And yet the 319s are the only units I can think of which have had broken driver cab doors that wouldn’t close which resulted in an entire branch line being blocked.
17 and then the rest are going to storage.
thanks, I thought west midlands were keeping the remaining 9
Seems an awful waste of some pretty decent trains to be honest!
Source?
730's from Bombardier
I doubt it. For them to be ready to start releasing 323's by the end of the year, the first units should've started testing already.
Is that a temporary move or more of a long-term thing? If the latter, has there been some sort of miscalculation as to fleet order numbers? Can't say it's a disappointment, they're good units in many ways.
Please could you provide a source for this.
Indefinitely: they aren't planned for replacement until at least the start of the next Northern franchise.
Yes will do i will have to refer to my source in the know
www.railinsider.co.uk
Do you know which ones or will it be the ones with the most mileage to transfer to northern.
That may be a blessing in his case; HVAC systems are known germ spreaders. (Opening hopper windows can be too, but it could just be mandated that staff open them, but I digress).
I'd go as far as saying that they'll survive until at least the end of the next franchise.
I agree. They've gained a reputation for being simple, no-nonsense units which are very well suited to the routes they serve and by EMU standards they're a long way from life-expired. I hear they're also quite well-liked by traincrews.
Is it particularly difficult to believe without a source? I'm not suggesting that it's evidence-based, but it is clearly realistic. We know that 17 units have been signed for by Northern. It seems unlikely that Northern could be persuaded to lease any more than the 34 in question given the rest of the electric only fleet in question. Nobody else is likely to have any interest in them, so it's near certain they'll be available at discount rates. Only staying at WMT and going off lease into store are likely.
It's not unbelieveable: it's just the kind of thing that people say speculatively and don't make clear that they're speculating.
With the right maintenance the 323s could continue to 2035 quite easily. They had big mid-life service in 2013 and 2016 so they could last another 20 years.
Well 2035 does fit in with the end of the next franchise, which going by the next franchise award also being 9 years, takes us to 2034.
