Class377/5
Established Member
- Joined
- 19 Jun 2010
- Messages
- 5,594
Dft rather than Tfl would set the wider national rolling stock policy, since they subsidise most fleets in service and therefore judge the value for money of older stock versus never stock and quantity they also usually get the say on what stock is ordered or used. Franchises can however order extra stock themselves for commercial routes that arent subsidised against Dft wishes for example the most recent order of 130 carriages by Southern when it became apparent the cascade would take longer than expected. Without Dft involvement they can process an order a heck of a lot faster (also freeing them from Government procurement even handedness red tape)
Considering that it's the DfT's fault the order got delayed in the first place, the DfT was involved in the tender. The fact the DfT have stated £80m of money to have Southern order the units and the require of £100m in cash from the new franchisee of Thameslink is further proof of this.
With current platform lengths it's needs to be 4 car units on stoppers and 6 car units on express services, with both having 23m carriages. The express services can split at Preston if desired.
I can see the proposed 4 car 350s and 4 car 319s causing problems in the coming years as the platforms won't be long enough to take doubled up units and the cars are only 20m so we'll be stuck with 4 car units on all services. In this case I think 3 car units with corridor connectors, similar to 172/3s or 37xs are the best solution for the express services, provided there are enough for the busy services to be doubled up.
Why do a half measure. Get everything upto 8 cars allowing for a more standard fleet size across the UK. This would mean any AC capable EMU could be cascaded much easier.
At some point or other the north is going to need 8 cars. Let's do it now why we upgrade the routes with wires.