Presumably because it would mean dirty, shortformed (or cancelled) and unrefurbished trains for years to come, rather than eventually actually seeing the squadron fleet of refurbished High Speed Trains that should have already been fully in service by now.
Given that they are working OK elsewhere, I’d suggest the issue is with the people maintaining and operating them for ScotRail rather than the trains themselves.
Presumably because @PG would rather you were proved wrong and the HSTs enter service in that timeframe. Because anything ordered in their place certainly won't be, and if nothing shows up then the service will continue to be disappointing for a very long time. As much as the HST programme has fallen short, resolving the issues with it is going to be a quicker, cheaper option than starting fresh.
What we need is for a couple of the guys from GWR, or Craigentinny or somewhere have a look at what work is being done by SR and reach a conclusion on is it the train crews, the maintenance carried out, improper refurbishment, or just Sh*t stock released from GW.
On the contrary the data with all the other HST operators including other Wabtec refurbs seem to show they are pretty reliable. ScotRail is the outlyer rather than the norm.
Indeed. I'm not sure as to what the root issue is for Scotrail but it doesn't seem to be affecting GWR and Cross Country's refurb sets and other 'classic' sets in the country. This probably stems from a lack of maintenance knowledge, as normally happens with new fleets at first. I do however have to question why it's taking this long to get things sorted. Is there any sign of some of the staff from Craigentinny transferring over to Haymarket now the HSTs are being removed from LNER? I'd imagine, assuming Scotrail could give a competitive offer, that some would be happy to transfer between the two given they already have the knowledge on HSTs.
Is any significant work done on DMUs in Aberdeen?
The list of refurb services tweeted this morning suggested that 4 were in use, although this may have been messed up by the collision between a170 and a cow near Leuchars this morning.
Yes this - it's now evident that years are going to pass before things get back to pre HST levels never mind show great improvements.
To the best of my knowledge no significant work is undertaken on DMUs in Aberdeen.
Question is then - would this management change if a new name was above the door?
that's true, if porterbrook are willing to give stuff away for free, then I'm sure they could give a reasonable figure to provide EC HSTs to Scotrail.
I gave a link to the thread that shows what I'm on about, either way, I'm trying to say they know there is a limited future life for most of the HST stock, so any deal that allows porterbrook to get some use out of them they will no doubt jump on, and presumably give a reasonable price.
They'd still need refurbed, though, as the (currently) LNER stock doesn't comply with PRM requirements. Perhaps more viable would be to take some Mk4s (are there enough locos with ETS available?), but then you're back to a fair wait for the Mk4s to be available.
I know that was mentioned, but I'd be hard pressed to say if it was a plan or merely an idea.
Much more likely that they've already applied for an exemption on the basis that delivery of the compliant stock is being delayed.
