The mk3s that were already scrapped were coming up for exams that would have required a lot of expensive work, as I understand it. Does this apply to the remaining mk3s as well? In other words is there a date beyond which it will become very expensive for CS if the Highlander isn't swapped over, and which will lead to significant pressure to do the swap even if it's known that the new stock is not properly ready?
This is one of the big problems with the franchise system isn't it - when things are going badly, there comes a point where the operator is incentivised to do things that don't make sense in the long term. CS might make a calculation that the losses involved in running faulty new stock are smaller than the losses involved in paying for the old stock to run for a bit longer, but missing from that calculation is the long term damage it does to the perception of the reliability of the service, damage which an operator doesn't care about if it's got to the point where it just wants to fulfil the minimum required by contract and get out asap, with no interest in running the service after that date.