Most franchises will be discussing terms of Direct Awards with DfT now or soon. It might be a choice of no extra capacity or extra capacity if they release existing units.
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The SWT franchise will end soon with no Direct Award. Stagecoach reportedly weren`t happy with the revised terms DfT wanted.
Yes, I know that why I stated the only way that any class 442 would go back to the South West Division is if stagecoach was not running.
Evidence? Why wouldn't every other possible franchisee consider them suitable for the scrap yard, like Southern do?
BTW, should this thread be about a Cascade OF DMUs?
It is about the cascade of DMU's, but if you look further back in this thread it was stated about the class 442's going to SWT to then allow class 158 or I presume class 159's to go to TPE or another TOC, which as I stated in my previous post I do not see happening.
Now I believe Department for Transport has included the Class 442 as an option for the TransPennine Express franchise? If this is without any modifications, then they obviously will pass the disability regulations in 2020, so on that basis are still a usable train to be used either under their or be loco hauled. What other stock is Mk3 that will pass the disability regulations in 2020 without having to have modifications and will be going spare within the next 12 months other than the HST coaches that will need to be modified?
There are no spare class 158/159, no spare class 165/166 as they are moving on to the services in the far South West to replace class 158 trains, which will replace the class 150/1's that FGW have currently. I am presuming that the class 150/1 will either be scrapped or go on to replace any class 142/143/144 trains running somewhere in the country?
But if the above happens, that is not freeing up any DMU trains to be available for TPE. So the only options is loco hailed 442's or new build trains as Mk2's would be costly as they too like the Mk3's would need to be modified to have electric doors.
The way I see it is, that any new TOC franchise for TPE has to go for new stock to run the Manchester - Scotland services using 5 or 7 car Pendolino or Hitachi AT300 bi - mode train. This releases the class 350/4's to go on to electric commuter routes with TPE or another operator and releases any class 185's also being used on this route which should I believe free up the class 156's to go back to Northern.