dp21
Member
- Joined
- 10 May 2017
- Messages
- 358
Franchises are always a secret until the winner is announced. I'd be enormously surprised to not see new trains somewhere in wales. Not least given the new CAF factory in the country!
Franchises are always a secret until the winner is announced. I'd be enormously surprised to not see new trains somewhere in wales. Not least given the new CAF factory in the country!
The new Wales franchise has been an exception. It's the first ever award of a franchise since privatisation where Welsh Govt have released NO details of what they expect from bidders AT ALL throughout the entire award process.Franchises are always a secret until the winner is announced. I'd be enormously surprised to not see new trains somewhere in wales. Not least given the new CAF factory in the country!
Shocking. I don't know the background but I hope there was a public consultation as an input into the ITT. Why wouldn't the ITT not be made public? Do they not have to publish an OJEU notice? (incidentally the GW franchise tender is on OJEU)The new Wales franchise has been an exception. It's the first ever award of a franchise since privatisation where Welsh Govt have released NO details of what they expect from bidders AT ALL throughout the entire award process.
Not even the ITT has been made public, if one was drawn up at all. The ITT won't be released until after the franchise contract is awarded and signed off.
But the PRM legislation is about more than just toilets.There wouldn’t be any need to ‘shut down’ routes operated by pacers or unmodified sprinters come January 2020. The government will either allow an extension to get units cascaded or modified or the existing non compliant toilets will simply be locked out of use.
You don’t need a toilet on a train for the service to operate.
I reckon a a large, top secret order for D-trains has been placed. Might explain Vivarail's buoyant mood.
Topic has strayed, but there is a kinda Welsh ITT, its very short though
https://beta.gov.wales/sites/defaul...rator-and-development-partner-procurement.pdf
Continue stakeholder engagement activities, including at least one further
twelve-week public consultation prior to any Invitation to Tender being published.
I guess a year is a long time in rail fandom
(!)
Never heard that word used as a synonym for ‘industry’ before..!
Bit of Hysterical over reaction I think, still nearly 2 years before Pacers have to go, and given the number of units involved I would think Arriva will be far more concerned that the new CAF units are introduced on time without too many issues, and that there isn't a delay in getting hold of their cascaded units.
Northern is going to have to make a decision pretty soon on whether to continue with it or just bite the bullet and get CAF to build 8 more 195s.
As for comparisons with VivaRail, they're always going to come up, because these are the two conversion projects going on at the moment and the end products, while eminently different, are going to have some overlap in the markets they compete for.
If a post by Tony Miles on wnxx is to be believed (based on his discussion with Ian Walmsley) the Flex plans presumed the 319s were in perfect condition but they aren't - there's steel components (which Porterbrook proposed fitting diesel engines to) which have worn so thin that they can't support the extra weight of a diesel engine.
In the March issue of MR, page 39, Walmsley mentions "the Class 319 Flex, which, against my £1 bet, is coming together in Loughborough."I think I read somewhere that Ian Walmsley has made a bet that the 769's will never turn a wheel in anger!
I'm sure Northern users care far less about the green credentials of their operator than getting new trains
Actually I don't think anyone is bothered about new trains, just enough trains...
Actually I don't think anyone is bothered about new trains, just enough trains. As I've said before a lot of trains in the NW of England (and around Leeds I suspect) are full to the point of capacity limiting ridership.
Based on comments passengers direct at the @northernassist twitter feed they want both more seats and better trains. They might find additional 150s or 319s as a suitable interim measure until more new trains arrive but I think those who think Northern should still be operating 150s or 319s in 2025 are a small minority.
The 319s are quite popular. They're a much quieter and more comfortable ride than the Pacers and Sprinters they've replaced.150s I'll give you, but EMUs last in good condition much longer, so if those 319s got the Renatus treatment I doubt they would care. Some would probably even think they were a new train built to an old design; DB fooled me on that one with the extremely high quality Silberling refurbs in the 1990s.
Plenty of 323s going spare in 2020 if the Flex programme doesnt work.
The 319s are quite popular. They're a much quieter and more comfortable ride than the Pacers and Sprinters they've replaced.
The 150s feel like what they are: old.
Absolutely. The 3+2 facing seats are the main thing I don't like personally about any train. 156s are perfect layouts, in my view, as are the TPE 185s and 350s. Facing seats should have tables in between, as far as I'm concerned.I reckon if you got the 319/2 (Brighton Express) interior people would *really* like them. (That's 2+2 mixed airline and table with 6 rows per 2-windowed section using Chapman seats). Indeed, if a load of Chapman seats are going spare, perhaps they could be retrofitted?
Sadly Northern's units have the worst of the layouts (3+2 all facing) - even the Cityflyer layout (2+2 Ashbourne seating with facing on one side and generously spaced airline on the other) is nicer - but if the *worst* layout is popular imagine how popular one would be with InterCity quality seating?
The 319s are quite popular. They're a much quieter and more comfortable ride than the Pacers and Sprinters they've replaced.
The 150s feel like what they are: old.