So you think that one posting is sufficient to express one's views, when there have been numerous postings made as to the past record of Shooter and his "innovation" with regards to the Class 230 project.
I served in the highest echelons of Senior Management for over 30 years and would bring to the attention of your good self and others on this thread that just because a record of exemplary company management has been the norm, no one is infallible in their judgement as to the success of every project under their managed remit, especially in the case of the Class 230 project which must have seemed small beer to Shooter in comparison with earlier projects in his career.
All I wish to repeat is the time taken so far by Vivarail to bring a fully completed unit to the stage where final testing and approval can then be made, as until that point in time is reached, there can surely be no TOC who would make any commitment to a product that has not passed the required criteria. I trust that this point is simplistically made so no-one claim not to understand what I say.
Of course, I fully understand how forum members can see in their own minds eye how a fully approved Class 230 product could be used on certain branch lines, but once again I reiterate the fact that Vivarail surely will not be looking to make sales of small numbers of these units, but their original vision of one major contract that would see all the units fully planned in comprehensive construction project that would see regular deliveries of completed units to the purchaser until completion. A similar sized production run to my mind would be that of the M5000 trams for the Manchester Metrolink system.
You may not realise that the 'Approvals' process is these days very long-winded due to the requirements of the European Rail Agency. The 4th Railway Package was adopted by the EU in 2013 and all approvals have now to be done through this body - trains are no longer approved by Network Rail as being fit to run on its tracks. I attended a presentation made to a section of the IMechE last year by the person responsible for getting the Hitachi Class 80x trains approved - these being the first trains in the UK going through this process - and the flow charts showing the flow of documents and the 'Bodies' involved were scary. If you look at the length of time that Hitachi has taken to get as far as it has, then Vivarail's timescale for receiving a 'letter of no objection' - the latest information on its website suggests an April/May time frame - has been quite quick. (Nobody gives 'Approval' any more - the most you get is 'no objection').
You also assume that (a) Vivarail wants to make one deal and (b) wants to
sell the stock. I have looked through the stuff published in the railway press and on its website and I find no such declarations.
It is a small entrepreneurial company - it will adapt its offerings to suit the market in order to survive. It would be more than brain-dead to have painted itself into a corner by saying that it will only accept one type of business.
As Vivarail has backing from a financial institution there is no reason why it could not lease small numbers of these trains itself to enable short term solutions to be reached. In fact it would play well - the TOC can say that we are trying to solve an immediate problem with hired stock until our long-term solution (electrification/new trains/whatever) can be implemented. The stock could be labelled 'On hire to <TOCname> from Vivarail' to make this clear.
I also don't understand what you have against recycled rolling stock, especially if it has bogies. A train is a long metal tube. As long as the bits the paying customers see look contemporary and are kept in good order,
it makes no difference whatsoever how old the structure is - as long as it is in a good condition mechanically. If trains can be procured at a lower cost, then so much the better - especially if the services on which they are used are lightly trafficked with a lower income per track-kilometre.
Vivarail is a small company operating out of large shed. It has low overheads and the detailed technical work - power packs, transmission, etc. - has been subcontracted. Its structure will allow it to make small numbers of trains, possibly on a bespoke basis. It is
not Alstom or Bombardier which have to have a continuing flow of orders. In fact Vivarail's total production is limited to the number of D78 trains in existence - unless it has some other ideas in its business plan. Now there's an interesting thought...
Part of being an entrepreneur is being able to cope with failure. In fact progress is impossible if failures don't happen - as Joseph Schumpeter pointed out all those years ago. But in this case, even if the project eventually finds no takers, the worst loss is the expenditure on the design, the prototype and 'approvals', say £10 or £12 million. The D78s have been bought, or are contracted for, at scrap prices so Vivarail can sell the bodies on to scrap merchants - it's not as if the raw material has been very expensive.
I have no connection with Vivarail and have never met any of its staff. But I support entrepreneurs - and if people are serious about reducing the cost of running the railways this seems a good place to start.