I have been waiting since mid May for Trenitalia to cough up 50 euros for a taxi fare at 1am in the morning. My return train from Syracuse was stopped by a RTI at a level crossing outside Lentini. After an hours wait we trundled back to Syracuse , waited outside for a non existent coach before being put back on the same train. Our destination was Taormina!. Anyone who knows Taormina knows the train stataion is at sea level and the town is 800ft up via hairpin bends and no pavement, a couple of miles away. The last bus had left at 0820,it was now 1245am ! I have sent the taxi receipt and ticket to Taormina and the train part has been paid. I have been sending emails in Italian to rimborsi and reclami email addresses but have heard nothing.

 
Yes, it is a timing point: https://bustimes.org/services/x34-frome-trowbridge-chippenham

 
Looks like another 175 is due to leave Wolverton works for Plymouth today

https://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/service/gb-nr:K00010/2026-08-06/detailed

 

I am going to leave the historians here to answer that one in detail.

I am just back from Germany and have been to so many major stations.  Some are clearly modern, some clearly historic, and some are very much a mixture.  Just what proportion of the "historic" are in reality rebuilds in the old mould, and what proportion of "modern" are actually nothing to do with WWII damage, but rather otherwise rebuilds of time-expired or outdated facilities, I would not like to guess.

A hundred years ago, railways were run with steam engines - horrid, dirty, environment polluting and inefficient machined that needed a lot of staff, services, supplies and attention to work and which had really slow and run-around times after each and every run.   There days -take a look at everywhere from Felixstowe to Severn Beach - you can find the best ever / most frequent service ever yet at a tiny piece of infrastructure compared to what it was in the past.   There IS a difference in many parts of Europe - many of the older stations remain - especially those below the "major" level - but in a sad state of decay / repair with new platforms plonked on the old infrastructure.

 
Plankton.issue.hopeless.
Pilning Station ……….

 
The background and plan

My Interrail pass expires (exhausted!) tomorrow - it has run continuous from 8th May to 7th August 2026, and in that period I will have been in 14 countries and travelled about 270 journey "legs" in that period.  I estimate that around two third of the journey legs have been on the pass, other being little local and UK extras, ferries (4 routes, 8 journeys), and UK personal stuff between the four major travel sets. I have checked into 27 different hotels - one of them twice. Seen places from Aachen to Zwicau and many between - love the majority of them; a couple I (or we) would not return to.

I say "we" - Lisa accompanied me on two of the trips, and my cousins Jennifer and Steve for much of a third. And Lisa's cousins Steve and Dana for a number of the personal legs one day in the UK. Enjoyed all that company - but also very much a lone traveller at times (not so much a lone diner) and enjoy that and meeting people along the way where the happenstance is such that conversation breaks out - Peter in Prague last week, and a conversation snatched with a diner in the Thai takeaway in Aachen two days ago.  In the "travel with"s - not totally all the same journeys; really good to each / all do our own "thing" too.

I started writing a couple of hours ago; leg counting, etc, means my flow of words hasn't been as fast as usual. A real pleasure to be home in my own bed, and to be (physically) cool.  At times, the heat has been intense this summer to the extent of curtailing some plans, and showing for my physical wellbeing the need for cooling / air conditioning.  Some hotels are excellent, but others struggle - and I am reminded of "Mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the midday sun". Some places to be re-visited, perhaps, in spring or autumn, and some potential destinations left for that time of year when Europe is not burning.

My intent in writing during this night is to update / describe the journey home and, hopefully for readers, share experiences that may help in following our footsteps - in principle, if not physically the same places.  Have an (outline) plan - a "Plan A" - and keep it practical.  And think about what your alternatives might be if things don't run perfactly.

48 hours ago, we were in Leipzig in Germany. "Plan A" was to catch the 10:49 train, change in Frankfurt, grabbing a snack there, and arrive in Aachen at around 4 p.m. for an overnight stop.  Start up again 24 hours ago, the 08:04 train to Brussels, Eurostar to London, train to Chippenham and the bus that runs once a day from there to the stop across the road from our home.  What could possibly go wrong?  As it happens, plenty, but yet home on time.  This is the sort of travel that you need to be comfortable making a "Plan B", compromising a bit and still enjoying, and not being really put out if you end up on even on a dynamic "Plan C" and perhaps with a bit of discomfort and extra cost.  Neither Lisa nor I are as fit as we used to be and "running for the [train/bus]" isn't the exhilarating pleasure it used to be!

Tuesday, 4th August 2026

Hotel breakfast in Leipzig - lovely hotel, wonderful breakfast, 10 minutes on foot to the station ... and an indication (not that it mattered) that our train was going to be 10 minutes late. Coming in from Hamburg, carrying on according to the timetable, to Munich - long distance German trains are not as reliable os they used to be. The train arrived - a few minutes late, and at a different platform to planned because of another delayed train being stuck there for "technical reasons".   And ours sat too - passengers advised that the next couple of stops at Erfurt and Fulda would be skipped due to a diversion.  We set out perhaps half an hour late, the high speed line we were supposed to take closed, and went the pretty way.  A scheduled arrival at 13:44 into Frankfurt became an estimated 17:29, and an extra stop at Würzburg was added because there was a connecting train onward to Munich from there, ours now being terminate short at Frankfurt.

The estimated 17:29 arrival pulled forward to a 17:04 estimate - long after our connection to Aachen would have left; that turned out to be cancelled but really that was academic by that point.  And our "Plan B" was to switch to the 17:18 as far as Cologne ... as we pulled in at 17:20 on the end we had (and good luck) a four minute scramble around the platform end onto the (re) planned connection which was actually headed for Essen.  We jumped / loaded on at the very back of the train as did many others, and just found ourselves the last two seats - separate, but we were seated as we really need to be these days, the seats we took reluctantly given up by fellow passenger's hand baggage for the purpose.  Lisa and I texted back and forth on follow up planning - Sieburg/Bonn, Koln Messe, Dusseldorf Hbf and Essen are not Aachen where our hotel was booked.

And so ... off at Koln Messe - a strange station where the through high speed north-south lines curl under the local and east-west lines - just a further 5 minute ride on a local S-bahn service to Koln Hbf at the higher level, except that a lady advised us to use a platform-end lift that left us in the subway under the station, with the lift up to the platform we needed "Defunkt" according to the label. We are - fortunately - practised now at taking "Henry", Lisa's mobility helper, on escalators and so up to the platform.

The line from Cologne to Aachen was shut!  A mixture of relaying work on the main lines, some sort of accidental track damage on the S-bahn lines, and the long distance diversion route via Monchengladbach being out of commission (someone mentioned lightning). Cologne to Aachen is about 60kms and by this time it was around 18:45.  Rail replacement buses, apparently, from Koln Hbf.  So a 5 minute run on another S-bahn train into Hbf followed by a game of hunt-the-lift and the traditional game of hunt-the-bus.  To be fair, finding the bus was easy and it was waiting to take off at 19:00.  A transport worker blocked our way, not allowing us to hop on with our stuff, so the bus could leave on time.

Next bus - 30 minutes later, and people gathered and gathered for it.  Vehicle pulled in a couple of minutes before it was due to leave and we had a classic Darwinian example of "Survival of the fittest". All seats take by the fit folks who scrambled on first, and the mobility and pram space taken up by a lady with an electric bike (really! - in a bus). Lisa got on and - a huge "thank you" to the young gent who gave up his seat for her as it was clearly visible that it wouldn't be a good idea for her to stand.  Really not a good idea for me to stand either for the 85 minute journey, but I did; my disabled railcard does get me some fare concessions in the UK and occasionally wider, but it's not obvious that I struggle at times and I prefer equal to preferential treatment ... but that was a hard journey.  And so along the motorway to Aachen, dropped off across from HbF at 20:55 versus "Plan A" of 15:57 - so that's just shy of 5 hours late.

Ten minutes to hotel - this was the one hotel repeated from earlier in the trip, so no hunting around - but then to find some food and to bring back to eat in the room.  We are kebbaed and Pizzaed out and being Germany fancied a Bratwurst (only got one once and that was the worst wurst I think I have had) - three possible places - all closed by that time, and I ended up with actually a rather good Asian / Thai takeaway at a reasonable price too. And so ended out Leipzig - Aachen day.  Even a further 2 hours - we would have got there; not to be repeated daily, but my logging of the issues gives lie to the day still being a positive adventure, and we got there in the end.

Wednesday, 5th August 2026

"Plan A" was the 08:04 Aachen to Brussel Midi, 10:56 Eurostar to London, tube, 13:00 Paddington to Chippenham, 14:46 bus home. So what happened - "none of the above". Or to be accurate, only the tube.

Evidence from Tuesday suggested that the 08:04 would be a high risk strategy, so we raided the hotel buffet just a few minutes before it opened at 06:30 and made ourselves a packed breakfast (with approval) and got up to the station in good time for the 06:55 cross-border shuttle into Belgium at 06:55 - changed at Werkenraedt onto the Oostende train which, on an interesting  planned diversion, dropped us off at about 10:10 in Brussels, half an hour AFTER the 08:04 should have arrived (it didn't - as expected it had been cancelled).

Eurostar had already notified us of an amendment to our train - 11:26 rather than 10:56 so we had good time to make the connection.  They are rather good / used to handling passengers with reduced mobility and although queues were not dramatically long, we were invited to use the priority lines.   But then not allowed to use the travellator up to the platform - they insisted we wait for the lift, even while they tried to persuades those with pushchairs with babies to use the moving sloping platform.

Left on time, pick up stop in Lille, 10 minute late even on the adjusted timescale into St Pancras. We were mid-train and even before we got off the platform, another Eurostar arrived across from us.  Amazingly, no queue for the lift down to customs - and (as seems routine for British customs) just a walk / ride through their chicane.  Into the zoo of St Pancras!   Two lifts down to the Circle line platform, one of which went out of service as we got there, and a staff member came and reset it.  Let the Chesham semi-fast go and just behind it caught the Hammersmith service - smooth (well - tosses and turns a bit over the points) ride to Paddington.  Lift up, walk along past the taxis, and lift down and onto The Lawn.

The 13:30 rather than than the 13:00 was now our intended plan.  Said to be "on time" but no platform even by 13:20; the industry feed suggested platform 5, and we waited near there - overtaken by a flood of people when it was called, but we found seats mid-train and left on time.  But ... 5 late by Swindon and 10 late by Chippenham.  Train manager apologised for the delay and said they had to run slower because of the hot weather; I suspect there's more to it, as online logging sites did not show trains before or after delayed in the same way.

Scheduled into Chippenham at 14:32, bus at 14:46, just on platform pair and brand new bus facilities directly out f the front - should have been enough?  No, not with Henry. The lifts are to the second footbridge along the platform, and once you get up the lift you have to do a complete circle around it before you can cross the railway, going through a ticket gate that didn't understand Lisa's Interrail pass on the way.  No gate staff on duty - very luckily got through quite quickly (thanks to an industry friend who happened to be passing.

Across to the second lift, down onto the disused platform from where you can exit via the night entrance to the side of the main station building - which we did, and dashed out to the front - according to my phone-watch at 14:45 to see the bus pulling out towards Station Hill.  I don't know whether Chippenham Station is a "timing point" on this journey, or whether the 14:46 published time is just an estimate here - frustrating none the less.

After an early start (my alarm at 05:30 / 04:30 BST) and a meeting to attend it Trowbridge at 17:00, we decided having missed the direct bus to take a taxi.  The first taxi declined to take us ("my car is too small") but the second one was AOK about us - two people, a small suitcase, a pack, and Henry who folds to being just as small as the suitcase. Interesting questions about this - whether the first driver was being discriminatory or not, and if whether he had a right ton be so. And how the public transport rights to get you to destination break down when a connection between one public transport provider and another break down when the interface is between modes.

Summarising

So there you have it - we love doing the Interrail thing and have had a great three months, but happy to be home and not to be going anywhere in the immediate future (OK - I have meeting at Dilton Marsh Station at 12:30 today) but you / we always need to travel with both a "Plan A" and a "Plan B", and not to be too concerned even if you have to switch to a "Plan C" or even unplanned "D" or "E".

Timetables should be treated as guidelines not promises, and if there's a vital element / leg in there, good buffer time in the journeys before.  Observation of what's going on a round is hugely informative as things change.

The vast majority of public transport staff and other officials are hugely helpful, especially so if treated with respect and appreciation shown.   Fellow passengers are a much more mixed bunch.  Some are lovely, helpful but other aren't and see others around them, perhaps, as a nuisance.  But then we don't really appreciate the screaming child from Lille to St Pancras so we're not perfect either.  Actually, I think she was a bit bored and had a low attention span, and Dad was very much aware of the "terrible two"s.

Lulu and Lightning have been sleeping close last night and we were greeted warmly, and thanks to Chris for looking after them and the house.  That's an arrangement that seems to work well for everyone, and that's really how things should be through life.  There will be another story tomorrow - we're looking forward to elements coming together - but just for today, tidy, washing, Dilton Marsh, MEG meeting and another cup of coffee.  Can't better the machine which I liked so much last year in Mosjeon that I bought one when I got home.

 
Were many very large German railway stations damaged by the bombers from the allied forces during World war two.

Which lead to them being totally rebuilt or having to be demolished because the had suffered too much damage.

 
A date for your diary - 5th June 2027 - 90th Birthday Party for Dilton Marsh - the most recent brand new station opened in Wiltshire.  From last night's WWRUG Committee meeting - various ideas discussed; watch this space!

 
fence.gross.bats - Buckingham Palace
beats.member.daily - Long Island, NY

 

Beeching used inter-city uncapitalised, so in that sense it was not branding, it was the same adjectival usage we'd had for 50 years for railways. But he did identify intercity services as a worthwhile business that could be developed further and modernised. It even had some glamour (or even sex appeal) to help sell it, as we found out a bit later. So yes, it was the basis for the brand, but the naming came later. It is hard to unremember that InterCity is a brand and go back to the time before when it wasn't (even for those of us who were there at the time).

 
An update, from the BBC:

 
From the BBC:

 
I have an account with RTT so I believe can look back a lot further than a free account can.

If I can help, DM me your trains & I'll look them up for you?

 
Irritating Delay Repay issue!

I made a journey July, and decided to take a long, slow multi-TOC route with several tickets in order to keep costs down. Predictably for a weekend in a heatwave, things fell apart and I had delays going out and back.

The outward Delay Repay claim with GWR went through fine.

The return journey's claim just sat there being processed for weeks. It was a hard call – Southern had delays, but made the GWR connection because it was also late. It then became later. I put the claim through GWR, partly because GWR's DR system makes it easier to enter split tickets, and partly because the GWR service was the 'long leg' with clear-cut delay. However, eventually GWR rejected the claim on the basis that it was Southern's delay.

I've had this before where GWR automatically passed the claim with the other TOC. However it seems they can't do this with Southern, so I just had an e-mail from Southern asking me to enter a fresh claim. And guess what... I can't remember all the details (no idea how late the Southern trains were) and it's now too late to check on RTT!

When multiple TOCs are involved, especially with 'compound' delays, it would be nice if they could sort it out between themselves, just like they can do the ORCATS distribution on the original purchase themselves!

I'm half-inclined to resubmit as two separate claims with the two TOCs, but that makes it fiddly because the tickets don't link at the TOC-change point and might create suspicton of a 'duplicate claim'.

So maybe I should just appeal with GWR on basis of incorrect 'other TOC' diagnosis, stating the GWR train was delayed, and if they want to pass the buck they can sort it out between themselves.

Also kicking myself because I usually take RTT screenshots when there are non-straightforward delays!

 
My understanding – and this may well be 'accepted wisdom' that I've picked up somewhere and can't confirm there's definite coining and causality here – is that the Beeching report created or at least deployed the Inter-City concept in the UK context, perhaps deriving the name from that named train and earlier usage in certain localities. Perhaps in the context of the report the creation of the IC brand was useful in helping to justify the prioritisation of trunk routes. This would fit with it becoming more widespread in BR marketing in the second half of the 1960s.

 
An update, from the BBC:

 

and not mentioned but the truncated 13:16 service was a two car Turbo.

 
If you gave an AI access (your login details?) to those databases/websites/whatever, that might come up with something?

 
We pay it abroad without questioning it. Couple of quid a night per adult. Every foreign place I’ve been with it hasn’t charged it to under 18s.

I’ve voted no view either way, it needs to be spent correctly.

Geneva for example it goes to covering free city travel for overnight guests, brilliant use of the funds raised.

 
The earliest use of the word inter-city itself that I can find in newspapers is in 1871. The applies to a cricket match between Glasgow and Edinburgh, which sounds plausible enough. Following that it is used for all manner of sporting events, and as an adjective (e.g. "inter-city player", as with "international").

Before that there are hits in BNA searches, but they are OCR errors for intensity (close), or Interest(ing) or even yesterday!

"Intercity train service" I find first also in Scotland, in 1899, though the subject is a proposed electric train service between Liverpool and Manchester. It was also described as "a scheme of lightning express", which is a bit odd. A news report of 1910 has a mention of "the inter-city train from Dundee". In the 1930s "inter-city railway" comes up, e.g. of "the first inter-city railway".

The USA also adopts the sporting usage, and is earlier to start using "inter-city railroad", from the 1890s. There are also early uses of "inter-city railway" in Ottowa in 1910 - though it's a tramway, and the cities we would think part of a single city. Another such is quoted in Aberdeen in 1907 about electric railways in Indiana and from there. Inter-city also appears in railway company names at this time.

The first named train looks to be the CNR's "Intercity Limited" - this ran initially from from Montreal to Toronto, starting in 1926. It was later extended to start in Washington. There was also an "Intercity Motor Service Limited" running tours in New Zealand in the 1920s.

But using just "Intercity" (hyphen or no) as a brand obviously comes later on. As it's impractical to search on that alone I can't look for earlier dates. (You'd need a more sophisticated search engine than either the BNA or Newspapers.com possesses.)

 
Is Peter Hendy really saying that what passengers should expect from the railway is to do something badly, with obvious faults that are pointed out at the time, and only several years later do it how it should have been done in the first place? It's still a bit of a muddle, thanks to the overlap in name and eligibility with the 16-25 Railcard and only partial acceptance in Scotland.

 
https://www.malmaison.com/locations/reading/

The Malmaison Reading, boasts the distinction of being the world's oldest railway hotel, built back in 1844.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tregenna_Castle

The Great Western Railway (GWR) opened its St Ives branch line on 1 June 1877 and it leased the Tregenna Castle as a hotel the following year, opening it on 5 August 1878. Early railway hotels had only been situated near large terminals or junctions, but this one was the first intended by the GWR as a holiday destination in its own right.

https://collection.sciencemuseumgroup.org.uk/people/cp3458/british-transport-hotels

British Transport Hotels was the brand name of the hotels and catering business associated with British Rail, from 1962 to 1983. In 1981, the Conservative government decided to privatise the non-core activities of British Rail, this resulted in the British Transport Hotels. being sold off between 1981 and 1983.

 
Dartmouth 

 
From Europe by Rail

 

Hotels do indeed pay for energy and water used, at the "going rate" At present they do not pay the capital costs involved in meeting the increased demand (new reservoirs, and treatment works, new substations and generating plant)

 

Agreed.  I have been trying to quantify hotel rooms / overnight guests in Wiltshire and it's not an easy piece of research!.   

https://www.visitwiltshire.co.uk/dbimgs/Press%20Release%20-%20ACCOMODATION%20REPORT%20HAS%20REVEALED%20SALISBURYS%20POTENTIAL%20FOR%20FUTURE%20INVESTMENT%20AND%20DEVELOPMENT%20-%20FINAL(1).pdf


Out of date, and just one part of the county. A 20 year old study suggests that 10% are business visitors.

6500 bed spaces, 75% occupancy, suggests about 1.5 to 1.7 million taxable overnight stays per annum within 10 miles of Salisbury a decade ago ...

>>> 6500 * .75 * .9 * 365
1601437.5

Let's call that £3 million income, with goodness only knows what proportion of that being spent on the actual collection.

Interesting to note figures of about 1.3 million per annum visiting Stonehenge - goodness only knows what proportion of them are day visitors to the county, what proportion stay locally, and indeed how many are local residents in the council tax catchment anyway.

All these thoughts ignore age issues - and on a recent visit to Stonehenge, I noted a high proportion of school / college groups ...

 
The general idea in France, at least, is specifically to cover some of the extra costs incurred by the local authority - roads and parking, cleaning and rubbish bins, and the like. Otherwise these are paid by the residents, only a few of whom make money off those visitors which could be taxed as an alternative.

That's not all their costs for visitors, and in some places day trippers (who don't pay it) are more important. But that's just a further problem, as yet unsolved. The visitor tax is seen as addressing part of the shortfall, at least.

However, I don't think that is why it's found favour with Andy and his supporters in Andyland (Andymia?). I think its real attraction as something to do at once is that it is (and can only really be) a local tax, paid to local government. And devolution is one of his Big Ideas, perhaps the biggest, and needs a lot of locally raised government revenue.

Since the plan requires local taxes, set and controlled locally, a block grant doesn't have the right look and feel. Shifting existing taxes over (or down) to local level will not be easy, involving undoing current arrangements to remake them, and replacing lost revenu in some cases.

So a new tax is more attractive, even if it is quite small in revenue terms and so makes almost no contribution to the financial autonomy of local governments. The idea's the thing! But I don't think the need or desire to tax visitors because they must have money to be taxed is important here.

 
It was, down to one Oxford - London service per hour which was usually running late and no stopping services all day between Didcot and Oxford.

 
It's widely used abroad, providing it is used to recoup some of the costs associated with discretionary expenditure on leisure stays I'm fine. It must however be reclaimable by business travellers and contractors engaged on construction and maintenance. Additionally virtually all of the take must go to the relevant local authority and not added to central funds and distributed by central government. There are many documented cases of visitors to Cornwall staying in self catering accomodation arriving with their food and not contributing in any way to the area of their holiday. If these are captured it'll be a good thing.

 
Makes sense considering the numbers over 18 in full time education.