RobShipway
Established Member
- Joined
- 20 Sep 2009
- Messages
- 3,337
As Ainsworth74 states, this is a loaded question.
Some would state that having multiple units such as the Voyagers and Pendolinos means that a franhisee like Virgin has more flexibility. Others will state that it is less cost as the franchisee is just paying for the cost of using the multiple unit, whereas with loco haulage you are paying for the carriages and teh cost of using the loco.
I am sure if you asked someone from Virgin on the basis of cost which is the cheaper to take passengers to Holyhead from Euston a couple of Voyagers or a Pendolino being dragged by a class 57, the answer will be a couple of Voyagers both in the cost and in the time taken.
My problem with the above is that even though I believe the Voyagers are good trains, they should not be using their Diesel engines under the wires from Euston to Crewe and should have from the outset had a pantograph car that can be used when the train is under the wires. Admiitedly, the power from the pantograph would need one of the diesel engines under the wires to be running to convert the power, but would not need all of them.
The Pendolion's however even though they are longer trains than the Voyagers, they seem to be a bit cramped to me when I have travelled on them. This makes me wish that the Class 87/86's with MK3's could have continued in some way other than having the class 90 with the Pretendolino.
But the above is just my own point of view.