A couple who had a brief encounter on a late-night train have got engaged on the same service one year later.

Steve Higgs, 56, from Leighton Buzzard, Bedfordshire, set up the surprise proposal to Payal Pandya, from Harrow, London, after a train company got on board with the plans.

He said he first met Ms Pandya, 49, on the 23:09 London Northwestern Railway (LNR) service from Euston towards Milton Keynes in November 2024.

To mark their anniversary the couple boarded the same service and Mr Higgs got down on one knee to ask Ms Pandya to marry him - and wedding plans are now moving full steam ahead.

....  it was booked to wait an hour at Salisbury, which put me in mind of something ....

16:23 Westbury to Swindon due 17:06
17:35 Swindon to Westbury due 18:19

17:35 Swindon to Westbury due 18:19 will be cancelled.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.

X10 until Christmas Eve via Cribbs Causway and South mead hospital

TIME TABLE

https://thebiglemon.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/The-Big-Lemon-X10-31-08-2025-1.pdf

Parallel move to South Bank - one of the few banks remaining open

Time to employ the reverse Rushton and block that then takes us to Saint Andrews Road .

Time for me to employ The Mortimer and Whitehouse variant , and without fishing for compliments I present to you Taunton.

In which case I'm going to Looe.

Early in the round I know,however using the  Armitage Shanks gambit ,I see your Dawlish Warren,and raise you Bridgwater.

I'll give you a starter of Bude - from GWR's virtual branch lines.

First Group plc Regulatory Announcement

8 years (with 2 year option) from 3rd May 2026 to operate all the London Overground network (those operated by class 378 and 710 trains)

Although obviously a joke, has made me think, could some senior First Group staff currently involved with GWR franchise/management contract, transfer to their new Overground concession to run that instead.

Not a lot of reason to stay with GWR, if at risk when GWR is nationalised later in 2026

.....and maybe one or two staff shortages? 

09/12/25 23:45 London Paddington to Penzance due 07:55 was terminated at Truro.

It will no longer call at Redruth, Camborne, Hayle, St Erth and Penzance.
This is due to flooding.

Mornington Crescent is a game featured in the BBC Radio 4 comedy panel show "I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue" (ISIHAC). The game consists of each panellist in turn announcing a landmark or street, most often a tube station on the London Underground system. The ostensible aim is to be the first to announce "Mornington Crescent", a station on the Northern line.

A few snippets of where they are with the nationalised operators were included in DfTs launch of GBR

SWR some upgrades of 159s between now and 2028  (so going nowhere soon)

South Eastern procurement by mid 2026 for metro routes to replace networkers

Northern contract for ordering over 130 trains during 2027 (subject to a business case)

Transpennine : no mention of the proposed 29 trains


https://www.gov.uk/government/case-studies/gbr-improvements-train-operators-in-public-ownership-are-making-for-customers

GWR is not yet nationalised, so nothing about when GWR might get something to replace its 33-40 year old DMU fleet and aging night stock.

Date set for challenge over second Gatwick runway

A legal challenge over plans for a second runway at Gatwick Airport is set to be heard in January, a High Court judge has said.

The privately-funded scheme, costing £2.2bn, will see the airport move its emergency runway 12m (39ft) north, enabling it to be used for about 100,000 more flights a year.

Campaign group Communities against Gatwick Noise Emissions (Cagne) and chairman of the Gatwick Area Conservation Campaign Peter Barclay are taking legal action against the Department for Transport (DfT) over Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander's decision to approve plans.

The DfT and the airport's owner, Gatwick Airport Limited (GAL), are opposing the challenge, which will begin on 20 January 2026. At a hearing on Tuesday, Mr Justice Mould said the case would be heard over four days.

Estelle Dehon KC, for Cagne, had asked the court for the challenge to be heard in February or March due to barristers for the group being unavailable in January, resulting in an "inequality of arms".

But Mr Justice Mould said that while he was "not oblivious" to the group's concerns, the date would not change. He said: "It is in the highest degree desirable that it should be dealt with as expeditiously as possible. I am afraid I have to be pretty hard-nosed about this, and I appreciate this will create inconvenience to quite a number of people in the room."

Announcing its legal challenge in November, Cagne said there was a failure to properly evaluate the significance of inbound flight emissions and to assess the effect of non-carbon dioxide emissions on the climate.

In written submissions for Tuesday's hearing, Nigel Pleming KC, for the DfT, said some of Mr Barclay's and Cagne's arguments were "irrefutably unarguable".

James Strachan KC, for GAL, said in written submissions: "GAL first applied for development consent in July 2023, almost two-and-a-half years ago, and GAL is keen to begin the development which has been granted consent. It is obviously contrary to the public interest that (unmeritorious) litigation such as these claims should unnecessarily delay national infrastructure projects such as the proposed development."