precisely.
you want to know where assets are to be deployed and how much it will cost. Most contracts will get a much,much better rate on a long term lease(7-10 years) than a short one.(12-24 mth)
However there's nothing stopping the DfT offering a 7-10 year lease on a 80x and then sub lease it to whoever wants it if the next XC franchise doesn't want it.
Anyway, chances are that any new franchise would want to keep any 80x for a least 2, if not 3, years after the start of any new franchise to allow them to begin in their own fleet. As such it's likely that, even if a new extension wasn't needed you'd be looking at a minimum of half of a 7 year lease before they were likely to be replaced anyway.
However, currently, the most likely replacement fleet would be 80x's anyway. As such, unless the TOC could get a better deal, the new units would likely stay at XC for the life of the next franchise anyway.
You wouldn't need many to make a noticeable difference. As for each extra unit brought in you could
- replace a 5 coach unit with a 5 coach 80x
- replace a 4 coach unit with the above 5 coach unit
- switch a 4 coach unit with another 5 coach unit
- pair up the 4 coach units (i.e. replace a 5 coach unit with a 4+4 coach train)
With just 10 units that's enough to increase capacity for every 5 coach unit within the fleet (either by replacing with a 4+4 train or a 5 coach 80x). It would also increase capacity for the 4 coach fleet to 5 coaches for half the fleet.
Even once you've run out of 5 coach units you can still do the following:
- replace 4 coach unit with a 5 coach 80x
- pair the above unit with another 4 coach unit (i.e 4+4 coach train)
To do this for every unit would take up to a further 10 units. However you may not need to double up ask the way to the outer edges of the network and there could be some diagrams which wouldn't need doubling up.
Probably what's needed (assuming extra units in 2023 from ICWC) is an extra 5-10 units and increase capacity now, with more capacity from extra units when they are available.