... Chris - you would have had it in proper priority

It is in my view, and if I were still mobile (I'm now a wheelchair user), I would be offering my seat...

"Please give up this seat to passengers with reduced mobility".  Does not apply to me - I can no longer stand for more than a few minutes, but that is not a reduced mobility.

Now I think that age and health problems justify me in taking a bus seat designated for less-able people and I usually get one, especially on outward journeys into town. But then the bus starts to fill up, with some passengers obviously more infirm than I.  On my last bus ride, about half of those on board seemed worthy of designated seats, posing the moral dilemma of whether I should offer mine.

Tube strike set to go ahead after failed talks


Image © BBC/Harry Low

Another wave of industrial action is due to take place as London Underground drivers walk out in a dispute over the voluntary introduction of a four-day week with condensed hours.

Members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) voted to oppose the changes. The union says Transport for London "has not made any attempt to engage in negotiation meetings to resolve this dispute".

TfL described the strikes, which start at 12:00 BST on Tuesday, as "disappointing" and said drivers "can remain on a five-day working pattern".

No service is expected on the Circle and Piccadilly lines or the Metropolitan line between Baker Street and Aldgate and the Central line between White City and Liverpool Street.

A second 24-hour walkout will begin at 12:00 on Thursday, causing disruption into Friday.

Many Tube drivers are set to turn up to work as usual, including members of the Aslef train drivers' trade union - which has accepted the proposals, labelling them "exactly the sort of deal every trade union should be trying to achieve".

An RMT spokesperson said: "Despite promises of talks, TfL has not made any attempt to engage in negotiation meetings to resolve this dispute. London Underground is still pushing implementation plans through a forum that excludes senior managers and union officials, instead of engaging in proper negotiations. Our strike action remains on as we continue to seek a negotiated settlement."

Aslef has agreed to the voluntary compressed four-day week, saying it gives participating drivers an extra 35 days off a year "in return for some fairly minor changes to working conditions".

"It will be the first strike in the history of the trade union movement designed to stop people having a shorter working week and more time off," an Aslef spokesperson said.

Claire Mann, TfL's chief operating officer, said: "It is disappointing that the RMT is planning this strike action despite our best efforts to resolve this dispute. We have been clear that our proposals for a four-day week are designed to improve work-life balance and are entirely voluntary. Any Tube driver who doesn't wish to opt in to the new four-day working pattern and associated changes to working arrangements can remain on a five-day working pattern."

3 could be Hengele, and 2? well I've seen that picture before . . . Oh yes 2 minutes ago on this very same forum.

Electric narrowboat named UK's flagship of the year


Skipper Jude Taljaard said the makeover had made Redshank "beautiful"

A 90-year-old narrowboat that was converted to fully electric propulsion has been named the UK's flagship of the year.

Redshank, which takes passengers on tours around Bristol Harbour and on the River Avon, was awarded the title by maritime body National Historic Ships UK.

In 2023, having barely left the water in its lengthy service, the boat's traditional diesel engine was replaced with lithium battery packs, allowing it to operate all day on electric power.

Skipper Jude Taljaard said Redshank was "paving the way for future boat conversions".

Redshank received the award on 12 May and to mark the occasion her operator, Bristol Packet Boat Trips, was offering trips for just £1 on Sunday.

Built in 1936 and first christened "Reading", the vessel had a long career shipping cargo such as coal, timber and even lime juice between Birmingham and London. In 1954 it was sold to another operator and renamed Redshank, but continued its work carrying goods between UK cities.

Simon Stevens, of National Historic Ships, said: "Before motorways and lorries came along, this was how you got your cargo from A to B - from the collieries to the sea and vice versa.


Redshank has been working Britain's waterways for 90 years

"They carried bricks, manure - a whole range of things.. They were literally just iron buckets - elongated iron buckets to carry stuff."

In 1970, as the age of canal freight came to a close, Redshank carried its final commercial load, and four years later she was bought to the West to work the waterways around Bristol.

There are now five boats in the Bristol Packet fleet, and Taljaard said he loves Redshank's new incarnation as an electric vessel. "Before it was very smelly, very loud. Now it's this beautiful electric boat," he said. "It's green and we are paving the way for future boat conversions - making sure other people can see how to turn a boat like this into something green for the future."

From my own recent travels in Germany, I would say that the two things that really set an example that GBR could learn from are the train information at stations/on trains and (but not in all main stations) the extended hours and variety of catering and retail outlets.

However, signage for getting around stations internally was in my experience (based on experience at Aachen, Osnabruck, Hannover, Hamburg HBF and Lubeck) patchy or poor. In particular, Osnabruck, with its complex two level structure for a station of its size was apparently lacking in simple signage getting you between platforms on different levels and to the retail/main entrance.

Another aspect I liked was the regional liveries applied to local trains, albeit that some are a little garish. My favourite (as you may gather from an earlier post) is the blue Schleswig-Holstein one, with a slogan proclaiming with regional pride "Schleswig-Holstein - der Echte Nordern" - "Schleswig-Holstein - the northern corner". Can we have something like that for our Thames Valley and South-west local trains, please GBR?

HS2 failings blamed on high-speed focus and political pressure

The HS2 rail line failed due in part to a focus on achieving the highest possible speeds and political pressure, a review is expected to find.

The scheme has been undergoing a "reset", and in March Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander asked HS2 bosses to look at lowering top speeds to save money.

This latest report into HS2, expected to be published this week, is authored by former National Security Adviser Sir Stephen Lovegrove and has considered the implications for the civil service and public sector. Its findings are expected to agree with a previous review, external that HS2's so-called "original sins" included changing political priorities and ballooning costs.

The review is also expected to highlight the "gold-plating" of the high-speed concept, "resulting in [a] bespoke and highly engineered design".

In the coming days, Alexander is expected to confirm that trains won't start running by the current target date of 2033 and will also provide an updated price tag for the project. It has been widely expected that costs will exceed £100bn.

HS2's main purpose was to increase capacity on the rail network but it has suffered rising costs and delays.

Under the initial plans, first confirmed in 2012, the rail line would have run from London to Birmingham, and then on two separate lines to Leeds and Manchester.

However, in 2021, the government said it was cancelling the eastern leg going to Leeds. Two years later, the section between Manchester and Birmingham was also ditched.

In June 2025, Alexander said that after "a litany of failure" she was "drawing a line in the sand" and the government would get HS2 delivered.

Mark Wild, chief executive of the project's delivery company HS2 Ltd, was tasked with carrying out comprehensive "reset".

Earlier this year the transport secretary said she was "determined to explore every opportunity" to "bring down costs and delivery timetables" including reducing the top speeds of trains on the line.

HS2 had been designed to allow trains to run up to 360 km/h (224 mph), which would have made the line faster than any other conventional railway in the world. Most high-speed trains in the UK run at around 220 km/h, while HS1, the Channel Tunnel Rail Link, reaches speeds of up to 300 km/h.

Although it will be years before the railway opens, HS2 is in its peak construction phase. A number of key structures have been completed, for example the 10-mile tunnel under the Chilterns, and the Colne Valley viaduct.

As part of efforts to get the project back on track, HS2 Ltd has previously said it would slow or pause work such as the line towards Handsacre, so it could focus spend on areas which had fallen behind; notably the central section across Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and Northamptonshire.

Footballer in mass train attack reveals he was stabbed seven times

"I was on the train, just chilling. Suddenly, someone's come over my shoulder, and stabbed me."

Footballer Jonathan Gjoshe pauses as he recalls the harrowing events of 1 November last year.

Just weeks into his first season at Scunthorpe United, the 23 year-old had been travelling from Doncaster back to his home in London. But about an hour into the journey, the unimaginable happened.

Gjoshe was among the 11 passengers seriously injured in a knife attack on a train as it travelled through Cambridgeshire.

While it soon emerged that Gjoshe had been hurt in an incident that made headlines around the world, the defender chose to decline the many interview requests received by the club, and focus instead on his long road to recovery.

But six months on, he is finally ready to speak publicly about his ordeal for the first time. And why he is now looking for a new club.

(BBC article continues)

Network Rail have been carrying out planned engineering work in the London Paddington area. They have informed us that this will not be finished on time.

"When" doing the heavy lifting there! 

2) Availability of staff on a Sunday due to historic reasons.

Would you give up your seat on the Tube for me?


TfL is encouraging commuters to be aware of those who might need their seat more - Image © Getty Images

It's a small badge that made a big difference. For the past 20 years, Transport for London's "Baby on Board" scheme has reshaped behaviour on public transport through a simple social signal. But does it still work?

I recently observed a lady wearing her Baby on Board badge waiting, like me, for the northbound Victoria line at Oxford Circus during the rush hour commute home. I clocked the familiar look of wariness as she scanned the Tube seats as the train pulled into the platform.

I too became anxious for her. If no one offered their seat up, I was prepared to give up their seat for them - they just didn't know it yet.

As the doors slid open, she made a beeline through the throng for the closest priority seat occupied by a young woman. She asked to sit down. The exchange happened swiftly and without drama. I sighed with relief for her.

I don't mean to sound so dramatic but watching her brought back vivid memories of my experience navigating the Tube during both my pregnancies.

(BBC article continues)