I'm not in the least bit surprised. I've been following Roger Ford's take on the IEP since it's conception all those years ago and he said very early it would turn out to be the most expensive train in the world and most likely to be of mediocre performance at best.
So, essentially, everything that industry experts and staff have been warning about for a long time is coming to fruition.
The mediocre performance Mr Ford suggested could be expected many years ago was in the context of the the likely performance characteristics of the early 'power castle' concept for IEP trains when operating on diesel away from the wires, not least on the Highland Main Line.
Where exactly are the suggestions of mediocre performance on the part of the actual trains now in operation on GW metals, whether using diesel or overhead electric power?
Please don't try to revive the silly stuff about them not being able to get to 125mph on diesel - when that was never expected, with diesel operation only being planned in places with speed limits no higher than 110mph. Running at anything above that speed on diesel is now confined to trains between Wootton Bassett and the Box area, following the commissioning of the electrification to Bristol Parkway - hopefully we will get some positive news on Wootton Bassett to Bristol shortly.
The financial arrangements are entirely down to the government and are just yet another example of the stupidity of Private Finance Initiative contracts as a means to pay for anything at all - something that was known long before the IEP was dreamed up.
Hmm still seems the southwest intercity service to London is the poor relation in the brave new world of GWR. Surely the savings would of been better cutting coaches between Cardiff and Swansea or Oxford and malvern or swindon and Cheltenham. ....
But oh no, sorry, Mark Hopwood actually uses those trains so that would never happen. South west - out of sight and out of mind.
And yes I agree half hourly in Cornwall is an improvement from an inter regional perspective, I am just disappointed in the downgrade of the more important intercity services to London which I fear will eventually lose custom.
Is there a reason you keep making your inaccurate claims about IET operations on other GWR routes?
You know full well that portion working west of Plymouth was a fact of life on London-Cornwall services for many years until the unsplittable HSTs were introduced.
The factors that drove that drove portion working through Cornwall in the past - the limited population (who do not all spend every waking moment travelling up and down by train to Plymouth, never mind London) and the resultant modest passenger numbers outside the holiday season - have not changed during the HSTs' lifetime.
So whether you like it or not, when the time came to replace the HSTs, it was also an opportunity to look again at how the London services were operated and how services in Cornwall in general are organised. If Network Rail had not screwed up timetable planning, we would already be able to see how the plans that resulted from that process were working out in practice.
Eh? Off peak Swansea and Cheltenham are dead between Cardiff and Swansea and Swindon and Cheltenham. Fact.
When the Cheltenham service goes hourly with the new timetable, most services outside peak periods will be five-car (at present the largely two-hourly IET service is simply replicating the previous HST operation). Fact. It is also a fact that most off-peak Oxford and Cotswold services are already worked by five-car IETs.
If the South Wales services are dead outside the peaks, what on earth are off-peak HSTs through Cornwall outside the holiday season? Deader than dead? Please don't pretend that they are packed to the gunwhales.
