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The following was published in Rail Business Daily today.
https://news.railbusinessdaily.com/universal-signalling-supporting-colas-rail-to-deliver-coventry-very-light-rail-demonstrator-track/

Seems like the first Yutong has entered service on the X1 this morning. Only 1 is out, Weston have had more deliveries of them, the past week or so.

https://bustimes.org/vehicles/fbri-30024

There are six in service today on the X1.

Hengrove getting Yutongs aswell, I think more than Weston but not sure exactly when.

Hengrove is getting 74 electrics later in the year.  The depot is not due to be ready until July. 

4860 on service 15E to Wall Heath.  it arrived at Merry Hill 35 minutes late with 4983 riding shotgun on the service 15 that should have been 30 minutes behind.

Hourly Manchester Piccadilly to Bristol Temple Meads (southbound only) and Plymouth to Edinburgh (northbound only) will be stopping at Worcestershire Parkway station from the May timetable change.

This page has been added to the WMR website today regarding short formations.

https://www.westmidlandsrailway.co.uk/about-us/our-performance/performance-update

There was a planned movement of ETMS fitted units 197030 and 197034 from Holyhead to Machyllnech last Thursday but it was cancelled at Chester.

I note there is a 197 scheduled for Tywyn tomorrow. Not that common is it?  2J11 to Pwllheli at 1325 and 17:27 return to 2G65 Machynlleth. Unit 197044

According to RTT, 2J11 has left Machynllech with 158838 in charge.  I'm not surprised as this service starts at Birmingham International as 1J11 and is split at Machynllech.  In addition, ETMS fitted Class 197s are not yet cleared for passenger service although the rail press has reported that test runs between Shrewsbury and Machyllnech are being undertaken.  Finally, 197044 is not ETMS fitted for use on the Cambrian lines.

The units that will be used on these services will all be 197/0 2-car units, mostly running in multiple formations.  21 sets (197003 and 197022 to 197041) will be fitted with ETCS for use on the Cambrian line.  Holyhead services will have to use these sets as Cambrian and Holyhead services interwork at Birmingham International (i.e. a train arriving from Holyhead returns to Aberystwyth/Pwllheli, and vice versa).   

There were next stop announcements on 6796 on WN 15A this morning.  This is the first time I have heard any next stop announcements on WN services 15/15A/16.  Before now, all we've had is smoke signals! 

Sunday 15As would not cope on an E200

Couldn't agree more.  However, it wouldn't be any worse that some Monday to Friday journeys that use B7RLEs and are full and standing.

New CrossCountry Service between Edinburgh and Cardiff to Start December 16th/18th it split at Gloucester with one Voyager going to Cardiff and the other Plymouth will run one Train in each direction. So the Birmingham Cardiff route has one additional Train and it will be a Voyager/Super Voyager. CrossCountry are at least doubling up the Train between Edinburgh and Gloucester so the ECML Route and MM stations to Brum shouldn't be as crowded being 8/9/10 Car services.

Unfortunately, that's not true.  The 1307 service from Edinburgh currently runs as an 8-car train from Edinburgh to Gloucester where it splits, with 4 cars continuing to Plymouth and the other 4 cars returning ecs to Central Rivers.  From December, that 4 car unit will continue in service to Cardiff Central where it will stable overnight.  This replaces the 1707 Nottingham to Cardiff Class 170 service which will be truncated to terminate at Gloucester with the unit running ecs back to Birmingham New Street.

The following morning, this 4-car unit will form the 0945 departure from Cardiff Central replacing the current 0945 Cardiff Central to Nottingham Class 170 service which will start at New Street at 1149.  It arrives at New Street at 1145 and the 0628 Penzance to Edinburgh service will attach to the back of it when it arrives at 1156, thus forming an 8-car service north of Birmingham.  However, at present, the 0628 service leaves Penzance as a 4-car unit but is attached to another 4-car unit at Plymouth making an 8-car train from Plymouth to Edinburgh.  This means that the station calls from Plymouth to Bristol Parkway will be made by a 4-car train rather than an 8-car train.

In mid July, I travelled back from Newcastle to New Street on a Sunday morning on board an 8-car unit.  I deliberately used the rear coach L which wasn't more than half full throughout the journey.  However, from Leeds onwards, the Train Manager was asking passengers to move to the rear of the train where seats were available.  At New Street, this service is split in platform 11 with the front four coaches forming the 1312 to Plymouth and the rear four coaches the 1342 to Bristol Temple Meads.  As my next journey was to Wolverhampton on the 1330 from platform 10, I remained on the platform.  The 1312 service did not depart until 1320 as station staff tried to shoe horn passengers onto the train which left with three coaches dangerously full and the fourth (1^st Class) almost empty.
 
At the beginning of September, I was in Devon.  On the Saturday afternoon, I travelled from Newton Abbot to Plymouth on board a 4-car Class 220.  It was dangerously full on arrival at Newton Abbot and, although a lot of people got off to travel to Torbay, it was still full and standing to Plymouth.  The following morning, I caught a Paignton to Manchester Class 220 from Newton Abbot to Dawlish.  This train was dangerously overcrowded throughout both the seating and the vestibule areas and was held at Newton Abbot for over five minutes while station staff attempted to get people on board.  When I arrived at Dawlish, the number attempting to board far exceeded the number who alighted.
 
Not only are higher capacity trains needed but the percentage of first class seats needs to be reduced as well (for instance, a 7 coach train should only have 1 or 1½ first class coaches).

The Cardiff to Portsmouth service isn't run by them, but by Great Western. The trains should be the equivalent of a 125, namely two first class coaches and the rest standard class.

I didn't say it did.  Cardiff to Portsmouth is an example of a long distance service that suffers from overcrowding and which would benefit from larger trains such as cascaded Voyagers.

The 7 car 222s from EMT would be good for Cross Country when they are released next year

I agree that these would help but it would still mean diesel trains running under the wires for long distances.

The sooner they're are asked to order more and longer trains the better. They're approaching 25 years old now.

I couldn't agree more.  Hopefully, the creation of Great British Railways will result in a more co-ordinated approach when ordering new trains.  A new fleet of bi-mode units with at least 7 coaches for Cross Country services on the Edinburgh/Newcastle to Plymouth/Reading and Manchester to Bristol/Bournemouth services would be beneficial all round.  As well as providing the capacity needed on these services, they would also operate in electric mode over large parts of the routes (Edinburgh–York/Doncaster and Manchester-Birmingham/Coventry).  In addition, it would allow the Voyagers to be cascaded to increase capacity on other routes such as Cardiff to Nottingham, Birmingham to Stansted, Cardiff to Portsmouth etc.