Is this the net zero document I linked to previously on this thread or is this something different?
They would have to run on diesel between Reading (Southcote Junction) and Exeter unless that line was to be electrified and would require around 30 additional 5 car class 800's in service each day based on 2tph between Paddington and Salisbury with 1tph continuing to Exeter and some extras to Yeovil (with trains formed of 10 coaches east of Salisbury and 5 coaches west of Salisbury) and some maintenance spares.
No they wouldnt.
The railways are over bloated with excess capacity and need to cut back.
The future isnt like for like.., not in any pipe dream.
i’m expecting a mini-beeching, or even at least withdrawal of subsidies and mothballing of a number of routes. We cant go on shovelling money to empty trains and branchline lines that only carry a few passengers, with government interest rates climbing towards 5%.
Railways have been gold plated the last 2 decades, and up until Covid everything was ok, we were heading the Swiss route. Post Brexit were following the path of failed empires as we contract.
imo were going to see less frequent long distance services, just look at Avanti for an idea of the future.. Despite all the furore.. theres no escaping reality, some servives even with -2/3 rds frequency are still just not full… Bringing them back in December is just shovelling more cash into the furnace that we dont have, and the DfT will be challenged for more cuts between now and then.
perhaps the Voyagers might take over the 159’s, and in turn replace the GWR HSTs and 150’s.
I cant forsee new rolling stock orders coming with a collapsed £, high interests rates and looming mass unemployment from huge economic contraction for the next 5 years, no matter how much public squealing goes on, we all need to re-adjust to the world thats been voted for, not the one theyve give up… if that means rolling stock gets used for its full design life plus a few years, its neither a bad thing nor is it something other countries dont do.
Battery power, I think thats for the birds right now, we cannot afford it and the technology isnt good enough, if anything we’ll probably just sell the IP cheap to the US who will harvest its commercial benefits, thats no different to what usually happens in other industries.
borrowing cheap money is over, anyone who has had longterm creditcard loans will know the pain that brings to get out of it, the government is now waking up to that reality to… borrowing money to run empty trains cant continue, even if means the service isnt as prestigous as it used to be.. think 70’s.