That will likely be their downfall. Air conditioning never got fitted. Amazingly, even with the new screens they never added CCTV. So when it comes to considering the fitment of bodyside cameras or support for new signalling, I rather suspect the decision will be made to leave them as is to end their life somewhere else.
It will be a sad day to see them go, but I can't see their future being very bright and it will only be issues with the DfT or sourcing more stock that keeps them here for some time.
Air conditioning and CCTV aren’t a big issue. The former is a non issue, the latter is fairly straightforward to sort if deemed necessary. They’re getting the big in-thing which is wi-fi (this very message even comes via 365 wi-fi!), and the lack of sockets is equivalent to a certain other large class which does its trade on the GN route!
Dispatch is a minor issue. No one is going to buy the equivalent of 20x 4-car units at over a million a carriage just to get rid of a handful of dispatch staff.
Agreed ETCS could be the big unknown. If they can get it to work on a cramped 2-car 158 then achieving same on a 365 shouldn’t be so difficult. Obviously there’s the issue as to whether it’s worth doing all the design on a fleet of 20x units. But having units sitting idle is a plus point, as there’s no difficulty having to fit around a working fleet.
I’d say it all depends on what the leasing company does. Offer them at a good rate and perhaps throw in a couple of mods like CCTV and in-cab monitors and suddenly they’re a pretty good proposition — as long as their reliability holds up. Performance isn’t an issue - they pretty much hold their own compared to other fleets, and lack of 110 mph shouldn’t be an issue especially as long as there are 100 mph 700s around. Being in 4-car formation is possibly a benefit as it allows them to be made up to whatever is needed - indeed the balance of 8-car versus 12-car even changes between the morning and evening peaks!
Just keep them on GN - there’s no passenger appetite to get rid of them.
