First for hitting the passenger where it hurts

The Fact Compiler has been stirred from his deckchair by the following extra-ordinary news.

According to Passenger Focus:

First Great Western (FGW) is set to introduce new restrictions on its cheapest Off-Peak tickets which will mean many passengers travelling into London in the morning and out of London in the afternoon will see their fares rise by 20%.

What can this mean?

Some say First Great Western has joined the ranks of franchise demics like NXEC, London Midland and Arriva Cross Country.

The Fact Compiler, almost replete from his well earned break, has a more charitable view:

Perhaps Mark Hopwood is leveraging these swinging increases as personal favour to First's Chief Executive - Sir Moir of the Lovely Book (pictured below)


No doubt the storage costs for the mountain of remaindered copies has started to make First Group shareholders twitchy...

A case for Hall and Green!

Telegrammed by The Master
Plymouth may be home to the Royal Navy, but the Spar shop on the railway station certainly isn't home to any wine buffs.

As the chiller cabinet contains bottles of Merlot - a red wine!

Perhaps Lord DafT Vader will ask his 'stationers' to demand that Network Rail address this epicurean faux pas (once they've taken direct control of the station)?

Silly season - anything to fill space...

Telegrammed by Ben Jones
Bideford World Record Attempt

On the 24th of August, James May, with the help of the people of Britain is attempting to build the longest ever model railway in the world! We are hoping to break the world record and we need your help!

We are appealing for volunteers to help us with various different aspects of this…on the 24th we need teams of 4 to put themselves forward as volunteers. Each team must have a self-appointed team leader who is also available on the 22nd for a briefing day. Due to the length of the day on the 24th we are asking that parents only bring kids who are over 13 years old, and that if your over-13 year olds do want to come along, that there is at least one adult per team as well.

On the 24th we are also looking for people who would like to bring along 00 models to be exhibited in an area alongside the track which will be used for filming.

Last but not least on the 22nd we will also be looking for any willing volunteers to come along to the same place as the train briefing day to help out with building models for the exhibition area. Kids and adults welcome!

If you are interested in any of the above please email me ASAP on laurar@plumpictures.co.uk and I will provide you with more details.