It really does look like this station has been completely renewed, which is sort of a shame because…read moreit feels that lot more modern that other ones. Mind you, it is sort of a major hub (to the extent that Oxford is a major hub - it's mostly a town) but I can say that trains do come through here on a reasonably regular basis. It isn't a bad station, and it is a short ride to London as well.

The train station has improved in the past few years. There are more food shops, including a marks…read moreand Spencer's. The signage needs some work though. It would be good to know where the first car stops, in addition to which cars at which end. There are slow but reliable lifts available for those with luggage, which they really do not want you to take on escalators. The taxi we used when leaving the train station didn't want to put his meter on, and we agreed on his price of 20£. This actually ended up working out for us but something to be aware of.

This is a great little station for reliable, quick trains into London from Bucks and the Oxford…read morearea. Lots of parking, regular buses into Aylesbury and also from Oxford (though I haven't used these). There's a small waiting room with ticket office and coffee bar with friendly staff and excellent bacon butties! There is a toilet accessible from outside the waiting room. Quite a hike over the line and onto the London-bound platform, and a cold wind blows in over the fields - but there is a shelter. The advantage is that Chiltern Trains are one of the most reliable train operators, and - outside of peak rush hour - comfortable to travel on. They go into London Marylebone. You can also travel quickly to Birmingham from this station. It isn't that cheap - around £18 for a single into London out of rush hour - but the reliability makes it worth while if you're travelling on business.

I was once cast away to Didcot to attend a 2-day software training session. The town offers 2…read moredistinct features which strike you almost as soon as you step off the platform. The first is the huge imposing power station at one end of the town. It looms over everything, eerily rising from the flat landscape just like the one in 'The Simpsons'. The other feature is the (unique?) demography. Didcot is half-composed of very old people, and half of fairly-young to middle-adged men who work in the town's various software / IT firms. Presumably this is because the old people have clustered together having been relegated from towns where they may be more useful, and the youngish middle adged men still live with their mums. This burdens the new visitor with a choice of which poses the greater risk - walking on the pavements or the middle of the road? Traffic on the pavements is usually faster-flowing and more erratic due to all those electric wheely things whizzing past, their drivers dispossessed by age of the reaction speeds or cognitive fortitude needed to stop or maneuvre, let alone indicate. Alternatively the road option pits you against big dangerous cars, more than likely adorned with such bumper stickers as Kirk is still the best and Baby on board (in Klingon). Another interesting product of this haunting demographic - that there are only old people or people with no girlfriends - is the lack of children one might see playing in the streets. That's good for me because I don't really like children, but obviously bad for the paedos. The town itself boasts mostly chain restaurants and bars that small town folk (mistakenly) think are good, although it must be said I noticed a few nice pubs which, despite the expected focus on lager (it is the South after all), offered some nice local ales. Although I wouldn't actually recommend getting off the train in Didcot, if one does decide to they can take comfort in the fact that the station itself is at least bracingly normal.

Not bad as stations go. Always clean, the staff are helpful and there is a coffee shop both in the…read moreticket hall and on the main platform for fast trains to London and Oxford. There is some construction being undertaken at the moment to improve the station further. This is the home of the Didcot Railway Museum and a frequent stop of Thomas the Tank Engine on his round the UK tour.

Reading station. Clean, bright, functional railway station. Less than 15 minutes from Central…read moreLondon. Take the Great Western line.

I'd have to say that this is a pretty major station, especially considering that there are an awful…read morelot of platforms, and pretty much all of the trains that pass through here will stop. It's also the western terminus of the Elizabeth Line, which is helpful, especially if you work in the city. I was going to say that it is the edge of London, but I suspect Reading is a separate city all of its own. Pretty cool station though.

It does the job. That's the main thing. It doesn't have many facilities at all and the cafe is…read moreexpensive. Once one gets used to where platform 3 is (it's 150 yards away from the other 2 platforms) there are no real issues. Parking to collect people is a little chaotic.

Not to be confused with Mitt Romsey, who is not related to Mitt Romney. And even if he was, I…read morewouldn't give a mitt. So this is a little old station in Romsey, which is on the line from Waterloo into Southampton, and it's a listed beautiful old building with a very unique and very attractive design. It feels like a tiny little town station, but with a truly grand building and style, and is definitely one of the nicer stations you'll find in this part of the country.

The historic town of Romsey has a well-preserved and well maintained traditional railway station on…read morethe line from Salisbury to Southampton. It is used by over 330,000 passengers a year. The station opened in 1847 on the line from Southampton to Salisbury (via Eastleigh). In 1865 the route from Andover to Southampton via Romsey and Redbridge opened, making Romsey a junction; also known as the Sprat and Winkle Line, it closed between Andover and Romsey in 1965, but the southern section from Romsey to Redbridge (on the Southampton-Bournemouth line) remained to form the main Salisbury to Southampton line. The Eastleigh to Romsey line closed to passengers in 1967 but reopened in 2003, making Romsey a junction station once more. It is served by the Cardiff/Bristol to Portsmouth service (roughly hourly, half-hourly at peak times) and the Salisbury-Romsey-Southampton-Chandler's Ford-Romsey service, which provides an hourly service in all directions (and thus provides two trains and hour to Southampton, one direct, and one via Chandler's Ford, Eastleigh and Southampton Airport). Facilities include a ticket office (open part time), ticket machines, toilets, waiting rooms, covered bicycle storage, a small cafe (open part-time) and a small car park.

Harpenden is desirable for being a nice area, with a great regular train connection to London…read more A nice place to live, but no special sites which make it worth visiting purely for tourist purposes, although surrounding countryside is adequate for country walks.

This bus will get you from Oxford to London in about an hour and a half…read more Your other option is to take the train but if you're on a budget, the bus is the way to go. We got off at Notting Hill which was convenient in getting to the underground to take to Buckingham Palace. Sit on the 2nd level to take in the views.

Let me preface my review by saying that I've only tried this service once, as a tourist going on a…read moreday trip to Oxford from London. My comments below may not apply to what I imagine is the core of their business, the Oxford-London commuting run. I was going to Oxford to visit some family friends with my mother. My mother organized the trip, which was, of course, my first mistake. Never let your mother organize any part of your life: one minute you're living the high life in London and getting her to organize trips to Oxford, the next minute you're living in your parents' garage married to some family friend's comely daughter and wondering where it all went wrong. I personally thought the train would have been a better deal, but anyway, on the bus we went. Big mistake: instead of taking 1-1.5 hours to get to Oxford from Victoria station, it took more like 2-2.5. This was due to traffic (hardly surprising) and the fact that the bus took an absolute eternity to process passengers at each stop. On the way back, the bus broke down and we had to wait for a replacement bus to come by. This might have just been luck of the draw, but this bus route is highly competitive and I suspect market forces compel the bus operators to minimize costs as much as possible. Combine that with the fact they run 24 hours a day every 10 minutes and I'm sure you get quite a few breakdowns. And then there's the price: a day return was 16 pounds a person. I priced the London-Oxford train (which takes about an hour), and a day return was 20 pounds. If you have a network railcard (you do have a network railcard right?), this drops to 13.20. Sure, the bus has wifi and the train doesn't, but from my experience the wifi was very unreliable. I'd stay away from all bus services to Oxford unless you have a good reason not to.