Class 379 updates (all are OFF LEASE)

[Mamorin]

Having said that, DfT wants the EMU fleet at the lowest cost going forward, and to dump old stock which is expensive to maintain, so may yet do a deal where it makes sense.

This is probably partly why Akiem has held on to the 379s for over a year now even though the DFT won’t let anybody have the 379s.

Akiem must feel that there is still a chance at finding the 379s a new home.

 

[Nicholas Lewis]

This is probably partly why Akiem has held on to the 379s for over a year now even though the DFT won’t let anybody have the 379s.

Presumably you mean wont authorise a TOC to take out a lease on them

 

[Mamorin]

Presumably you mean wont authorise a TOC to take out a lease on them

Yes that is what I meen.

 

[RailWonderer]

You'll find plenty of posts in these threads talking about ROSCOS "ripping off" the railway in the past, and this is the DfT getting its payback.
That's why 350/1s are staying and 350/2s are not.

That was in the early privatisation years the ROSCOs, especially Porterbrook (but they all did) charged high leasing rates to ToCs for old BR era stock because ordering new was expensive and they could charge and ToCs had no choice but to cough up and bill the DfT for subsidy. Ironic how ROSCOs profiteering off the DfT came out of a system the private enterprise idolising new Labour and Tories created.

The order for 379s at the time was partly political with the threat of Derby losing jobs otherwise I'd imagine they'd have ordered a few more 350s instead to go with the existing 360s.

National Express did not want to invest anymore than the bare minimum required to keep the franchise. They had an obligation to make that order for the 379s as part of a network improvement plan that they needed to keep the franchise from 2008-2012 in response to a white paper published in 2007 to improve the quality of services on the WA.

This is probably partly why Akiem has held on to the 379s for over a year now even though the DFT won’t let anybody have the 379s.

It's not that the DfT won't let anybody have them, a ToC is more than welcome to have them, the DfT just won't be willing to give out a subsidy to cover the costs of running them. If you found a profitable OA operation to use them on that would be different.

 

[Islineclear3_1]

If we consider that as news that they do have a planned replacement, then the Northern 769s and 323s will remain the oldest without planned replacement.

I didn't think Northern 769s and 323's operated in Scotland

The OP mentioned Scotrail units

 

[bramling]

The DfT want savings while the interest rates are high. Once they settle down there might be more appetite for expansion.

A base interest rate of 3.5% is by no means what would normally be regarded as high. It’s only that elements of society have become conditioned to ultra low rates over the last decade and a half. These ultra low rates have contributed to some of the structural issues the country now faces, and are unlikely to return.

What is more unusual is consecutive rate rises every time the MPC meets, which has been the case for some time now - that will no doubt tail off at some point, though with the news today that the economy isn’t doing quite as bad as thought there may well be more of an err towards keeping on raising.