I have only (personally) made use of it once that I can recall - having bought a ticket for someone staying with us, but on the morning she was headed for Manchester, plans were changed on a family crisis.  I was actually pleasantly surprised I could get my money back, even though validity had started.

I understand that this is to counter ticket fraud, where unchecked tickets or tickets not put through an automatic barrier have been submitted for refunds, despite the ticket holder having travelled.

I'm guessing that the 'certain exceptional conditions' will include (but not necessarily limited to).... Disruption resulting in the ticket holder not starting or abandoning the journey; health conditions where the holder is unable to travel, etc. Whether guidelines will be published or the decision left to the discretion of the retailer, I do not know.

My message would be don't write off travelling to any country simply because you don't care for the incumbent regime. If I had, my horizons would have been considerably reduced.

Americans generally speaking are very well disposed to the British and your chances of coming to harm are minimal - probably safer there than in many parts of Europe in all honesty.

The TransWilts/Arts Society photography competition attracted 200 entries with a wide variety of subjects.

The judges are now working on an initial shortlist with the aim of whittling it down to the final 50 prize winners. The images will then be specially printed on weatherproof board and displayed at our seven local stations.

The successful winners will be contacted in early March.  It is planned the displays will be in place on the platforms by Easter.

Advance warning for nine-day rail closure in May


Part of the line had to close in 2021 after a landslip near Bearsted

Rail passengers in Kent are being asked to plan ahead as a nine-day closure of a route is scheduled for May.

The line between Borough Green & Wrotham and Ashford International, via Maidstone East, will be closed from Saturday 23 May to Sunday 31 May inclusive.

During the closure, buses will replace trains, with services running from Borough Green to London and also from Ashford. Stations that will have no service include West Malling, Maidstone East, Bearsted and Lenham.

Network Rail said it needed to carry out essential upgrades to improve the long‑term reliability of the line, after the route had to close near Bearsted in 2021 due to a landslip.

Works will include improving drainage in the Wheeler Street tunnel between Maidstone East and Bearstead, replacing nearly 2,500 yards of track between Harrietsham and Charing, and the replacement of the level crossing at Ryarsh Lane near West Malling.

David Davidson, chief operating officer for Southeastern Railway, said: "The Ashford to Maidstone East line is an extremely busy part of our railway, but the rock cuttings here are more than 150 years old. As a result, we are seeing an increasing number of weather and ground movement related incidents which cause delays to our customers. We want to fix this, and we need to do the work as quickly as possible over the nine-day closure rather than during a series of disruptive weekends."

Network Rail said detailed travel advice, including ticket acceptance, would be provided before the closure begins.

My "keyhole" picture was taken at Chippenham Station ...

A really difficult one - where there's a "hard line" between two categories in a continuum, and where you have such a hard line there will always be issues - and temptation by the arbiters to push the decision in the way that favours them.

1.  Why set the cut off points at 30 and 60 minutes - they could almost have been designed to cause problems on "clock face" services where people drop back through a cancellation or a missed connection into the following train.  Why not 25 or 35, 55 or 65 minutes?

2. With modern electronics and calculations, why not a sliding scale?  Up to 25 minutes, no delay / repay, then a sliding scale up to 65 minutes after which full single journey refund is due.  Perhaps with a minimum refund of 2 pounds to avoid the overhead of "pence" claims?  And, yes, I am aware that will give rise to anomalies such as parent getting a payment back, and son/daughter not.

I suspect that the older Welsh stock is largely held together with duck tape, baler twine and livery vinyl by now. 

• The number of times I've had a 15 minute delay but it's been logged as 14 minute so not payable, or 30 minute logged as 29 minute. Sometimes it genuinely just missed the threshold; other times I've had the claim rejected because it was so close.

‘Don’t go to the US – not with Trump in charge’: the UK tourist with a valid visa detained by ICE for six weeks

Karen Newton was in America on the trip of a lifetime when she was shackled, transported and held for weeks on end. With tourism to the US under increasing strain, she says, ‘If it can happen to me, it can happen to anyone’

BREAKING: WTF? Trump's ICE goons shackled and threw a British grandma on a tourist visa in their gulag for SIX WEEKS!
Karen Newton, a 65-year-old grandmother from Hertfordshire, England with a clean record and a valid B2 tourist visa, thought she was heading for a dream two-month road trip through four Western states and Canada with her husband Bill.
What she got instead was a nightmare: six weeks in ICE detention after being shackled, sleeping on the floor, and locked in a windowless cell with no end date in sight.

Nasa astronauts' moon mission delayed due to rocket issue



Nasa has said that its 6 March launch day for its long-awaited lunar mission is now "out of consideration", after it spotted several last minute issues during routine checks that would prevent lift off.

On Friday, the space agency said that its Artemis II mission, which would see astronauts sent to the moon for the first time in 50 years, would likely have the green light to launch within a matter of weeks.

But NASA administrator Jared Isaacman announced on Saturday that setbacks would mean that further maintenance would have to be carried out.

Four astronauts are preparing to be sent on the 10-day trip to the far side of the Moon and back, marking humanity's furthest ever journey into space.

Isaacman said he understood "that people are disappointed by this development", after almost 50-hours of checks on Thursday revealed no faults.

The agency felt almost certain that its "wet rehearsal" had been a success, leading the team to announce that the launch could take place as soon as 6 March.

But overnight on Friday, engineers observed an interruption in the flow of helium required for launch operations.

Disruption to helium, which is used to pressurise fuel tanks and cool rocket systems, is treated as a serious technical issue, according to Nasa.

(BBC article continues)

Nasa boss says Boeing Starliner failure one of worst in its history


Nasa astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore were stranded in space for over nine months

Nasa has labelled the botched 2024 Starliner mission, which left two astronauts stranded in space for months, a "Type A" mishap, on par with fatal shuttle disasters of the past, in a newly published report.

The category is the space agency's most severe, reserved for incidents causing more than $2m (£1.49 m) in damage, the loss of a vehicle or its control, or deaths.

On Thursday, Nasa's new boss, Jared Isaacman, blasted Boeing, which built Starliner, and the space agency for poor decision-making and leadership that led to the failed mission.

The incident drew global attention after the pilots were stuck for more than nine months in space before returning home last March.

Isaacman, an amateur jet pilot who was the first non-professional astronaut to conduct a spacewalk, took Nasa's top job in late 2025 after a second nomination by US President Donald Trump. His approval came after a turbulent process in which Trump put forward Isaacman's name for the role but then withdrew it during a public feud with Tesla and SpaceX boss Elon Musk, who is a close ally of Isaacman.

In a statement on Starliner's findings, Isaacman said the spacecraft had faced issues throughout its prior recent missions but had still been accepted for the test. "We are correcting those mistakes. Today, we are formally declaring a Type A mishap and ensuring leadership accountability so situations like this never reoccur."

Nasa's "Type A" grade puts the Starliner incident at the same level assigned to the fatal 2003 Columbia and 1986 Challenger space shuttle disasters.

The agency said in its statement: "While there were no injuries and the mission regained control prior to docking, this highest-level classification designation recognises there was potential for a significant mishap."

Nasa's 312-page report comes after the agency commissioned an independent investigation team to identify the causes behind the troubled mission. Investigators flagged hardware failures, leadership missteps and cultural problems at the organisations that led to conditions that fell short of the space agency's safety standards.

The report also highlighted poor engineering and a lack of oversight at Boeing, which helped turn an eight-to-14-day mission into a months-long ordeal for the test pilots, Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore.

The pair waited months on board the International Space Station before getting a lift from a SpaceX flight in March 2025. Both pilots have since retired from the agency.

Nasa said it will accept this as the final report and is taking corrective actions to address the findings.

"While Boeing built Starliner, Nasa accepted it and launched two astronauts to space," Isaacman said. "To undertake missions that change the world, we must be transparent about both our successes and our shortcomings. We have to own our mistakes and ensure they never happen again."

The pair waited months on board the International Space Station before getting a lift from a SpaceX flight in March 2025. Both pilots have since retired from the agency.

I was wondering where it might be ...

Model Britain is currently in active pre-application dialogue with Milton Keynes Council regarding two potential sites, and with West Northamptonshire Council regarding an additional site located on the Milton Keynes boundary.

Last weekend in The Marches and Wales, I was struck by the number of class 197s around and they are replacing classes 150, 153 and 158 aren't they? ... just asking.   

Rare albino squirrel spotted in tree by children


Albino squirrels are thought to a one-in-100,000 genetic occurrence

Two children have spotted and photographed a rare albino squirrel in a churchyard.

James, 11, and Jennifer, eight, identified the animal on Monday at St Martin's Church in Dorking, Surrey, their mother Abigail told the BBC.

Albino squirrels, thought to a one-in-100,000 genetic occurrence, are identified by their white coat with pink eyes.

"I think the people in the churchyard were quite bemused at what we were looking at but the children were really, really excited, especially my son," Abigail said. She said the family were counting squirrels when daughter Jennifer spotted the animals and her son identified it as albino.

James is "very into his animals so he understood what he was seeing" and was "over the moon" with the find, according to his mother. She said: "He was really keen to take some pictures. He sent it to all his friends. He sent it to some of his friends' mums. He sent it to all our family."

Thanks for your post, johnneyw. 

What struck me about that announcement was the sheer number of words in it: why sum it up briefly in five words when you can add another twenty and hide the meaning completely?

CfN.