If they were allowed,  and were funded, these would make a possible fleet to run a shuttle service on the C&W between Cholsey and Wallingford to connect to Didcot to Paddington services to provide a realistic commuter route by rail into London and Reading.

Nearer to "home" its the same with table seats when boarding at a departure point(London Paddington),
why do solo travellers head for the table seats and expect no one else to join them?

Are spares for the 159s different to spares for the 158s?  Isn't one of the benefits of ownership by the nation that things can be moved around - "plenty" and I know not enough 158s with GWR, Northern, Scotrail, TfW ... and presumably spare holdings at their maintenance depots or are they running short too?

The backstory is SWR have contracted with WABTEC in Staffordshire to overhaul the engines.  However it appears WABTEC failed to ensure it had sufficient spare parts to actually do the work in a timely way.

Minehead to Taunton, and perhaps beyond would be my favoured use.
Not my first choice of rolling stock, but any train is better than no train.
In the summer season, a full length set of loco hauled coaches, preferably with a steamer would be preferable, but almost certainly too expensive in the off season.

Thirteen children and one adult have received minor injuries after an accident involving a ride at Coney Beach Pleasure Park in Porthcawl, Bridgend.

The incident involved the Wacky Worm ride, which is described as a "small introductory roller coaster" on the park's website.

Footage on social media appears to show adults helping a number of children off the ride. Police have advised the public to avoid the area.

In a statement, Coney Beach Pleasure Park said it was instructed by police to clear the site after an incident on a "third-party ride" not owned by the park.

South Wales Police said officers were called to the amusement park at about 17:50 BST following an accident on one of the rides.

Seven patients were taken to hospital by ambulance for further treatment.

The amusement park will remain closed tomorrow while officers and health and safety personnel carry out their investigation.



A Welsh Ambulance Service spokesperson said paramedics, ambulances and a hazardous area response team were sent to the scene.

The park apologised for the disruption and said it will provide refunds to affected customers as soon as possible.

Now official - election called for 9th October.

Major incident declared as moorland fire spreads



A major incident has been declared by the fire service as a moorland blaze which started in the North York Moors National Park on Monday continues to spread.

Twenty appliances crewed by about 100 firefighters have now been sent to the scene on Langdale Moor, near the ballistic missile early warning base at RAF Fylingdales, North Yorkshire Fire & Rescue Service (NYFRS) said.

"The fire has now spread and is covering around 5 sq km," the fire service said in its latest update at 12:30 BST on Wednesday. "More resources are being sent to the scene. This has now been declared a major incident."

Fire crews were first called out at 18:30 BST on Monday to reports of smoke, prompting fire chiefs to advise people living nearby to keep windows and doors closed and for others to avoid the area if possible. Dark grey smoke was seen billowing over the moors on Wednesday morning as the blaze continued.

...

The North Yorkshire Moors Railway (NYMR) said its heritage steam train services would be suspended until further notice, with diesel locomotives running instead. The NYMR added on Wednesday that it would delay the start of the Tornado services that were due to run from Friday to Sunday.

A spokesperson said: "We hope to have an update on the revised start date once temperatures have cooled down. In addition, we've switched all of our Pickering to Grosmont standard services to heritage diesel locomotives, and we still aim to run steam-hauled services between Grosmont and Whitby due to the lower fire risk profile."

The Jaguar I-Pace was brought to a stop by police cars boxing it in on the M62

A driver who said his luxury electric car accelerated "on its own" on the motorway has appeared in court.

Nathan Owen, 32, called police in March last year, to report his Jaguar I-Pace was speeding out of control on Merseyside and the brakes were not working.

The car had travelled along the the M57 and M58 before finally being brought to a stop by police cars manoeuvring to box it in on the M62 in Greater Manchester.

Mr Owen, of Denbighshire, north Wales, indicated not guilty pleas to dangerous driving, intentionally or recklessly causing a public nuisance and two counts of fraud at Liverpool Magistrates' Court.

On the fraud matters, it is alleged he made a false representation to CA Auto Finance that the Jaguar was faulty and was accelerating on its own with the brakes unresponsive. He is also accused of making the same claims to The Sun and Daily Mail newspapers, with the intention of causing loss to the Jaguar company or exposing it to risk of loss.

Prosecutor Renee Southern told the court it was the Crown's case that the defendant had "persistently and dishonestly" claimed the vehicle was defective. She said Mr Owen wanted to "get rid" of the vehicle and thus avoid further payments to the finance company - which totalled £4,426.

The court heard the car was stopped between Junction 11 for Birchwood and 12 for Eccles and the incident led to motorway closures and substantial delays.

Mr Owen, of Prestatyn, was released on unconditional bail to attend a further hearing at Liverpool Crown Court on 10 September, when he is expected to enter formal pleas.

Some of the yellow lines in Sea Lane, Old Hunstanton, are not as straight as drivers would expect

Wonky yellow lines painted on the roads of a coastal village have seen an attempt to improve parking problems take a strange turn.

The narrow lanes of Old Hunstanton often get clogged by parked vehicles as people head to the north-west Norfolk coast during the warmer months. That meant new regulations were brought in on 11 July, restricting parking on several roads between 08:00 and 18:00 over a five-month period. But Norfolk County Council said the new lines were below standard, and ordered remedial work as a "matter of urgency".

The meandering yellow lines, including on Sea Lane and Waterworks Road, are a mixture of double and single yellows. Some of them continue across the end of driveways and incorrectly merge into one another. They were painted on roads following a traffic regulation order (TRO) that was approved by the county council and came into effect on 11 July.


Some of the yellow lines in Old Hunstanton merge into one another

Tom de Winton is the Conservative West Norfolk borough councillor for Old Hunstanton and has been working alongside the village's parish council on the traffic issues in recent years. "We can all have a bit of a laugh about some wobbly yellow lines but the important thing is that our coastal villages do have a lot of traffic, particularly in the summer," he said. "Councillors in Old Hunstanton have tried very hard to get the TRO and have been under quite a lot of pressure. But also managing to get a TRO takes a hell of a lot of time to get done, so when a silly clot does a bad job then they need to be made to go and do it again."


Some of the lines have been painted over the end of people's driveways

A Norfolk County Council spokesperson said: "Unfortunately the double yellow lines at Old Hunstanton have not been installed to Norfolk County Council's specification or standards. Accordingly, we have requested the contractor to undertake remedial works as a matter of urgency. Some of these works have already taken place but others will be carried out over the coming weeks once the surface has been prepared. All remedial works will be completed at no cost to Norfolk County Council."

Aerial footage shows aftermath of massive train derailment in Texas

A Union Pacific train with approximately 35 cars derailed close to Gordon, Texas, on Tuesday afternoon.

Video shows mangled train cars piled on top of each other on the tracks, as emergency crews attend the scene.

Palo Pinto County officials confirmed the derailment happened near the Coalville Road Bridge and that no injuries have been reported.

"Union Pacific Railroad is on scene with equipment and cranes preparing to move rail cars off the track. This will be an active scene for several days", officials said on a Facebook post.

Go-Op might afford them....

Whilst the headline news on SWR's Exeter to waterloo services relates to soil infrastructure, they are also saying that a number of short forms of their Class 159s on that route is due to a shortage of spare parts at the factory.

I would guess this is exactly the same basic process as used by LNER for their Automated Delay Repay system. AFAIK it only applies to Advance Purchase tickets bought online, assumes by the person travelling, and they obviously monitor their services and pay out for relevant delays without any intervention from the passenger. I don't know if any other TOCs have a similar Automated Delay Repay tool.