Essan
Member
Looking into it, does look like IETs will probably replace everything. So I stand corrected
I doubt the CO2 emissions alone will be enough of a case to electrify the Chiltern line, especially given the central London portion of the line is in tunnel.
AIUI the main reason for the original decision to electricity the GW line was that the HSTs needed replacement anyway and the electrification would be “paid for” by the reduced costs of electric stock.
180s go by the end of this year for transfer to Grand Central.Oops... forgot we were getting them! But are all the services being replace with IETs? I thought it'd just be those currently operated by HSTs, with the Adelantes still running in between?
180s go by the end of this year for transfer to Grand Central.
GC are at present the only operator yet to do anything with the Class 180s in standard class, still has default FirstGroup interior, rather poorly. :/Well the ones with the original 2002 GW interior had better get a refurbishment or this will spell the end for GC!
I doubt the CO2 emissions alone will be enough of a case to electrify the Chiltern line, especially given the central London portion of the line is in tunnel.
AIUI the main reason for the original decision to electricity the GW line was that the HSTs needed replacement anyway and the electrification would be “paid for” by the reduced costs of electric stock.
Slightly off topic, but Birmingham and especially New Street faces similar issues
Are TFL Rail going to use 360s then or not?
Was thinking, Would it make sense if EMU such as 350/2 or 379's gets upgraded to 110 mph and sent to cross country and use them on the Birmingham - Manchester, Realeasing the Voyagers for other work? Possibly a hourly EMU to Birmingham and hourly voyagers to elsewhere.
Highly unlikely I believe, because you'd need more platform capacity at New St to do that.
Maybe even Rugby as platform 6 is bi-Di so could provide a useful service. Give it to the west midlands franchise...keep a batch of /2s refurbish them and would act as a useful service and release voyagers to strengthen.That could be solved if they were run to Birmingham international or maybe even Coventry. Like Virgin Cross Country use to do back then.
With the new West Midlands franchise working with NR to reduce platform occupancy time at New Street to improve performance for all operators another terminating service would be a non runner. As for continuing east there are no spare paths.Maybe even Rugby as platform 6 is bi-Di so could provide a useful service. Give it to the west midlands franchise...keep a batch of /2s refurbish them and would act as a useful service and release voyagers to strengthen.
Maybe that's one for a fantasy thread!
With the new West Midlands franchise working with NR to reduce platform occupancy time at New Street to improve performance for all operators another terminating service would be a non runner. As for continuing east there are no spare paths.
As well as preprivatisation:Post Privatization DMU's now known to be coming off lease.
22 x 3 car Class 185's TPE
32 x 2 & 3 car Class 170's GA
52 x 2 & 3 car Class 170's LM
that's a 150 carriages.......
Would it make sense if EMU such as 350/2 or 379's gets upgraded to 110 mph and sent to cross country and use them on the Birmingham - Manchester, Realeasing the Voyagers for other work? Possibly a hourly EMU to Birmingham and hourly voyagers to elsewhere.
I'm sure all those DMUs (ignoring the Pacers) will get a home with the need to strengthen services and the requirement for stock when lines reopen.
East West rail will need a significant number of DMUs for a start, presumably 170s?
Unless Daft change their franchising policy and force the winners of EMT/W&B/XC/Chiltern to take cascaded stock or the cheap financing of new stock ends were going to end up with sidings full of DMU's with plenty of miles still on them and new fleets that have increased the capacity on lines by single figure %.
I wouldn't be surprised to find, ten years from now, perhaps with some EMUs having been stored, scrapped or even exported, we still read here about short overcrowded services.
It's all very well buying new fleets, but there's a tendency for numbers to be pared down to the bare minimum. A long and uncrowded old train is way preferable to a short and crowded new one.
Indeed unless you have some ex BR stock with miles on the clock and are not politically toxic (i.e Pacer) then the franchising bidding process and cheap finance is making you choose to buy new with a 10% or so uplift in capacity regardless of what is already there or any national policy as all these franchises are being let sequentially in their own little bubble world. XC is full of 17-20 year old post privatization DMU/DEMU's and whats desperately needed is a major uplift in capacity between York/Birmingham/Bristol & Reading/Birmingham/Manchester. What well see on current form is a brand new fleet that only marginally adds capacity.