Railways around Coventry

I struggle to leave food out of any conversation hey, but Greggs for me are now steeling the show for reasonably priced convenience food. Their meal deals in particular. If you are ever at Wolverhampton station, try going out through the barriers to the end of the concourse, where on the right is a Coop, very convenient, normal prices including convenient travel food including meal deals. Ok, happy days.

Continuing the theme of casual bolt on tickets, I use TrainLine, it being universal for most operators, but please make sure that you look at the prices of peak & off-peak returns. Tuesday, Wednesday & Thursday's are generally the most generally available off-peak. I didn't want to arrive in Shrewsbury & then find that my next off-peak return was very inconvenient. Being just a bit vigilant makes it so easy to get about.

I us the railways a lot, e.g. last week I was up the Smoke twice (on business, like); private business, actually, so had to book two days' leave off the day job. Anyway, Camberwell on the Tuesday, and central London on the Thursday. I generally book in advance using Trainsplit. It is very solid, as opposed to the national Rail site which is flaky - very annoying when it says "there was an error", and you have to start all over again. Plus, more often than not it saves quite a few quid. And you can select the fastest train/s, as I did last week, and pay a bit more. Double, to be more accurate. Just remember to tick that you've got a railcard, which gets you 33.333333333333333333% off all fares.

Hello, I can't help but emphasise what Sliim is saying about rail cards. My "old foggy" railcard is encrypted into my phone, so I have to tick it out if I'm buying a ticket for someone else. I've done a sample on my phone you can see the price difference using a discount card. That's a Wolverhampton to Shrewsbury price. £8 with My card, £12 without. My three year railcard is up for renewal this Autumn, but trainline line have it in hand, the price frozen at £70. Three years. I only need to make one significant return journey, to get my £70 back. If my friend & I decide to trip to Aberystwyth, my ticket will cost £21, whereas Johns will cost £30. Please note, The discounts apply no matter whether it's first or standard class. Thank you Slim.

I used to have a real plastic senior rail card but on exiting lockdown I renewed it via Trainline. I did not use it for several months but then booked via Chiltern's site for a day return, Bicester to Marylebone. An inspector on the train demanded to see my Rail Card but on starting the app I received a message telling me a new version was available and needed to be downloaded. The inspector continued checking other passengers' tickets and returned to me. On starting the updated app it requested my password. Since I had generated and saved a secure one of 14 random characters on my desktop I was unable to start the app and show my Rail Card. I was charged the full fare but after sending images via email to Chiltern Railways I eventually got a refund some months later. Moral of the story: always check your phone is fully charged and the app works before leaving home.

Hello, Making sure the App is fully displaying & connected is paramount. I often observe bus passengers who have the same issue with their prepaid bus app, where they cannot get past the auto reader. Occasionally, we can have a company operative who is not fully conversant with technology. Thank you for your valuable info. I wonder if our IT experts can contribute to this discussion? It's my experience that any app that's not been used for around twelve weeks, often goes to sleep. My online eBay is case in point. Even if it's a minor item, I buy something at least once in three months, just to keep the works oiled. Certainly, anything with a financial implication, starts to close up after no use in twelve weeks. Anyone????

I haven't noticed that apps stop after 12 weeks. I did lose my first Ebay account but it was after years of not using it. I'm not at all happy with using apps on a phone for stuff. I had the forethought of printing out my code for getting into the Belgrade Plaza carpark and it was much easier waving under the reader than my phone.

Hello, Slightly out of our area of Coventry (sob sob), the last scheduled coal train ran its journey this week to Ratcliffe power station. Trains & coal were synonymous with each other. In 1960 nearly 70% of all goods rail traffic was coal. British Railways was the national coal boards biggest customer. Last Coal Train The supply of coal might turn out to be the biggest stumbling block to preserved railways, as the small quantities of imported coal is so expensive. When Pam & I had our gas central heating installed here in our home in 1976, the cost of gas in every day use, was over three times the cost of coal. Even the smokeless brickets from the Lurgi plant in Keresley was half the price of gas, which is what we used. It saved Pam & I a lot of time in a morning. We had an all-night fire, which only needed cleaning out every third day, but took about half an hour & I needed a bath after doing it almost!

As a kiddie I got to press the button to empty a coal waggon at a power station. Some of my earliest memories are of power stations and coal trains.

There you go, you missed your vocation Helen.

There you go, you missed your vocation Helen.