This year, more than any other, Britain needs to be leading by example on climate change.
I will be interesting to see how this ruling is viewed with hindsight, in years to come.

The difference with flu is that there is a fair amount of immunity to that in the population, so it passes a lot of people by.  Coronavirus allowed to spread unchecked would presumably infect the majority.  If it spreads far and wide there is also an increased risk of it mutating into something even worse.  It's absolutely right to take coronavirus very seriously.

What about option C - build an elevated monorail?

Maybe Windsor and Henley branches would be good for some lower spec trials?

So, what were the main causes of cost overruns on the GWML^▸ (Great Western Main Line) electrification?  For any new electrification projects to get the go-ahead, there must surely need to be confidence that NR^» (Network Rail - home page) can cost them reasonably accurately - whether it's series 1 or something more lightweight for branch lines.

I think the Government is going to be under a lot of pressure to commit very soon to a credible plan to de-carbonise the railways in a similar timescale to cars going electric.  There's a lot of talk about carbon neutrality by 2050 but no real detail about what really needs to happen and when, and railway electrification seems like the only proven technology available at the moment.

A few months ago, the behaviour of the GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) mobile ticket app seemed to change.

It used to be possible to navigate to the ticket barcode then power off the screen, and it would still be there when waking it up again.  Nowadays, as soon as the screen blanks, the app closes.  This is a real pain when you have the ticket all ready to show, either to the conductor on the train, or the ticket barrier, and there's a slight delay and you have to open it again.  Especially when passing through barriers with luggage, it's not too convenient to have both hands free to navigate a phone app.

Is this something that other people have noticed - or is it a problem specific to my phone, and I need to get a new one?

The only other ticket app I have used is the TfW one.  That's a bit more fiddly to navigate to the right ticket, but at least the app doesn't close itself.

Maybe if TfW eventually run Ebbw Vale to Newport services, these could be extended to Bristol Parkway, calling all stations.  This would also make sense if a new station at Magor ever comes about - otherwise I can see that getting just the Cardiff to Cheltenham trains stopping there.

OK - call it the up fast line, then.  I think it does have bidirectional signalling, but what speed are the crossovers from the down line?

I was pleased to find out this week that Network Rail are making a couple of changes in May that I had discussed with them.  These are both to fix important connections with services on the Hereford line at Newport.  I was pleasantly surprised to find that there are real people at Network Rail prepared to listen to the experiences and suggestions of individual passengers.

Although not a timetabling issue as such, I've noticed the lack of robustness when the non-stop Paddington to Bristol Parkway services lose their paths, as there are not many places for them to overtake stopping services.  It's a pity that westbound non-stop services can't make use of the middle road at Swindon while another train is stopped at platform 4.  The alternative is to delay the stopping service by about 5 minutes by putting it into the loop between Wantage Road and Challow.  With both services then running late there is almost inevitably another conflict at Severn Tunnel, and I recently saw a Taunton to Cardiff service put into the Pilning loop to let a late running IET^▸ (Intercity Express Train) get past.   

Now that there are 'stopping' and 'fast' trains from South Wales to London, why shouldn't Severn Tunnel Junction have at least one daily service each way to the capital?  At the moment the available routes with one change are via Newport or Bristol Temple Meads, adding half an hour or more.

More than once I've received a reply from GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) customer services, and it's taken me a while to work out what it was in response to!

And not at all helpful if you can't manage the stairs and need to travel, say, from Southampton to Cardiff.

Do all ToCs have to grade their stations like this?  I notice that stations that GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) don't operate don't have a grade listed in their timetables, even though every other detail about these stations is given.

Yes - the 0628 ex Swansea does still make the STJ stop when the Portsmouth train is short formed.  Happened today for what I think was the first time since the new timetable started.  The London train was half an hour late though - so it actually helped to fill in for the cancelled 0800 Cardiff to Temple Meads.  Not a good Monday morning.

It was described as a points failure.  Eastbound, trains were getting through but were apparently going via the up freight loop at Pilning.  So, maybe not a fault involving a single set of points.  I think the incident lasted about 4 hours.