.

A bit more about the Railway Clearing House

Text said to be from 1935 at https://www.railwaywondersoftheworld.com/clearing-house.html

From The Metro

Priority seats on London's buses and Underground will be more clearly labelled, Transport for London (TfL^» (Transport for London - about)) has said.

The transport body has redesigned its seating to have a greater colour contrast and with "This is a priority seat" signs on them. It will be added to new DLR^▸ (Docklands Light Railway) and Piccadilly trains, as well as on refurbished Central and Waterloo and City line trains.

Seb Dance, deputy mayor for transport, is also asking Londoners to offer their seat to "those who may need it more than them".

TfL has said some customers who need to sit down may not always have a "please offer me a seat" badge or Sunflower lanyard. It said its new seat design matched the appearance of "please offer me a seat" badges and the Government's Blue Badge scheme, and aligned with the priority seating design already in place on the Jubilee line.

Allison Peter, deputy chair of TfL's independent Disability Advisory Group, said: "Priority seats are essential for many disabled people, including those with non-visible conditions, as well as older people. They play a vital role in enabling people to travel with confidence and stay connected in London. By looking up, offering our seat, and being mindful of non-visible disabilities, we can help to make public transport more accessible and inclusive."



Previous TfL research looked at how likely people were to get a priority seat if they needed one. It found that while many people who needed a seat got one, it was not always clear when someone needed a priority seat and people were not always paying attention to their surroundings to notice if someone needed a seat.

More than 152,000 free "please offer me a seat" badges have been issued since 2017. They can be used by people with a broad range of disabilities and conditions including chronic pain, respiratory conditions and diabetes, learning disabilities, autism, other forms of neurodivergence and mental health conditions.

You’re in a huff as you hurry through a sea of commuters onto a packed Circle Line train, praying you won’t be late for work (again).

You look around for a seat and, in typical fashion, they’re all occupied – but not by people.

Rucksacks, handbags and ugly briefcases are dumped on empty seats, as their owners lounge on the seat next to them. And of course, there’s no thought to move their bag to floor so you can take its place.

This infuriating behaviour isn’t new, but it’s now got a name: ‘double bagging’.

There’s another subset of London Underground passengers who have been labelled the worst of them all: the ‘barebackers’.

Get your mind out of the gutter – it’s a perfectly innocent term coined by Curtis Morton, co-host of the Behind the Screens podcast, in a TikTok that’s racked up nearly 100,000 views.

Essentially, barebackers – also known as rawdoggers – are people who sit without any form of entertainment and people-watch, staring at other passengers to pass the time.