samuelmorris
Established Member
The 769s made sense at the time when a large fleet of 319s was the intention. The upset with Porterbrook and the 323s and how they solved it, justifiably, with the early decommissioning of the unconverted 319s, now officially renders the 769s the wrong move. They weren't to know it at the time, but between the microfleet they're going to be by the time they're introduced combined with the, as far as I can tell, worst in class delay of any stock upcycling programme (and it's a pretty miserable field of competition) have led to them effectively being a mistake. Whether that fact changes their future remains to be seen. From Northern's perspective, what could you do instead? They have the advantage of not having had to fund all the development on the 769s and only pay when they start receiving them, but any additional new stock such as the current crowd-favourite 755s, would have to come via a tender, and would also have to meet DfT approval in an area of the country where keeping costs down comes far higher up the pecking order than passenger satisfaction.
