Class377/5
Established Member
- Joined
- 19 Jun 2010
- Messages
- 5,594
With the pacers, it should be a case of using them on sensible routes rather than on major flows they are used. But there isn't enough proper units to do that. So we're stuck with a few choices of what to do.
New trains - which we now have actual figures for thanks to Modern Railways. Pacers cost 4k per carriage a month. A new train would cost around 15k, nearly four times as much. In terms of annual cost, you looking at a £20m bill a year paid for by a 10% fare increase on top of anything else or subsided from taxes. So its not peanuts we're talking about but how much profit is Northern making under the new deal? However this plan do not allow for any passenger growth, something the current packed commuters won't like. Of course fact that no-one wants to fund new build DMU UK gauge stock currently is something that needs to be tackled as ROSCOs/banks may require shorter pay back periods pushing costs up.
Electrify - means we create a shortage of units in the meantime. Again the extra amount of units will create more cash requirements per month but at least we will be able to allow for growth in the longer term.
Rebuild - this is the 278 proposal. To provide an interim fleet to boost fleet numbers. Again its going to cost more money than todays situation but allows for passenger increases in the shorter term (at least one company believes they can have unit ready next year).
So perhaps the solution is new trains and electrify. That way you can accommodate for more passengers (by keeping pacers for a few years to increase rolling stock numbers while electric arrive). But new trains are going to require Rail North and DfT to sign an agreement to use the new build DMUs for x amount of years.
New trains - which we now have actual figures for thanks to Modern Railways. Pacers cost 4k per carriage a month. A new train would cost around 15k, nearly four times as much. In terms of annual cost, you looking at a £20m bill a year paid for by a 10% fare increase on top of anything else or subsided from taxes. So its not peanuts we're talking about but how much profit is Northern making under the new deal? However this plan do not allow for any passenger growth, something the current packed commuters won't like. Of course fact that no-one wants to fund new build DMU UK gauge stock currently is something that needs to be tackled as ROSCOs/banks may require shorter pay back periods pushing costs up.
Electrify - means we create a shortage of units in the meantime. Again the extra amount of units will create more cash requirements per month but at least we will be able to allow for growth in the longer term.
Rebuild - this is the 278 proposal. To provide an interim fleet to boost fleet numbers. Again its going to cost more money than todays situation but allows for passenger increases in the shorter term (at least one company believes they can have unit ready next year).
So perhaps the solution is new trains and electrify. That way you can accommodate for more passengers (by keeping pacers for a few years to increase rolling stock numbers while electric arrive). But new trains are going to require Rail North and DfT to sign an agreement to use the new build DMUs for x amount of years.