I read in yesterdays NOTW (Bought for the footi reports) that TOCs are ripping us passengers off. Nothiong new to learn there then. What is surprising is to what extent.

The NOTW gave a working example. A peak time Std Open return ticket between Newcastle and London will cost you £224. However, buy a saver return between Newcastle & P'boro and a Std Open return between P'boro and London and the cost will be £144.90. A full £79.10 cheaper.

I tried to check this on the GNER web siteand thy're right. A peak time Std Open return ticket between Newcastle and London does appear to cost £224. But a Std open return London/P'boro ticket costs £34 which when added to the £76.90 a Newcastle/P'boro saver return will cost you, comes to £110.90. Alternatively buy a peak rate P'boro/London std open return for £68 and like the paper sayes, the total is £144.90.

The question is, do ticketing staff advise customers how to get the cheapest fare. My experience has told me they do and web sites don't. So if you want the cheapest fare, go to your local station or call natioanl rail enquiries. Don't book online cos you need to be an expert or prefferably, work in a ticket office to sus the best prices out. Of course if your loaded, carry on.

I received a request today from the team that run the 'Train Delays'website. For those that don't know, these are the people who help passengers claim compensation in the event of serious delays. It's a really worth while cause and it actually works. They'r looking for some volunteers to help them. Most operators post delays and cancelled jouneys on their website so what they need is a "Champion" per operator who can look at the operators website during the day and post any that are relevant. At the moment they do all of them and it means they're not actually getting much work done!

If your up for it contact Chris at info@traindelays.co.uk

I'd help myself but it's going balistic at the office and my misses already thinks I spend too much time on the computer so I'm not gonna push mi luck and commit to somethign I can't follow up.

And I'm not just talking about the coaches. I had a few pints Friday lunchtime and, as intended, knocked off a little early to make sure I missed the rush and got home in reasonable time. Unfortunately I arrived at Kings Cross with a full bladder. Being a conciencious person I refused to use the toilets whilst the train is still on the platform so waited until we were passing the Emirates stadium before verturing in there.

I first went to the Coach D toilet only to find a small queue. As I was busting I walked down to the toilet in Coach E. As I got there, a fella came out and advised me to find another nearer the front as the bowl was full to the brim and it wouldn't flush. He also told me the toilet in Coach F was also out of order. I took his advice and walked passed the queue in coach D to coach C only to find another bog out of service. By the time I got back to coach D, I was beginning to feel like I was heavily pregnant. Thankfully the queue had fallen to just 1 person and I dutifully waited until he was finished. Bliss followed shortly afterwards and I returned to my seat. Sadley some posh lady had knicked my seat and moved all my stuff off the table and seat and into the overhead rack. A short terse exchange of words rectified that and I sat down to hear how my fellow passengers had tried to explain to her that the seat was occupied and how she dismissed their protests with the words, 'well we'll see about that'.

This mornings journey wasn't too bad. The 07.20 was 5 mins late into Tinsel town but the seat reservations were there and it arrived into KX on time. Mind you i'm not expecting the journey home to be trouble free. It seems there are signal problems in the Darlington area today which are delaying GNER services starting and finishing anywhere north of there.

On a brighter note I'm reliaby informed the internal GNER staff magazine has run an article on our Sean. I'm hoping to get a copy in the next few days to see what he and they have to say.