Great Western Coffee Shop

On March 2 the Daily Express (https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/1871889/uk-pretty-village-Twyford-liveable) published (yet another) article about the best place in which to live, this time Twyford in Berkshire being the choice. One plus, apparently, is that it is "a quick carriage ride from the Princess of Wales’s childhood home in Bucklebury". It's unclear what sort of carriage that would be, as Bucklebury is four miles from the nearest station, and I can't see a horse drawing a carriage being very happy in Reading's traffic. (Could it use the town's controversial bus lanes?)

Eventually a local news website picked up the story, and though it retained the very tenuous royal connection (as  well as the town's proximity to Windsor), it wisely omitted the reference to quick carriage rides.

The same local website has also published a comparison of taxi fares (https://www.readingchronicle.co.uk/news/25114040.reading-found-expensive-town-uk-taxi/?ref=uber_tsb&lp=4). The full article may be behind a paywall, but it notes that "the average cost for a 4km journey in Reading is £18.06 ... with the average cost per 1km in the town being £3.39. " Four times £3.39 equals £13.56.

My friends must be lucky. On their last five taxi rides to my house from the station, they've been charged an average of £15.10 for a journey that is, at best, 5km, though drivers often take a longer route to avoid snarl-ups in Oxford Road and road works. Curiously the fares are much the same as before Lockdown.