A 379 > 387 > 377 > 465 cascade involving various bits of GTR is being discussed elsewhere - indeed, that may be the rumour the original poster is referring to - see https://www.railforums.co.uk/threads/great-northern-fleet-tender.247756/page-11#post-6675833
I think we can put this rumour to rest for now as southeastern currently have no plans to retire them as confirmed below
Why oh why do people think messaging social media teams who are nothing to do with anything of the sort constitutes an official answer for anything?
Indeed! We shall see what happens next, but given that the DfT control the purse strings anything remains to be seen (luckily there does seem to be some sense prevailing). But Social Media teams... They'll be the last to know.Why oh why do people think messaging social media teams who are nothing to do with anything of the sort constitutes an official answer for anything?
They're there to answer train running queries, they won't know or care about fleet planning for 9 months time.
You've confirmed nothing
SE absolutely want to retire them, their boss has spoken openly about it to try and persuade government to approve a new fleet. The question is when they'll be able to without seriously compromising their stock numbers.
They'll have to do 2 separate tours if the MetCam type is withdrawn distinctly earlier than the re-tractioned BREL ones, so they cover both types off when they each leave. It's worth remembering that while the MetCams look set to leave first, they did hold their original traction motors all along; the original BRELs were consigned to history after 15 years or so (although Armstrong Powerhouse brought it back to life on Train Simulator).
I had the same thing: I remembered both motor sounds, but the door sounds from the BREL sets and the run sounds from the Met-Cam sets. I used to get them semi-regularly on the Gillingham-Charing X semi-fasts (RIP).
I don't know what the lease costs are but IIRC the leasing company for both MetCam Networkers and 707s is the same (Angel Trains), which made for an easy swap, and now half of them are in storage the natural thing to do is put the other half out of service once a replacement for them is sorted. Also I suspect key overhauls are more hassle on the MetCam units as they have to be taken to and from Doncaster for them; the BREL ones only left the region when it was for PRM refurbishment.
Well, not without a capacity drop. The spare SWR 701s could go some way to removing more 465s.
There are several problems with this: firstly, the 701s are being a right pain getting into service with SWR, second the 5/10 car setup is problematic regarding certain routes such that SE shouldn't have too many units of these lengths. Third, SE already have several microfleets that they really need to avoid picking up more, especially if they still cannot eliminate all the 465s from operations.
Hence the suggestions of 377s moving from Southern as part of a wider cascade. Between the remaining 465s, 376s and 707s, SE has enough "metro" trains, the extra 377s can cover the sometime 465/9 routes into mid Kent.
There are, but who is to say that those problems would exist on the Southeastern side?
Well, considering they're storing at lot of them...
Yes and no: yes in that half of them have been withdrawn and the other half will be at the earliest opportunity, but no in the sense that a date hasn't been confirmed for the rest. The discussion about them going by the end of this year seems to have originated from a speculated cascade in this thread.
Even though the reduction in the Southern fleet and services to lose the 455s and 313s appears to have gone fairly well, that is too big a reduction to make sense without something else backfilling at GTR other than just 379s.