A report on a speech made by the head of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) showed some of that uncommon commodity, common sense.

Mr. Pistole said that the TSA is not in the business of eliminating all travel risk. He is quoted as saying, 'Risk is inherent in virtually everything we do. Our objective is to mitigate risk and reduce, as much as possible, the potential for anyone to comit a deliberate attack against our transportation system.'

Wow. An acceptance that risk is out there and cannot be eliminated.

Would that a few more people would recognise that uncomfortable fact and start acting accordingly.

He also said that TSA found 1306 guns in carry-on luggage in 2011!

On the evening of 30 April, First Capital Connect's Thameslink northbound services were disrupted by overhead line equipment problems between Farringdon and St. Pancras. The Thameslink route connects Luton and Gatwick Airports.

I was at West Hampstead, waiting for a northbound train. The next one on the indicator was the 17:36, running around 20 minutes late: this was closely followed by the 17:50.

What was particularly notable was the quantity and quality of information being given about northbound trains. It was excellent. Passengers knew where the next two trains were, and when they had moved from one station to another. They were in no doubt about the likely length and cause of the problem.

As it happened, the actual delay was a little more than forecast. But no-one seemed particularly bothered: they all had a pretty good idea of what was going on, and that was fine.

For complex reasons, I needed to cancel one leg of a return flight booked on BA, and a one-way journey on SAS.

The process of cancellation was quite interesting!

Both web-sites said that the fare was non-refundable, so I had to phone the airline (a local charge call in one case, and a national charge in the other).

BA wouldn't accept the cancellation from the lady who made the booking for me: they had to talk to the person whose name was on the ticket. Then, of course, it had been paid for by a corporate credit card in the name of a third person: they wanted to talk to him too.

Fortunately he happened to be beside my desk at that precise moment, although they didn't make any more than just a verbal check that he was the person named on the credit card.

Then, of course, there was a change fee, the ticket was non-refundable and changing it from return to single would cost more than any possible refund so the whole phone call was non-productive anyway!

SAS also said that the ticket was non refundable. However, they said that the airport taxes would be refunded (less a 20 pound cancellation charge) so the difference would be refunded within 10 days.

They couldn't say what this would be, but at least they said I'd get something! They didn't check that I was the person named on the ticket, and weren't bothered about the name on the card.

An interesting difference in approach!

Mention Curitiba to transport professionals and there is likely to be an association with bus rapid transit. Curitiba is rightly famed for its pioneering high-capacity dedicated system.

It now appears that demand is outstripping capacity - so the city is looking to replace it with a metro.

Tenders for phase 1 are currently being sought.

Last week, I took flight BD 426, the 15:35 from Vienna to Heathrow. It was not a wonderful trip.

There was a scrum at the gate, and that took me down to a bus. I stood on that for about ten minutes before it moved off to the plane: we then waited there for a another five minutes until the crew let us on.

I noticed that even Easyjet loaded through passenger boarding bridges!

Once on, there was an announcement from the captain that thunderstorms at Heathrow might mean a delayed take-off and stacking when we got to London.

Push-back was at 15:59 and take-off at 16:05.

While we landed more or less on time at 16:56, there was a long wait for a stand. When we got one, it was a domestic stand so we had to unload from the back - down stairs in the rain into another bus! - and be taken round the innards of Heathrow to an International gate.

Some people on the plane had obviously not listened to the announcement about the domestic gate and were bemused by unloading from the back - 'Is there a problem with the door?'.

And then there was a long queue for passport control!

I was on Heathrow Express platform at 17:44, 48 minutes after touch-down.