"about to get better"?

Usung the wortd "about" implies now or in the short term. Icannot see any hope of this happening just yet and many people will be disappointed by the use of this word.

The lack of capacity at Didcot has a major impact on the growth of rail use in Oxfordshire. There are many West Oxon residents that work in the Didcot area but only a minor proportion use rail from the Cotswold Line to Didcot to commute. This is because almost no CL trains serve Didcot and require users to change at Oxford with very poor unguaranteed connections. My daughter is one of these and she now uses her car (as do most other people) on the ever increasingly congested A34. It is however usuall quicker from Hanborough than using the rail service.increasing the Oxford/Didcot line capacity with the suggested additional platforms on the Didcot loop could be a major improvement increasing the viability of rail use.

re the announcement of the Hanborough car park extension.

When I passed by on Monday the new car park was not open as, I presume, the lighting has not been installed.

Secondly most of the local residents do not welcome additional parking as this brings more traffic onto the A4095 through Long Hanborough increasing the already lengthy peak hour delays on the road through the village.

Thirdly, how has the improved timetable improved Hanborough rail services? The current timetable has significantly improved since 40 years ago but nothing much has changed in the last few years as traffic has grown and all we seem to be promised is jam tomorrow.

I cannot see that it would be much of a threat to the S3. It will take longer - 40 minutes and only half hourly as against to 20 minute frequency of the S3 from Woodstock. It could possibly pick up people from the CL if current CL users drive to Woodstock but there is limited free parking in Woodstock as aginst £3.00 a day at Hanborough. Incidentally the 44 space extension to Hanborough car park seems to be finished to a high standard but is not yet in use as I cannot see any lighting installed yet.

Oxford Mail report:

http://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/14756650.New_track_linking_Oxford_and_London_complete_and_set_for_December_launch/

Last year I had a holiday in Switzerland when I travelled on 18 different trainsmost within Switzerland.
I kept a careful record of the timings and found that 100% departed and arrived on time. However what I found different from British trains was that the timetables made very generous allowance s for possible delays with platform dwell times being usually several minutes instead of the 1-2 minutes allowed on most CL timetables. In addition the times allowed between stops were so generous that trains always arrived at the station several minutes before published arrival time so that total platform dwell times often exceeded 5 minutes and longer. It seemed to me that it was mjuch easier for trains to keep to time as a result of this than in Britain.

How nostalgic. I have never forgotten my journey from home in Bridgwater with a one-way ticket on 19 February 1959. I was met at Devizes station by an army Bedford truck that took me to the RAPC Training Centre at Devizes for my 2 year stint of National Service.

Has Bristol considered implementing Work Place Parking Levies now that central government has approved their use? As far as I know Nottingham is the only major city to do so and the large amount of funds generated is being used to pay for trams services extensions. ^500 per vehicle per annum wopuld raise (gross) some ^25M a year that could finance capital spening of some ^500M on a major public transport project. In addition to fund raising the work place levy encourages a greater use of public transport by reducing the cost differential between private car use and much higher transport fares whilst also helping to reduce road congestion because fewer private cars are on the roads.
Here in Oxfordshire the County Council has mentioned the possibility of introducing the WPL but only on a very low profile. I think the members are afraid of the heavy opposition they would face from current road users, of whom there are many throusands who have free access to the thousands of private parking places in central Oxford, many within the Oxford colleges.

A battery EMU^▸ (Electric Multiple Unit) could perhaps enable GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway)'s stated ambition to extend London to Oxford trains onto Hanborough as at present there is no intention to electrify byond Wolvercote

Some of the summer additional West Country services have been formed by "pinching" an HST^▸ (High Speed Train) from the Cotswold Line resulting in gross over crowding of an Adelante or Turbo on the CL.

If the Hitachi trains are coming to the CL next year, will the platform extensions that are planned to be built for almost all CL stations going to be built in time. Without an extension Hanborough would only be able to have 2 coaches of an SET^▸ (Super Express Train (now IET)) on the platform so loading and unloading would take several minutes. Dwell time for peak hour services for an HST^▸ (High Speed Train) is often 3 or 4 minutes whilst passengers alight from the maximum 3 coaches on the platform and then collect their bikes.

An aquaintance of mine reported that he attended the Wem bly Oxford U. match a week or so back. He occasionally uses GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) C.L. servicves but he was travelling with a nephew who wanted to try out Chiltern from Parkway. He says that they arrived on the Sunday morning at aropund 10.30 to find a long queue of 50 or more cars entering the car park but that Chiltern had staff all around the car park directing drivers where to park so it took only a few minutes as it was so well organised. There was plenty of friendly and helpful staff all around the station and two trains at the platform coping well with the large numbers of travellers. At Wembly, there was also staff directing people to the stadium. He says he was impressed with the quality of the train appearance, for both comfort and cleanliness and would not hesitate to use Chiltern again in future. Obviously Chiltern made a special effort on that day but it would appear to have paid off in creating a good impression. Another aquaintance also attended but had travelled on a coach direct from Hanborough and whilst the journey there went smoothly, their coach was stuck for two hours at Wembly queuing to leave the stadium after the game and they did not get home until 20.30 whilst another rail traveller he knew had got home hours earlier so he reckons if Oxford U. get to the promotion playoffs at Wembly in a few weeks time he will also try the Chiltern train.

It sounds like Wiltshire residents will be doing quite well for subsidised bus services. Here in Oxfordshire it looks likely that all subsidised bus services will be removed starting after 1 April 2016

I believe he will also shown visiting the site of the Battle of Sedgemoor at Weston Zoyland and St. Marys Church in Bridgwater (unless this item has been edited out since recording last summer).

The TVM^▸ (Ticket Vending Machine) at Hanborough isd notorious for selectively refusing to accepts debit or credit cards. I have had a card of mine rejected but the next user's card accepted perfectly Ok. However on a later occasion my card that had previously been rejected was accepted perfectly normally. The screen on the Hanborough TVM is also very choosey. It has refused to accept my finger touches but then accepted the next user Ok and then on a different occasion accepted my finger touch.