Surprisingly, if the GWR app is to be believed, the 17:36 appears to have seats as it approaches Castle Cary.



The preceding 17:03 to Penzance seems to only be congested in first class.

Six-hour train services between London and Stirling running with no toilets


Trains have been stopping for longer at stations so passengers can use the toilets on platforms - Image © Alstom/Ian Nightingale

A train operator is running services lasting more than five-and-a-half hours despite having no toilets available on board.

The Lumo trains run on the West Coast Main Line, covering the new 417-mile (671km) route between Stirling and London Euston.

Lumo, which is owned by FirstGroup, first warned about a "fault" with the toilets on a service from Stirling to Crewe on Saturday.  Some services have since been stopping for longer at stations such as Preston to allow passengers to get off and use toilets on platforms.

A Lumo spokesperson said: "We have been experiencing some issues with the reliability of some of our toilet facilities onboard our West Coast services."  They added that they were working closely with rail company Alstom, which refurbished the carriages used by Lumo, to "rectify the issue".

An Alstom spokesperson said: "We recognise that this falls short of the standard fare-paying passengers should expect, particularly on long-distance services.  Working closely with Lumo, we are reviewing the entire fleet position to reduce the risk of repeat failures, improve overnight servicing checks, and ensure toilet availability is restored and maintained wherever possible on the operator's West Coast route."

The 06:11 departure from London Euston on Friday, which was affected, ran with a 58-minute delay and terminated at Motherwell, North Lanarkshire.  Passengers were told their tickets would be accepted on ScotRail services.

Liberal Democrat transport spokesperson Olly Glover posted on social media: "Is Lumo attempting to become the Ryanair of the rails?"

Train operators in Britain are not legally required to provide onboard toilets.

Lumo operates its West Coast services with refurbished Class 222 Meridian trains. These are also used by East Midlands Railway, which has also suffered toilet faults with its fleet.

Lumo also runs services on the East Coast Main Line, connecting London King's Cross with Edinburgh, Glasgow and Falkirk. It operates on an open access basis, meaning it sets its own fares, takes on all revenue risk and receives no taxpayer-funded subsidies. It is not affected by the government's renationalisation of all remaining franchised train services in Britain.

and


Is it fair to take it that a safety inspection in Berkshire on the Berks and Hants is the case of cancellation of trains in Wiltshire on the Transwilts line?

Confusion over 'quadruple yellow lines' on street


Residents said the lines look "rubbish" and are a "complete mess" - Image © BBC/Seb Cheer

A council has committed to repainting the road surface of a street after a bungled job left "quadruple" yellow lines visible.

A small section of pothole-covered Markham Crescent in York was resurfaced this week by maintenance crews who also painted double lines on the new surface.  However, just days later another group of council contractors arrived and repainted a longer stretch of yellow lines in a much lighter shade.

Fenella McCarthy, a resident of 20 years, said: "They didn't start where the other lines had finished so we've just got this hotch-potch of lines there and it just seems a lack of co-ordination, a lack of thinking and no common sense."

City of York Council said the lines would be repainted as they did not meet the authority's "high standards".

McCarthy said the lines were "a complete mess" and could confuse visitors to a nearby guesthouse.  "It just seems a complete waste of resources," she added.  "The resurfaced patch is not the only bit with potholes. If you're going to cut the street off and bring all these lorries in, why not do the whole street?"

Robin Dickson lives around the corner on Haxby Road, but Markham Crescent is one of the zones where he can park with a resident's permit.  "It just seems totally ludicrous and disorganised," he said. "To actually turn up, see there are already lines there, and then just go ahead without a thought or check, paint another set anyway is plain bonkers."  He said some patches of road were repaired in the next street along, Markham Street, six months ago and were "still awaiting their yellow lines repainting".

Another family had their car moved by a contractor during the resurfacing, as they were on holiday and were only given one day's notice about the work.

A spokesperson for City of York Council said the work "clearly hasn't been completed to our high standards, something our external contractor accepts.  It has confirmed the work will be redone by the end of this weekend at the latest, after which it will be inspected by our highways team."

18:37 Westbury to Swindon due 19:21
20:12 Swindon to Westbury due 20:56 will be cancelled.
This is due to a safety inspection of the track.

Delays to services between Newbury and Reading
Following a safety inspection of the track between Newbury and Reading the line towards Newbury will be reopened shortly.
Train services running to and from these stations are returning to normal. Disruption is expected until the end of the day.
Customer Advice
-
What has happened?
-
We have had a report of a defect with the track in the Theale area. Trains may not be able to run over the affected line until it has been inspected or may have to run at reduced speed.

Mums hope school uniform swap will help families

A free school uniform swap has been set up by two mums who want to help stop families from "forking out" on "expensive" clothing.

Bex and Faye created the Tavistock Uniform Swap Shop in Devon where people could donate clothing their children had outgrown along with having a selection of new items as well.  A stall at Tavistock Library was set up on Thursday where they received three "huge boxes" of uniforms from lost property at local schools, as well as half a dozen bags from the community.

Bex said a lot of parents and guardians were "in the same situation" and she and Faye hoped it would help people financially while also stopping clothes being thrown away.

Donations in Tavistock included branded and unbranded jumpers, shirts, skirts, dresses, wet weather clothing, shoes, lunchboxes and trousers.

Bex and Faye, who have been friends for 10 years, said people who visited were "shocked" everything was free and they did not have to make a donation to do a swap.

Bex, who works at a nursery in Tavistock, said: "We are all in the same situation, it doesn't matter if you're working full-time, things are really expensive and if we can save on something like this, then let's do it."

In September, a new law from the Department for Education will be introduced on branded school items in England.  It means parents and guardians will not have to buy more than three branded items, plus a tie for children in secondary school.  The government decided to create the law after it was estimated a quarter of secondary schools still had four or more items on its list last year.

Bex said it was "relief" there was at least a limit on the branded items, but it depended on what items the school or establishment chose.  "I think in the long run, if the cost of living keeps going up, we are going to need to push for there to be less and less uniforms with logos, but it will definitely help," Bex said.

Mum-of-two Faye said the price of uniform depended on the school and what their rules were around branded items, but some school uniforms could set a family back about £60 per child.

(BBC article continues, with illustrations)

Secretary of State. Traveller. TV superstar. The inimitable Michael Portillo joins us live on stage to share funny, insightful, and poignant stories from his extraordinarily rich and varied life.

The son of a refugee who rose to become one of Britain’s leading politicians and best loved broadcasters, Michael Portillo’s life has been a game of two halves. As a statesman he served under Margaret Thatcher, ran for the leadership of the Conservative Party, and lost his seat in one of the most famous moments in British political history, only to become one of the nation’s favourite broadcasters, sparring with Diane Abbott and Andrew Neil and enthralling millions of us with his travels on the world’s greatest railways.

Call me old fashioned (or a technophobe) if you wish, but don't IT systems that present you with a list of alternatives as soon as you type in 2,3 or 4 characters cause more problems than if they could be programmed so that they only did so once you finished typing if there were possible alternatives for the station you'd typed in (eg, Green Park Reading or Reading West for Reading)?

Can be useful for summoning the emergency services.
I can remember when I was working a not insignificant fire at a factory. The person calling the FB gave what she believed to be the post code and the fire tenders turned up at the sorting office in the nearby city.

basically, you quietly stop offering those 3m x 3m squares which have soundalike words. That means you go down to 6m x 6m accuracy at that spot

Prioritisation (at the least) is not a problem unique to Scotrail.   Using our local GWR TVM▸ , start typing in a station name and the first offerings are not necessarily the local ones, nor the ones that most tickets are sold to from the station at which the TVM is located.

Yes, very good pints are made.