On Thursday I travelled to Braintree and back by train to give a speech there. The announcement system kept shouting at me that if I saw something that didn’t look right I should report it to a member of staff. Ever obedient to other peoples rules I spotted several things that were wrong, but there was no available member of staff on either train to report to. So today I report here and will send a copy to the railway.
Things that went well
The Greater Anglian trains both left on time and arrived on time. The outbound train had been cleaned. The return train had litter on floors from recent passengers and was not cleaned. The on board train information system was clear and updated as we progressed.
What was not right
Passenger discomfort
The seats like many modern trains were unacceptably hard with a rigid and painful back angle. I had bad back and thigh pains for most of the journey which I do not experience on normal chairs.
The day was pleasantly hot. The fierce air conditioning made the train like a chill counter continuously blasting cold air. I was cold for the whole journey and was delighted to get off to warm up.
The perpetual loud announcements were over the top and ear piercing. The automatic doors kept opening and closing in stations with loud bleeps.
The state of the track
The worst part of the experience was the nationalised part visible through the windows . Practically every trackside structure was defaced with ugly graffiti, showing a failure to stop people getting trackside and an unwillingness to clean and maintain structures.
There were weeds and vegetation growing out of older track and encroaching on the operational property. There were abandoned bits of rusting track . building supplies and sleepers left lying around. It looked as if no one managed it properly, left supplies hanging around and did not care about the assets.
Fare collection and enforcement
As a heavily overtaxed taxpayer I was worried to see the poor usage and likely losses from running the 20.08 from Braintree where only around 6% of the seats were taken and where only around 20 of us went all the way to Liverpool Street. The 16.35 outbound appeared to have more than half the seats empty.
Tickets were checked on departing Liverpool Street but not on arriving at Braintree or on train. Tickets on the return were only checked at Liverpool Street.
So I saw it and said it. I bet nothing gets sorted.
June 21, 2025
It must be 20 years, if not more, since I last travelled on a train so I am out of date. I am old enough to remember the age of steam. That was extremely noisy and dirty. The seats then were uncomfortable. Air conditioning? What is that? Slam doors with thick leather straps to open and close windows were both a feature and a bug. Ticket collectors were very rigorous. There were even guards on each train who came and personally checked everyone’s ticket during the journey, punching a hole in your ticket to prove his presence. This was double checked on leaving the station. There were always weeds and rusty rails on little used lines. There was less graffiti before the days of aerosols. Instead I recall endlessly repeated metal strips advertising Mazzawattee Tea. Oh, everything was extremely noisy and dirty from soot. It is good to hear that at least some things have improved!
June 21, 2025
Regarding uncomfortable seats from the steam age, when I visit heritage railways a frequent comment from other passengers is about how comfortable the seating is compared to today’s trains. There were notable exceptions in the past of course, and some of us oldies who commuted in the steam age could give chapter and verse, but main line stock was generally far better than the current offerings
June 21, 2025
Reply to Sir J’s letter from ‘ New British Rail’. To be read in a robotic, nasally voice:
‘Having only just taken over responsibility for the national railways, we found the last owners had spent all the money and left a huge black hole of debt. We hear your complaint and we are rolling up our sleeves and will fix the foundations of the rail system. Security and safety is paramount to us and we have a plan to smash old working practices by paying much higher wages and allowing more drivers naps, and ticket inspectors will now work from home.
You can trust us to put things right… Have a safe journey on New British Rail.
Anonymous.
PS We have just given London Bridge Station to the PRC, and will be leasing it back for £5 million per month. A Great deal which will improve passenger surveillance.
Reply Love it. They have already replied, asking me which train I was which of course was in my original letter!
June 21, 2025
Indeed when you do get any reply from the state it is rather rare that they have read your original letter properly or even at all. Usually a standard response, which is often just a delaying time wasting tactic. But you can probably get it in Welsh or Braille or both!
June 21, 2025
I assume the load announcement and door bleeping is for the hard of hard of hearing. Cashpoints, ticket machines and other such things often set for wheelchair users heights too I seem. A couple of stations I use seem to have had zero investment for very many years other than the disabled lift access to platforms.
June 21, 2025
sounds like Auto reply? Some businesses reply ‘Your reply to this email will not be read’.
Great isn’t it?
June 21, 2025
It’s not just the railways. Unbelievably, yesterday a pro-Palestine militant group penetrated security at RAF Brize Norton using electric scooters and sabotaged two of our precious Voyager aerial refuelling tankers. With crowbars and modified fire extinguishers, no less
The group claiming this outrage say that RAF tankers are refuelling Israeli aircraft involved in bombing Gaza. This is not only unsubstantiated – but physically impossible as the refuelling apparatus is different.
Were this America, the base commander and the security officer would be fired, due to the obvious “loss of confidence”. What will happen to the equivalents here? Nothing at all! However, the lower ranks manning the security gates will certainly end up sweeping out the hangars.
At a time when we are effectively at war with Russia – who have made repeated threats against us – this sort of incompetence is totally unacceptable. SoS Healey should dismiss the senior officers responsible immediately.
June 21, 2025
Sakara,
Not railway related. Unusual for you to be so concerned too. You usually have a sanguine approach to most topics.
Maybe, like other posters, you could promote hobby horse issues that appear no matter the subject?
June 21, 2025
It’s beyond belief that these planes were damaged and the perpetrators not caught. They should have been shot insitu as foreign agents. Of course nothing will happen to them so as to maintain community cohesion just like the grooming gangs.
Just when is this government going to get a grip and stop prancing around like idiots
The base commander should be sacked together with the head of security and the company providing security. Until people realise there are serious consequences nothing will improve. As for the railways twas ever thus.
June 21, 2025
Critics suggest that Ukraine could not fly over high tech Russian jets and bomb them!
It would be easy in UK bases too.
June 21, 2025
IW :
I would suggest that this was authorised by the MOD to ensure the PM does not have the planes available for any action.
June 21, 2025
The Company providing security ?
Can they not look after their own, or do we not have enough service people.
June 21, 2025
I thought that too. Certainly those who broke in should be prosecuted for criminal damage and entering a restricted area. Calling Palestine Action a terrorist group is a bit lame – they weren’t terrorising anyone.
Those responsible for security have failed miserably in their duties.
But then I thought perhaps those responsible for security have already flagged up the inadequate resources provided and recommended more, but those in government have turned down their application on the grounds of cost.
June 21, 2025
Can we assume all the members of this group will arrested and charged today with Joint Enterprise? I assume given this appalling government, the politics and our absurdly misled police force very little action will be taken. When will the learn that real deterrents are needed – for shop lifting, protest vandalism, rape gangs, knife crimes, burglary, muggings, theft, fraud…
Perhaps the worst thing about modern train journeys is the endless announcements, the windows that do not open, duff aircon. (too hot or too cold), hard seats, dirt… plus circs £1 a mile is rather expensive. This plus the absurdly complex ticketing system to navigate.
June 21, 2025
Duff internet very often too and your mobile internet often cuts out too in tunnels and on some sections.
June 21, 2025
High frequency RF signals being blocked by hills and metres of earth and concrete, who’d have thought it – clearly not a physics genius.
June 22, 2025
@ Dixie thanks for you advice but I am well aware of the reasons for the weak signals. There are however are plenty of ways to boost the signals in tunnels and on trains so as to get round these issues as we see now on some tube lines.
I never claimed to be a physics “genius” but I did study Maths, Physics and Electronics at Cambridge and then Manchester Universities and worked mainly in engineering, physics and electronic related jobs. Then again relative to most of the nutters driving our energy policy and our current appallingly foolish and misguided ministers and advisors with degrees in classics, PPE, law, nothing…?
“In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king”
June 21, 2025
Allison Pearson today:-
Hell is empty because all the devils are here. What is it about Left-wing women and killing babies? For all their bland, technocratic vocabulary about “stakeholder orgs” and “healthcare rights”, make no mistake, Labour MPs, led by a cabal of morally-challenged feminists, have just voted to make infanticide legal in our country. May God forgive them.
June 21, 2025
I visited our Grandson in the NCIU when he was born pre-term and I remember the nurses that watched over him 24 hours a day to keep him alive. I also remember the anxious parents I met there, not all as fortunate as we were. I’m delighted to say that he will be a very healthy three years old in August. I therefore completely fail to understand how these children can be killed in the womb without an exceptionally good reason. The ‘wants’ (not ‘needs’) of the Mother now seem to completely overide the rights of the baby, which simply cannot be right.
Now we have opened the door to legalising the euthanasia of old people, a very slippery slope indeed…
June 21, 2025
+1 another insane policy from this appalling government. True prosecution were rare but keeping it illegal (as with drugs) surely deters some people and should have been kept. A doctor or individual cannot legally do or assist but the mother on her own can? This is pure evil surely, when late in a pregnancy?
June 21, 2025
LL,
I note the change from ‘x is surely correct in today’s Telegraph’ -now just abbreviated to ‘x today’.
It survives in a different format – unlike former repeated references to drains.
June 21, 2025
@Lifelogic – we have 2 tier justice in the UK. This is repeat action from this group. On a previous occasion it was argued that causing ‘criminal damage’ was a human right of the protesters – so they were let off – their defence lawyer 2TK
June 21, 2025
Indeed this I think was a huge judge led extension of the principle that you can smash into a building to rescue people from a fire or similar. So to rescue people from the (claimed climate emergency religion) almost any criminal damage is the. justified?
June 21, 2025
Lots of cancellations on SW rail due to signalling failures. They claim they are fixed. Then you discover an emergency timetable with trains on an hourly basis only.
Buses rerouted and uncomfortable in hot weather. Best not to travel or use the car if you have to.
June 21, 2025
‘cancellations on SW rail due to signalling failures. ‘
I use it often, minimum a day every week. Your experience is correct.
When are the signal infrastructure ever overhauled?
June 21, 2025
GWR are little better, but don’t have excuses trotted out, main complaint is delayed running.
June 21, 2025
Do not usually use the trains much at all, except for an annual meeting in London.
Find ticketing system totally and utterly confusing with so many differing rates at differing times, and having to book a timed train for a return journey or connection when it does not even guarantee a seat.
Went on a jolly boys fish and chip outing with three friends recently, two of which are train buffs.
Cheapest way to travel I was informed was by split ticketing, not having a clue I let the experts do their work.
Wokingham to Worcester was a reasonable cost (off peak) 4 tickets each out, 4 tickets each back, total for 4 people 32 tickets !
On two trains we had seat numbers, but they changed at the split ticket destinations even though we were not leaving the train.
Tickets were inspected on the way out on the train but a loverly female inspector who gave us a great smile when we showed her all the tickets, we asked her if we could sit in the same seats all the way if they were not required by anyone else for the remainder of our journey, and she accepted our sense of humour with a simple “you have to do what you have to do”
We were not required to move as our seats were not requested by anyone else.
Return Journey we took a chance and caught an earlier train back, not the booked ticket time, train nearly empty, tickets not inspected until back in Wokingham at the exit barrier.
Agree about the seats John, not very comfortable, but a smooth train ride.
Purchasing a ticket not for the faint hearted !
June 21, 2025
Every train I have been on recently mainly Gatwick, London, Tunbridge Wells, Redhill routes have had over heated trains with no working air con and few or no opening windows.
Occupancy of commuter trains (on average) is almost always invariably rather low. This as the journey on the reverse commute are virtually empty plus the train has to have space to let people on at each station. So perhaps a morning commuter train sets off at station one with 10% then 20% at the next building up to perhaps 80% for London arrival then return virtually empty as few leaving London at 8AM. Average occupancy perhaps circa 10-15% or less over the whole day. Worse still you have the end connection journeys often two way taxis or wife, husband drop off. Often a two way trip at each end for one useful journey. Not remotely energy or CO2 efficient when properly accounted for.
June 21, 2025
I recently heard they don’t offer Uber in Tunbridge Wells. So it is either more expensive taxis or lifts.
Nice place provided you don’t need to travel often.
June 21, 2025
@Lifelogic – captive customer with no alternative – what would you expect
June 21, 2025
Indeed just as they rig the education market (by making people who want private schools pay four times over) and healthcare ditto – to try to make state monopolies
June 21, 2025
The people who run these services should be treated and paid according to the quality of performance.
On the current basis most would starve, and the worst would be in debt for years or fail jail.
June 21, 2025
Well soon we will all be forced to use trains and busses as they force or price car users of the road – this is clearly their intention. Car however go door to door directly and are far cheaper. Selfdriving taxis coming fairly soon will be far cheaper too as no driver to pay. Far better than train plus two taxis at each end.
June 21, 2025
Self driving taxis, you’re having a laugh. The number of accidents and incidents in California ascribed to self driving vehicles. GM have pulled out of the game altogether. Another chink of light for the future, Volvo is not going alk electruc following the lead if Toyota, BMW, Honda and Mercedes. They know banning ICE s by 2035 isn’t feasible as the whole climate scam begins to unwind. Unfortunately we have Millibrain incharge who redouble his efforts to destroy us.
June 21, 2025
When a passenger in an EV cab, how do I demand to stop and let me out? Are you locked in and trapped to whatever happens? Crash, traffic jam, unwell …..etc
June 22, 2025
Self driving vehicles will certainly arrive at some point, not that hard to get get them to be better drivers than many of the appalling drivers you see on the roads. The think about AI is it will race away exponentially. This as better AI software and hardware are tool to make even better AI still and so forth. Transistors have got billions of times smaller, cheaper, less power using in under 80 years AI will race away even more quickly as one development is a tool for the next!
June 21, 2025
@Bloke – most are now Labour supporting State employees, as such the terms for service has changed – You work for them!
June 21, 2025
I find that the majority of my rail-trips are now between Portsmouth and Gatwick, rather than up to London. But the reliability of the service is poor, with about a third of my trains being disrupted, due to either signallng faults or trespassers on the line. That means that I am always having to build-in contingency options, to be sure of catching my plane.
Guards? They’re not doing enough to tackle anti-social behaviour.
June 21, 2025
Presumably you just did Liverpool Street to Braintree and not a journey from Wokingham on SWR? If you had you would have had loads of Ascot punters to share your carriage with and maybe the misfortune to be on one of their old 455 trains with no air conditioning and no loos. The Greater Anglia trains are quite pleasant so not sure why you are complaining.
June 21, 2025
The seats are dire and on a warm day you wear light clothing then get frozen by the aircon if it is working if not you get cooked!
June 21, 2025
@davews – a quirk yesterday morning as a 2nd train was following up picking up stragglers just 5 mins behind the timetable version. The air-con was good. Only confusion was that the announcement over the address system were going in reverse, the next station after Ascot was Winnersh while going to Waterloo.
The again SWR is a Labour Government run service.
Observation for all their faults the old trains have comfortable seating you are not expected to sit on a short plank of wood
June 21, 2025
In fairness SWR is only very recently renationalised.
I miss the more frequent services, later last trains, waiting rooms, public toilets and station staff from the nationalised days decades ago.
I do not miss slam door trains. They were fine when most people were smaller and obesity was not commonplace. I remember the schoolboys when they spotted a particular individual at a later station. They called him ‘Daily Mail’ and they did not want this huge chap in the seat next to them.
Rolling stock is much improved. Often air-conditioned, walk through carriages. Carriages with tables on London suburban routes. It is a shame that service has got much worse. Reginald Perrin would have nightmares. Vandalism on the line during school holidays. Incidents at various stations. Emergency timetables.
Eleven minutes late, staff difficulties, Hampton Wick.”
Ep.1 “Eleven minutes late, signal failure at Vauxhall.”
Ep.1 “Eleven minutes late, staff shortages, Nine Elms.”
Ep.1 “Eleven minutes late, derailment of container truck, Raynes Park.”
Ep.1 “Eleven minutes late, seasonal manpower shortages, Clapham Junction.”
Ep.2 “Eleven minutes late, defective junction box, New Malden.”
Ep.4 “Eleven minutes late, overheated axle at Berrylands.”
Ep.4 “Eleven minutes late, defective axle at Wandsworth.”
Ep.5 “Eleven minutes late, somebody had stolen the lines at Surbiton.”
On the bright side, I was offered a bottle of water by the railman at Wimbledon. Rail companies nowadays are unusually worried about passengers during hot weather, or when it rains or there is a frost.
June 21, 2025
TRUE they do remind passengers when alighting to take care of potentially frozen slippery surfaces.
June 21, 2025
Yep – suddenly the decent modern aircon fleet on SW have been replaced by ancient worn out dreary stock.
What’s up Doc?
June 21, 2025
Fare dodging is the blight for me. These brazen criminals are watched as they push through gates with no action taken.
Surely the money saved is worth paying for rigourous, forceful enforcement.
Or, more likely, because the criminals will not be dealt with by the courts, the rain companies and TfL just treat it as an operating cost like the supermarkets with shoplifting.
Zero tolerance of any crime would make our country a better place.*
*social media posting should not be on the statute as a crime.
June 21, 2025
Crime need to be deterred.
They ignore if for real criminals as no money in it for them but if an old lady accidentally presses student rail card rather than OAP rail card or catches a train with an invalid ticked she will be fined or charged despite fair being the same.
June 21, 2025
Surely the number of Railcards needs to be reduced to perhaps just 3 with carefully defined discounts, like the rail fares are too complex.
June 21, 2025
What a fantastic idea. I will be doing the same for the Brighton to London Bridge journey. Outbound in the morning is usually fine except for the miserable, apathetic staff.
Return journey starts with booming, authoritative announcements at London Bridge often spoken indiscernibly; the train is always overcrowded (I never get the seat I pay for 45 mins) and the trains are filthy. That journey costs me GBP 4,976 / year. I could buy a second hand Lexus LS for that.
June 21, 2025
PF,
That brings back fond memories of Arthur Daley in the Minder TV show –
On the way down to Brighton on the train, Arthur reminisces about the Brighton Belle and its passenger list of the great and good travelling up to London from the coast. He looks at McCann with his usual disdain and says, “You wouldn’t catch Gielgud sitting there shoving an individual fruit pie into his north and south.”
June 21, 2025
Thanks Peter. You’ve reminded me of Laurence Olivier’s successful campaign to save kippers on the Brighton Belle breakfast menu.
British Rail withdrew them in favour of muesli but Olivier’s protests saw the breakfast kipper reinstated and standards restored again.
You’d be lucky to get a smile from the rail staff these days let alone kippers 🙂
June 21, 2025
If anyone imagines that such problems will get resolved when the whole rail system is brought in-house by HMG they are in for a sad awakening.
Government induced apathy ruins so much.
Take away the purpose people have to make the most of their lives and they do a bad job whatever it is, but add to that an industry run on rules rather than common sense and heavily influenced by government dogma, and all the spirit of play that keeps us going, day to day, evaporates.
Having better railways is not about big is better – it’s not about enforcing rules on employees who have no incentive to make things better. People are not automatons, and yet that is what the big state wants us to become – doing actions by petty rules without engaging any thinkingness.
Look at how interested people are who run steam railways – they love going to work because they can put something of themselves into their activities. Take away the joys of life and work is but a chore.
June 21, 2025
Totally agree, as a volunteer myself, there is a great satisfaction with seeking excellence and public service for visitors.
Almost all of us are retired years ago. Generally people don’t do things without being paid. Shame.
In fact most of us PAY one way or another to provide work at heritage institutions.
But scrooge Rachel even takes more tax from the act of providing services free.
June 21, 2025
+1
June 21, 2025
The train people have taken the tory (now labour) policy of re-wilding to heart
June 21, 2025
OFT
Two tier justice in its full glory is highlighted once more in the media by the actions of 2 Tier Kier. Apparently 2TK argued in the Courts that the right to protest causing actual criminal damage is a human right. So, no jail time, is warranted, no material damage costs required.
Speak out against injustice, and the attacks on freedoms the human rights of those that disagree with 2TK and you go to jail. Words are seen to be more damaging……….
June 21, 2025
As goes Greater Anglian, so goes the nation.
June 21, 2025
Elsewhere we have complaints from the Foreign Owned manufacturers with UK facilities that their order books are drying up.
Then relate why would a company about to be Nationalized invest in new rolling stock? That would be stupid.
Greater Anglian is one such company if it spends and supplies a good service it will be stolen from them
Then ask why are these companies complaining not perusing orders elsewhere? Is it that the UK is just assembly facility to attract taxpayer money to send back home, these companies don’t want to upset their own Governments they pay their taxes to.
The nationalised Transport for Wales owned by Labour, has bought its new rolling stock from Staedler in Switzerland and CAF of Spain, although some final assembly work of the CAF units is done in UK. – Embarrassing. Taxpayer money being given away not to circulate in the UK economy
As Sir John often points out government run companies, require taxpayer funding. While the Mayor of London says ‘give me’ and ‘he gets’ its not the same for everyone they have to queue and hope that enough taxes can be stolen that then might come their way.
June 21, 2025
Corruption by bureaucrats.
June 21, 2025
I don’t buy this argument that Parliament is full of elitists. When you look at the very poor quality of the front bench you can see there are no elites what-so-ever. Please point me to an elitist if you know of one. They are all poor quality junior managers.
Parliament is full of junior middle managers. Not even polished. All laws have been outsourced to super- and sub- national bureaucrats. In covid scientific bureaucrats rose up from their quango to run the country on an extremely narrow mandate, to save every life from covid, but to give zero weight to society. The junior parliamentarians are ruled by senior bureaucrats and their power ebbed into Parliament during covid like sewerage leaked into houses after a flood.
The Human Rights Act also gives zero weight to judges to be responsible to society. So mass murdering pedophiles are not considered a problem if they can’t think of the smallest excuse. After all even an atom of rights outweighs society, when society is deemed to have no mass. Judges have all become covid lockdown bureaucrats in their own little way and their decisions flood the country with diseased sewerage.
When you look at laws that are being published, such as Assisted dying, and Late Abortion, winter fuel they subjugate life rather than enhance it. With 70% of MPs supporting late abortion and only 1% of the public it is clear that Parliament has not become a chamber of elitists but a chamber of extremists. It is extremists who ignore society completely. Absolutely and completely. They cannot even read the room when 99% are against them.
It is not the public that are far right, it is a Parliament that are extremists. In every sense of the word. We’re not ruled by elitists but by extremists.
June 21, 2025
Before Covid I used to travel frequently by train. Now, hardly ever. Nothing Sir John reports surprises me.
June 21, 2025
Since the 1870’s, UK railways have been largely unprofitable. The only way to make any real money out of them is from enjoying a monopoly which is a form of soft corruption and so as bad as socialism (socialism is also a form of corruption).
So there’s no easy solution to the railways. They’re like the poor relation we just have to put up with. The best we can do is follow the models of railways that work best around the world, in particular the Swiss model.
Lastly, if we do need a decent railway, we sure need one from Waterloo to Exeter St David’s (passing through Clapham J, Woking, Basingstoke, Salisbury etc). Considering the amount of business people who use it but also because it’s such an important line in general. Instead we get trains and a train service, from Waterloo to Exeter, that is more like India than Switzerland.
June 21, 2025
437 criminals were smuggled, into the UK yesterday 20th; and escorted from the safe country of France…I wonder how many were smuggled via train & lorry
June 21, 2025
you don’t want to know the full extent, not good for the blood pressure.
Keep up the reporting for us, it must not be just another issue kicked down the road.
And thanks for Sir John providing the entry in his blog.
June 21, 2025
I’d like the government to publish its estimate on the month/year number of tourist/work/student visa overstayers ….if anyone can find the data please provide link
June 22, 2025
GC / MT : Just to add to that:
The past 9 days – Jun 13 to Jun 21 (inclusive) – 3136 arrivals in 49 boats. ( Official figures ) How many hotels needed based on that number. Treading water. How many coaches – I reckon around 60 or so based on full size coach operating capacity, to run them up, down and around the country, at vast cost no doubt even if under ‘preferential’ contract. Sticking with statistics, I read an odd one a few days ago ( Daily Tel ) that 1 in 13 customers of a major water company which is in trouble I believe, are illegal migrants. Somebody, somewhere must be keeping track.
June 21, 2025
gc :
The PM says he will “smash the gangs” assisting these criminals. Does this include the fake charities and the HO itself for encouraging this crminal activity by offering the criminals free accomodation in a 4 star hotel or house, free living expenses, free health, social care, entertainment and training, £40/week pocket money and the freedom to roam our streets (even outside schools) whilst taking black market jobs instead of locking them up?
June 21, 2025
The total cost for Merseyrail’s new Class 777 train fleet replacement was estimated £460 million at 2023 ……and you still can’t get a seat at rush hour ? They look pretty, they go just as slow, but have the same number of seats as the old ones. So to the customer nothing has change; apart from the cost which increased to fund the newer trains
June 21, 2025
I found at London St. Pancras recently that insufficient time to get to the train (EMR) was given between announcing the platform on the notice board and the train leaving. If I had not made my way to the expected platform before the platform was displayed (if was displayed at all) I would have missed my train.
June 21, 2025
That happens at Waterloo, those in the know assemble towards the higher number platforms, waiting for the departures board to roll around for Reading line. Then the scramble to head for the train and seats according to the exits at the destination they want. Stroll at your risk of no seat.
June 22, 2025
I’ve often wondered, with todays technology, why they don’t have real time train time data displayed outside train stations ….I often witness passengers running to and about stations looking for there train time