I must concur. If you are in That London for anything up to a week, just tap your contactless debit card for the cheapest single, daily, or weekly charges within the zones that you travel.
Cheers, same as Amsterdam etc. 
Yes, Brussels, Antwerp etc.
The only thing that threw my Belgian friends was that they expected to be able to tap twice with the same card to let two people through (passing the card back over).
You cannae do that.
This now makes it easy to buy a ticket from Waterloo to Southampton on the day, rather than risk missing a train and losing a fare paid due to delays on a previous journey.
I could buy an open ticket, but that costs nearly 4 times as much, a tad steep for risk mitigation.
I have also figured out that the easiest place to buy a ticket to suit my requirements is at the ticket office in Barrow, couldn’t have been more helpful.
Ps, i may have mentioned this, the online booking services are universally shite.
Very nice, built especially for the steeply graded Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway. So just the engine for North Norfolk.
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From the Slow and Dirty 
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To the Muddle and Go Nowhere?
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Great start to the day, mainline express to Euston running 34 minutes late. Let’s make that 40 by the time it gets here, leaving me 13 minutes to get from Euston to Waterloo.
Not as bad a the just cancelled train to Manchester Airport that has just seen the train station empty as everyone runs for a 100 quid taxi fare.
I am doing the opposite direction to Manchester, so thanks for heads up of issues. Hope you manage to make up some time.
I think coming up from down south is ok, it’s the trains coming down from glasgow and penrith that are getting delayed. My plans to pop in to a cooks shop at Bridge are toast, shame as the knife i wanted was £70 off.
Direct message me if interested, as I have one I am considering selling. Accurascale sound fitted D9007 Pinza.
And on a common IC theme:
https://www.railtech.com/all/2023/08/29/british-high-speed-trains-set-for-mexico/
Glad a few more are going to have an extend life. Hated them when they started to replace Deltics and Hoovers. But as I have got older and realised what a clever bit of design they have grown on me. Shame their replacements were designed by a committee in the Department for Transport and have really uncomfortable seats.
One of the more ingenious uses in the UK is a pair used for moving new and old rolling stock around. Including recently a Deltic. 
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True, the HST/125 rolling stock was the last you could call comfortable. Last time we visited friends up in Aberdeenshire, we changed at Newcastle from some godawful POS (all the way from Derby) to the luxury of a 125 - the seats were like armchairs by comparison.
Another thing is (for passengers) the ride quality; nothing else seems to feel so comfortable.
Eg: Thameslink Class 700.
And those fucking seats.