Changi is indeed a perfect layover. With a 5 hour wait, we checked our hand luggage into 'left luggage', remember those?

We then proceeded through immigration and took a taxi into the centre of town. We ate at the old post office (famous for the photograph of Japanese soldiers at its door) and afterwards, took taxi back to the airport in time for our flight home.

Wonderful time.

 
Mumsy and I passed that pump-turbine generator building a few weeks ago on our trip on the Festiniog Railway. Didn't photgraph it, but here we are nearby.

 

There's very limited space at Paddington for coaches to park.  I'm guessing Hillingdon not only has better access, but parking facilities.

 
SWTSMBO had already travelled to Singapore to be at the F1 GP on 11/09.
I travelled later to avoid missing 2 x Exeter Chiefs matches & a BSO concert.
(Also given the choice between watching a GP and having my fingernails pulled out I would go for the latter option!)

14/09/26 - Exeter To Heathrow Airport
DIG 1342 (OT) > EXD 1354 (OT) : 2T20 EXM > PGN : 1 x 165/1 (3 Cars)
EXD 1415 (OT) > PAD  1705 (1734) : 1A26 PLY > PAD : 1 x 802/1 (9 Cars)
PAD 1725 > HXX 1740 : 1T73 PAD > HWV (Service Suspended)
Had to use the Elizabeth Line instead.

Tickets (All With Senior Railcard, 1 Pax▸ , Price Per Person):
DIG > PAD 1st Class Advance Single £37.95
PAD > HXX Hex Advance Discounted Single £6.65

Local train reasonably well loaded.
Tickets / railcards checked: No / No
I had booked a reasonably priced 1st Class ticket so as to guarantee use of the Pullman Dining service; shouldn't have bothered as there were only 4 other customers. It was good but not excellent.
1A26 was routed via BRI and ran roughly to time until after DID when the ‘fun’ started. Turned out that the whole PAD-RDG route had been blocked by 'an obstruction on the line’ near Hayes and we reached PAD 29 minutes down.
Having waited for a short time at P6/7 we were eventually told the HEx service had been suspended due to the congestion and we should use Elizabeth Line services instead. The PAD concourse was absolutely rammed - no cats were being swung - with delayed pax and even getting to the specified P14 was a bit of a struggle. Eventually got onto 9H88 which was of course full & standing ( and late!).
Rather amusingly, despite the absolute scrum, the HXX ticket gates were still in use.

30/09/26 - Heathrow Airport To Exeter
HXX 0717 (0723) > PAD 0733 (0741) : 1Y30 HWV > PAD : 2 x 387 (8 Cars)
PAD 0903 (OT) > EXD 1113 (OT) : 1C74 : 1 x 802/0 (5 cars)
EXD 1151 (1154) > DIG 1203 (OT) : 2F15 PGN > EXM : 1 x 150/2 (2 Cars)

Tickets (All With Senior Railcard, 2 Pax, Price Per Person):
HXX > PAD HEx Advance Discounted Single £6.65
PAD > DIG Advance Single £48.25

Many cancelled or late running services in & out of PAD apparently due to a signalling failure in the Slough area. ‘That’s very surprising’ said absolutely nobody. Also SSDD.
1Y30, which was very well loaded due to other binned Heathrow trains, ran through Airport Junction very slowly.
Because our SQ322 flight arrived at LHR an hour early (of which more later*) I looked at changing our tickets so we could travel on the 0803 departure from PAD but GWR wanted just short of £200 for the privilege so that was a definite ‘credit card says no'.
According to a subsequent on board message from the TM 1C74 should have been a 10 car service but even with only 5 it was not that busy. RTT shows that the incoming 1A70 PLY > PAD service was also 5 vice 10 cars. More trains than expected…..
1C74 essentially ran to time for the whole journey (has to happen occasionally).
Tickets / railcards checked: Yes / No
1C74 is timetabled to arrive at EXD at 1113. The 2F14 train to EXM is timetabled to depart EXD at 1115. This is bloody annoying.
As was the provision of a single 150/2 unit on the actual 1151 ‘connection’ to Exmouth on a Friday morning during a half-term. EXD was very busy.

*I don’t mind flying if there is no alternative but I am not generally a fan of all the hanging around in the airport before and after the event. Particularly when it involves London Heathrow. As noted SQ322 arrived an hour early but we were then held on the aircraft at the gate for 20-25 minutes because the cretins at LHR had failed to get the air bridges ready. The obvious conclusion is that they weren’t checking the status of incoming flights and just assumed an ‘as scheduled’ arrival. Then at T2 there is the hike between the satellite and main terminals. And in baggage reclaim it was obvious from the stop-start bag delivery, which took around 30 minutes, that not enough resource is allocated to moving bags from the satellite to the main terminal.
They need to send a team to Changi Airport to find out how to do the job properly. Changi is still the best large airport I have used.

 

I am still in gauge for rail transport, even fit in an IET !

 
Thanks, ChrisB and grahame, for helping to clarify what is (and is not) included in that offer.

CfN.

 
Transport for Wales ... press release at https://news.tfw.wales/news/transport-for-wales-offers-free-travel-for-military-personnel-during-remembrance-period

 

Sorry, broadgage! 

CfN. 

 
Errr....no

Thyis year, Red Funnel IOW ferries IS doing this....


However, as per the BBC report....


A change to previous years when there were memorials on the 11th of the 11th month. Odd that these no longer happen.

 
Hmm.  I cannot find anything to support the inclusion of Armistice Day (11 November) in the waiving of those train fares.  Are you sure?

CfN. 

 
A pity it wasn't built at a British yard.

 
I understand all public transport is doing this on both 8th & 11th November this year.

 

Can be seen here in this post https://www.youtube.com/post/UgkxjdzPWENBJPF-Gq1S3koGbXAAV4BfYf5D

 
Matt cartoon: HM Treasury: "We're stockpiling cans. You never know when you might need to kick another one down the road."

 
The Green 175’s are waiting to be returned to Wolverton - too many defects identified.

(Incidentally, there is an IET that has been repainted into GBR livery at Eastleigh).

 

I wasn't looking out - indeed standing on the ongoing train. Narbonne station was a zoo this morning!

 
Reported cyber attack on supermarket fridges and freezers.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cq1kd1nee80eo

If such attacks become more widespread, there is clearly the potential effect on food supplies, underlines the importance of keeping a stock.

 

Sorry about that - same would have happened (but you may have had other concerns) if you had visited Iran.

For future reference, I can probably enable specific access if you generate an error pages such as via http://vcrp.uk/missing.html and email me (graham --at-- sn12 --dot-- net) the response.

 
Interesting - As I stayed on the 'cancelled' train, but it was still over 30mins late at TAU, I claimed direct with XC & got my comp.

 
Apologies for a slight delay. I've spent the last week in the Netherlands, and most of my attempts to access this forum were rebuffed, inasmuch as I understand it, on the grounds that it thought I was a wet arachnid.

But I am home now, and here is the photo:



This view is from inside the Old Station, but the staircase is very close to the first entrance as you head up the incline. The subway was more or less at the point where Brunel's original terminus meets the 1870's extension. So It seems very likely that it could have been directly accessed from the level of the tram terminal.

 

Slightly facetious but launching a "new" train with the previous operator's logos on day one might be more an own goal than a quick win.

 

A great test of the loading gauge calculations

We called them OGLOs - Out of Gauge Load

Signalled with the bell code 2-6-3 if it required adjoining lines to be blocked

The reaction of today's elf 'n safety to having these men loose on the wagons can only be imagined

 
I should have asked if your next move from Narbonne was going to be towards Béziers. That would give you a chance to see (or glimpse, more likely) the Etang de Montady as you whizz past. The other interesting feature there, the "three tunnels" crossing inside the ridge at Le Malpas, is a bit hard to see.

 
I checked the planner for a journey that I’m rostered to make - Maidenhead to Tottenham Court Road on 28th December.  This clocks in at a whopping 2 hours!!

I can’t help but think that the proposed journey is somewhat convoluted and not efficient for the passengers.  The proposed plan is train from Maidenhead to Slough, road replacement service to Hillingdon Station(?!?), Hillingdon to Paddington.

Why not take passengers to their intended destination of Paddington rather than doing half the job and dropping them at Hillingdon which incurs a further hour of tube travel after the road replacement service. 

 

Thank you for "biting", Chris.     My point was that it is easy to select a sub-group of beneficiaries that might be considered unworthy of the "benefit" of a railcard, and in doing so bring down opprobrium upon the whole group (see also various other types of benefit).

 
It gets better - the 8:26 Paddington Bristol service that I'm having to catch at Chippenham is only 5 coaches. More standing, but at least it's warm.

 

Rejected by GWR again, but passed to Crosscountry as they hosted the musical chairs episode at Bristol. This is quality service from the delay repay system as it's the opposite of that otherwise far-too-common practice of deflecting issues and asking the customer to do the runaround. An example of the latter was that I raised something with a national supermarket brand that has in the last few years been taken over by asset strippers. A faulty freezer being an injury accident waiting to happen. Their response 'Oh, that store (branded by us) is an independent one, nothing to do with us, raise it with them'.

 
Now on its way but the 07:45 from Westbury to Swindon is stuck at Trowbridge waiting for it to clear the single line.

 
ETA now 8:05, and the 8:02 Swindon service showing as delayed. Shouldn't be too much of a problem for the 8:02 passengers given that the Worcester service stops at Swindon. And the lucky so-and-so's haven't had to hang around in the cold for 50 mins