Iniquitous rail fares

Some connections to my home town are made by a more circuitous route than others. You are expected to pay a premium for the 28-mile detour - on a "Pacer". Not only that, but there are no Advance tickets available by the longer route, so it's "Anytime" fares only.

Greater Anglia Rolling stock

Although built in the 1980s, the current Norwich Line trains have only been on that line since 2004. But give me a West Coast Main Line cast-off (which is what they are) rather than a brand new Thameslink cattle truck any day! (or for that matter the Pendolinos that now work the WCML)

Day trip to Box Hill

Waterloo to Zone 6 on Oyster, off peak, is £4, so a round trip by train and 465 bus to Boxhill can be done for (£4+£1.50) x 2 = £11. The daily cap is £12.50.

You could, just about, do it for less than £9 by taking the Underground to Wimbledon (£2.80) and then two buses to Boxhill (£1.50 Hopper fare), although you would be cutting it fine to catch a second bus within the hour on the way back.

Network Railcard

Both Huntingdon and St Neots are in the Network Railcard area.

Chains of stations in alphabetical order

If you take two random stations, the odds are 3/1 that at least one of them (the later one) is in the second half of the alphabet. The odds of the next one down the line being even further towards the end of the alphabet are less than half. As your chain progresses, the number of available stations gets shorter and shorter, so the odds against get longer and longer.The odds are not 50/50 each time.

Letter frequency makes no difference, as it merely the stations' positions in the sequence that matters.

Alphabetical order stations

If you take the direct line from Vauxhall to Weybridge, you'll not call at any station with a Q in it.

But if you take the other route, via Chiswick, you don't need to go any further than Brentford to find all the letters except Z.

Stations in alphabetical order

After leaving Moorfields on the way back to Bidston you go round the loop, passing through Liverpool Lime Street and Liverpool Central, before reaching James Street. Thus there are nine (not seven) stations in reverse alphabetical order.

Chester

Channel 4 had a programme about the history of Chester on Saturday.

"give me a ring"

That ambiguity led to Uncle Percy Spillinger's sixth (and last) marriage at the age of 81 in "The Fall & Rise of Reginald Perrin"