I agree it's a well-researched article and matches what I found when looking into flexible tickets.  I've adjusted my travel times to try and get the cheapest train, and use split tickets where possible

I'm a FT subscriber, so this link will allow 3 people to read the article without a subscription: https://on.ft.com/3HZ7ddw

It seems like a reasonable compromise to me, cheaper than buying a season ticket for every day and cheaper than buying individual tickets, so although the per journey cost is higher, it still means I would spend less money commuting.

Key for me is how these will work in practice (I haven't read anything more than the FT summary); do I have to commute on the same days each week?  Can I commute 5 days one week and none the next?  Can I change the flexible ticket to a standard season ticket if I need to commute 5 days a week?   

Before the pandemic I commuted 3-5 days a week depending on what meetings I had and what days my wife was working at home.  My employer is going to try flexi working once we go back to the office (going in at the same time as the rest of the team) but the details still need to be worked out.

The photo is printed on the back of the smartcard, no idea if I need to carry my photocard as well.

Quick update - managed to get my paper ticket swapped to the smartcard at Paddington.  Left the card with them on Monday and told to collect that evening.  I received an email during the day letting me know that the system had crashed and to come back yesterday and collect - wonder if that was related to the change of procedures?  I actually collected this morning and it's worked fine on the tube but not tried it yet on GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway).

After my son saw a poster about the GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) Touch smartcard and asked why I hadn't got one (I managed to be one of the first people to get an Oystercard) I applied for one (after reading the posts on here about it being a soft launch)

A couple of days later the card arrived, but there's no details on the website about how to transfer a paper ticket to the smartcard.  I asked via the "question not in faq link" and they said any ticket office do that for me.

All excited I popped into the ticket office at Swindon to find that one staff member hadn't yet been trained, and the other staff member didn't have a working password.  They managed to read the card but couldn't work out how to transfer my ticket.  Undeterred I decided to try the next day at Paddington as I was sure they would be more prepared.  Had two staff members trying to work out how to do it as one thought it wasn't possible and the other was sure it had been added the day before but after about 10 minutes they couldn't find any option.

Unless I get some free time it looks like I'll be staying on my paper ticket until it stops working and see if they can re-issue it to the smart card, if not, it will have to wait until next years renewal 

I've just done the calculations for my season ticket and I think the switch to delay repay will mean I get less compensation for delays and need to do lots more paperwork to claim.

Currently I've got a 5% discount for the last few years.

Under delay repay (assuming GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) uses similar rules to Southern and South Eastern) it's 0.1% of the annual season ticket price every time I'm delayed by more than 30 minutes but less than 60 minutes, and 0.2% of the annual season ticket for delays of over 60 minutes (i.e. assumes I make 500 journeys per year).

According to recenttraintimes.co.uk my usual trains only have delays of 31-60 minutes around 2% of the time and delays of over 60 minutes 1% of the time.

So my compensation once delay repay comes into force will be around 2% but I'll need to fill in a claim form around 15 times per year.

I think it's a fairer system, especially for people who've paid a small fortune for a walk up ticket, but I think the amount of compensation paid out will go down even if we ignore the people who won't bother to claim.

I think there was only about 20 spaces left in Swindon main car park when I got there just before 7am!

I missed the survey (as I was on holiday) but as a regular commuter I usually arrive less than 2 minutes before the train leaves, usually having run from the car park :/

There is another train 3 minutes after my regular train and another 14 minutes after that one, but I still end up running far too often.

What I want

a) IEP^▸ (Intercity Express Program / Project. This will offer more capacity on routes, save money, give a consistent and safe service and meet customer requirements. Intended to replace HSTs.) service to result in same (or more) seats from Swindon in the morning and to Swindon in the evenings
b) Crossrail interchange at Paddington to save me time getting to Liverpool St and/or Canary Wharf (currently looks like it might save 5 minutes)
c) Shuttle service Paddington to Reading and some long distance services non-stopping at Reading in the evening peaks.

Last is to prevent the current situation where all trains leave Paddington standing room only and end up half full after Reading!

I've already answered the poll but thought I'd add some explanation - I voted too far and unsafe which are sort of contradictory.  I live 7 miles from the station, cycling would add about an hour a day to my commute (which is already 4 hours per day) so from that point of view it's too far.  The 7 miles are down narrow country lanes which I wouldn't feel comfortable cycling on - I've had too many near misses on that road in my car as other drivers often overtake on blind corners and go too fast for the conditions.

From a tweet by @BTPPaddington a few days ago all the shops are closing due to redevelopment of the Lawn, although I can't find any other mention of it.

The clock jumping forwards on a reboot problem tripped my "that's curious" switch, so I had a quick google.  I wonder if it might be the /etc/adjtime file?  See https://eloquence.marxmeier.com/sdb/html/954237377.html for more details.

I had exactly the same thoughts - I stopped using thetrainline a long time ago because they started charging and recently stopped using redspottedhanky for the same reason.

I think it will be similar to the directory enquiries businesses, infrequent users will use the most heavily advertised services and more regular ticket buyers will use other companies which don't charge a fee.  I wonder if that's mentioned in the prospectus?

I saw the text messages and tried to get the early train from Swindon (0641) which wasn't cancelled - didn't make it.  Sat at the train station until the next train (0728 actually left at 0745) and got the one after instead (0741, arrived at 0752 and left about 10 minutes later after we'd managed to convince everyone left on the platform that it was full and there was no more space).

Standing room only with extra stops at Maidenhead and Slough, although no-one got on or off as there was no space, finally crawled into London Paddington at 11:25ish

Wish my boss allowed me to work from home

I was at Paddington last night and it was the worst I'd ever seen.  I saw the mass scrum towards the 18:30 train and decided to get a coffee instead and wait for the 19:30 hoping services would be getting back to normal.  The 19:30 was announced a few minutes late on platform 1, we all rushed there only to find a completely full train with the doors locked!  I'm guessing it was an earlier service which had been "re-branded" as the 19:30, as other posters have commented there was a complete lack of information.  I got the 19:45 to Plymouth instead as most of the Reading bound commuters were still on platform 1 wondering what had happened and I changed trains at Reading to get to Swindon.

There were frequent announcements over the tannoys that customers for Reading were advised to get the train from Waterloo, but seeing the "delays of up to one hour" on SWT^▸ (South West Trains) website put me and I'm guessing a lot of other commuters off of that option.

Only bright side was that being one of the first onto the 19:45 (as the lights were off and the doors were locked until the last minute) I got a seat - which I promptly gave up to an elderly couple who were heading home from Belgium and had been travelling since 9am!

Delays at Pangbourne this morning as according to the train manager when they were putting in the pillars for electrification they have accidentally severed 15 cables!  Queue of trains outside Reading on the Main and Relief lines.  Train manager has kindly declassified first class (first time I've heard seen that happen) as he doesn't know how long the delays are likely to be.