Epsom and Oyster

Epsom won't be Oysterised whilst the local MP is also Transport Secretary. He is on record as not wanting the mayor's influence to extend beyond the Greater London boundary, even though it seems many of his constituents are keen for it to do so.

Bus safety

All buses have a device which has actuators to control the closing of the doors and the operation of the handbrake, built-in sensors that can detect if there are any standing passengers, a means of making announcements, and a central processor capable of determining whether and when such an announcement would be appropriate.

It's called a driver.

The Guardian

The paper's never been the same since it dropped the word "Manchester" from the masthead.

Stations with an infrequent service

One reason these trains run at quiet times is because rolling stock is available then. For those stations where there are extra stops (rather than extra trains) it may be for timing reasons - at quiet times they are more likely to be able to make up the delay involved in making the stop.

Infrequent train services

Fishguard Harbour is in Wales and has 39 train departures a week - six a day except on Sundays when there are only three.

The Co-Op in Nuneaton

The Heart of England Co-Op (one of several independent Co-Ops in the Midlands and East Anglia) closed all its department stores 18 months ago to concentrate on its food and funeral care businesses, but the building in Nuneaton still houses its head office.

Telephone exchanges

Many telephone exchanges are still in use by BT as offices and depots. Even though the serried ranks of plug-and-socket boards operated by well-spoken young ladies, or the later mechanical Strowger equipment taking up several floors of a buiding, may have long ago been replaced by a box of electronics which would fit into a large cupboard, all the cables still go into the building so they can't sell, let alone demolish, it.

Thameslink service patterns

On a date not that far away (before the end of the current football season!), if you used to have services via London Bridge to Charing Cross, the planned service pattern suggests you are more likely to have direct trains to Luton Airport than to Peterborough.

My journey from Holborn Viaduct didn't change in either speed or frequency when it switched to City TL, but now the train is already full when I join it instead of me getting first dibs at the terminus. And electrification of the main line out of Kings Cross means I lost the direct trains I used to use to visit my family.

London Bridge station

Platform 1 was in a different location in the old station - roughly where platform 2 is now, but there had not been a platform 7 for many years.

I recall reading that although Thameslink trains will not be calling at London Bridge until May, some trains may be routed that way before then (rather than the slower route via Tulse Hill) for driver training purposes. Likewise the odd Peterborough service may find itself at St Pancras Low level instead of Kings Cross.