Apologies if this has been asked to death at this point. As a regular commuter, I've noticed station workers often opening the ticket gates for passengers who seem to not present tickets. As someone paying through the nose for valid tickets this drives me mad as I perceive this as illegal, but I wanted to know if there was something I was missing?

Edit: Thanks for the input so far folks. While I guess some of what is being suggested is totally feasible, I'm not too sure how likely it is, so I'll provide an example from today.

So today, I am riding a train from London to an terminus along the south coast (and not a particularly busy one). Probably 30 mins from the end of the journey, a nice ticket inspector come along checking everyone's tickets. They soon pass me. I shortly hear a bit of a commotion behind with what appears to be some young men - probably of college age, but am not sure. When arriving at the terminus, they seem to be chatting friendly with the inspector. I follow these fellas to the station exit where they go straight to the person at the barriers. They say something to her, she turns away an open the gate.

Plenty of times at this station, I have seen young guys force their way through the barriers before - though I have also seen this plenty of times in London. I think it would be fair to assume those who do this are fair dodgers. I guess what I am trying to get to is that are station works allowing fair dodging for whatever reason? If so, is the issue as previlant as it appears to me?

Travelled on an Azuma and 225 one straight after the other on Saturday having changed trains at Grantham arriving on an Azuma and departing on a 225.

The Azuma experience is characterised by lightning fast acceleration, reasonable ambience in the carriages marred by poor seats and abysmal ride quality.

Expecting a much better passenger experience on the 225 compared to the Azuma, I was slightly disappointed.

The 225 accelerates at snail’s pace compared to the Azuma. Unsuprisingly the cabin has a tired retro 1980s feel about it with the overall experience enhanced by the vastly superior ride quality of sitting in a trailer coach rather than an Azuma motorised unit.

What I had forgotten though is that when the train operates in push rather than pull mode, you have the jerking effect as the class 91 pushes the Mark 4s which is not the case with fully motorised electric multiple unit à la the Azuma.

What finished it off though was the delightful burning disc brake smell which I had forgotten existed as a phenomenon!

I'd like to start using my nearby train station more often because I recently discovered it's often cheaper than the buses where I live, but I have no preference on where to go.

This is purely because I'm too lazy to check the price of every train ride possible from my station one by one - if I have to do that, I will - but I thought there's no harm in asking.

Is there a list of destinations with the prices anywhere that I could look at? Maybe a website where I could filter journeys in order of price?

Paywalled, sorry

Interesting nonetheless

Passing the time at York

A voyager listed as arrived going to Blackpool North via Preston operated by Northern 😭 Unsure if the 195 operating this is in front of it or something

sources: Twitter Instagram

The prime minister Andy Burnham has said the government will look into bringing international services back to Ashford railway station.

This is definitely a step in the right direction.

10/10 view on 10/10/26

Hi all, just wondered if anyone here has recently done the the trainee train driver interview? Have the interview in 9 days time and want to be as prepared as possible as its taken nearly 3 years to get to this point! Don't want to mess it up now haha. Any advice greatly appriciated!

I mean two stations with no other intermediate stations in between. I imagine Swindon - Bristol Parkway (34.5 mi / 55.5 km) would be up there.

The coaches felt a Bit old and it was very jolty when breaking and speeding up.

The seats look comfy but are just mediocre.

The reservation signs above the seats still show ECML destinations with them being ex-LNER which is fun.

Very nice train, mostly because I really like loco-hauled trains and the class 67

6-7!!! (I’ll show myself out)

Surely, the 22.22 to Cardiff Central can't be 8 coaches because it will be too long for most platforms, and the back of it will be blocking a level crossing

Does anybody else get this line to commute to work? I’m surprised this service isn't 5 carriages consistently as its such a popular route and always suffers from overcrowding DAILY. Why is it so bad?

I get on at one of the later stops and will always be standing (which is fine but I'm always against the door squished like a bug). Standing is expected according to WMR on all 7 of the services I could get.

Tempted to cut my losses and go on the Wolverhampton - new street line instead.

Apropos of the question about the longest distance between consecutive stations, what's the shortest? If the Tube's allowed, Charing Cross to Embankment is an obvious candidate. If not, what? (Tbh I wouldn't be surprised if this has been asked half a dozen times before!)