The problem is we don't run coaches with engines attached anymore. BR could run long trains easily and cheaply because they yards full of decades old (i.e. fully depreciated and therefore dirt cheap) coaches to call in times peak demand.
The very idea today would give management an attack of the vapours. Can't use those non compliant to crash and accessibility standards old coaches today, especially as they burnt most of them.
Then of course BR spent most of it's time shortening station platforms to save future maintenance costs.
The problem is longer (new) trains cost real money, check out the rental figures compared to a Pacer. Of course pressure for the latest kit, with air con, comfy rides and disability accessible toilets means what current cheap trains you have are going to be axed for more expensive new ones!
Hope these new trains can run on 98% availability as there won't be much spare.
Do you want a case for those rose tinted spectacles ?
Do you remember just how awful those old Mark 1 and early Mark 2 coaches were - no central door locking, no passenger intercom, some old non BR stock didn't even have end gangways. They were riddled with asbestos, stuck with vacuum braking and relied on steam heat. They also tended to be infested with rats and fleas, thanks to their infrequent use. Health hazard is something of an understatement.
BR often used a locomotive which couldn't heat the stock, and it wasn't at all uncommon to find it colder inside the stock than outside, with ice forming on the windows and roof of the stock. Then the locomotive would collapse with water and oil everywhere, and maybe a piston coming through the side of the locomotive, or a traction motor catching fire, because the bogie hadn't been cleaned due to a fitter's strike.
BR did shorten platforms - at the time, they were losing passengers hand over fist, if the railway had insisted on maintaining 250 metre platforms at every station, Beeching would have still been closing railway lines on his death bed, it had to be done at the time.
What has resulted from Beeching and the BR Sprinterisation is a railway with exploding passenger demand, because we can only run short trains in many places, we need to run them much more often, which has been instrumental in driving/creating passenger demand. People will not wait 1 hour for a train, no matter how many coaches it has, they want a 5, 10 or maybe 15 minute wait.
And 98% availability - some fleets do actually manage that level of reliability and more will in the future, with remote monitoring, balanced maintenance, more precise manufacturing tolerances and better depot facilities.
