I would have thought that cost would rule it out and travelling 3 days a week won't save any money over a season. e.g. an open return in the peak is a massive ^232 whereas a weekly season is ^402.90. The cheapest overall option would be an annual season but this is nearly ^15,000!

And a points failure at Slough and the Down Relief closed too.

Good to see that the ugly scribble on the approaches to Paddington has been obliterated. If only NR^» (Network Rail - home page) had a zero tolerance policy like LUL^▸ (London Underground Ltd) in order to keep it that way. I fear it won't be long until it's all back again and if not immediately removed then it will encourage others.

There are a whole number of savings available from splitting at Didcot particularly from Bristol, Bath and Chippenham for both seasons and walk up tickets. Some Bath to London prices can be reduced by a small amount more by also splitting at Reading. As all trains except the 0640 Bristol (SX) call at Reading this doesn't constrain you further.

Class 120 Swindon-built cross-country DMUs^▸ (Diesel Multiple Unit) were one of the best DMUs built. Pity none survived into preservation.

I travelled on the 0544 from BOA this morning with 1 other passenger. 1 other was already on board and 6 more joined at Trowbridge. Good value ^34 apex single bought yesterday. Got the same price back on the 1706.   

Talking of fares, currently you can travel from Marylebone to Moor St for as little as ^5 advance purchase single on off-peak trains. From the start of the new timetable and the simplification of ticketing, all off-peak trains are now ^24.90 single. I can clearly see the benefits of fares simplification.....to Chiltern!

It will be of use to Bath residents though as it will make it possible to be in Birmingham before 0800 and connect into the 0634 Bristol TM^‡(resolve) - Plymouth.

Pewsey station and the steps leading up to the footbridge were re=painted at least a year ago. But the middle section over the tracks still remains to be done a year later when there has been an all-day Sunday possession of the line throughout the summer months when the work could have been finished. Meanwhile the paint has started to peel off the re-painted areas as it looks like the painters shortcut the sanding down process.

The turnrounds at International are also eased as the diagrams on the Aberystwyth and Bangor / Holyhead routes will interwork

On the subject of Pacers, I spotted one on Reading depot last Saturday.Anyone know what it was doing there?

I believe that a pair of 153s are now diagrammed on the Falmouth branch - certainly on weekdays

But does he ever use the train from Bedwyn? It's the old story of those who shout loudest getting what they want. The reality is that somewhere the size of Bedwyn does not warrant an hourly service and when the route was resignalled in teh late 70s the turnback siding should have been provided at Hungerford and Bedwyn served more or less peak only as it was in the past 

But for Pewsey only peak fares are valid on the 1706 and 1806. Strangely the 1836 was fairly recently opened up to Savers to Pewsey and beyond. Incidentally I am on the 1706 today with a ^6 advance single bought only last night!

It would have been very easy to have designed the layouts to avoid the table seats having the window pillars in the middle of them. The windows are bigger than the seating bays, yes, and that has always been the case as the mk3 window layout was designed such that the 1st class seats (with more legroom) aligned with the windows.

If you sit in a refurbished coach it is immediately obvious how by turning round a few sets of seats it would be possible to achieve a much better window alignment. True, this would create a small number of pairs of airline seats with not much of a view but as people have said there are many who don't look out of the window at all.

Given that the seats are attached to runners, it would surely be possible to make this small modification?