Whistler40145
Established Member
With Class 350/4s being cascaded to West Midlands Trains, presumably the Class 350/2s will be surplus.
Which TOC would they be most suitable with?
Which TOC would they be most suitable with?
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Possible use for Class 350/2s
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sprinterguy
Established Member
The class 350/4s are in addition to the existing 350/2 fleet. The 350/2s will only be replaced by new 5-car class 730 Bombardier Aventras over the next couple of years.
Whistler40145
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Cheers
adamedwards
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The 350/2 fleet might have been a better choice for the EMR Corby service, but they won't be available soon enough. It needs more electrification to provide a home for them. Eg Nottingham - Sheffield - Leeds. But Grayling messed a that up, sadly.
Whistler40145
Established Member
What didn’t Grayling mess up!
greatvoyager
Established Member
That was proposed, in fact it was detailed here.
https://www.porterbrook.co.uk/innovation/case-studies/the-flex-family
I think it would be a great idea, if they get round to doing it.
greatvoyager
Established Member
That's a good point. I wonder if the 350/2 were available sooner, whether they would have moved to EMR instead of the 360/1 units.
greatvoyager
Established Member
Interesting idea, they would need to be fitted with the third rail shoe if going to SWR though.
And a new interior (hopefully they do 450s at the same time).
greatvoyager
Established Member
Would they be re-classified as 450/2s if they get the shoe gear? Imagine the pantograph could be removed too.
Glenn1969
Established Member
Maybe Northern could use them to replace the 319s?
They are replacing 319s with 323s and 331s.
No. They're still dual-voltage units (hence why Electrostars are always 3xx units as the 375s were originally dual-voltage).
323 replacement? Or even a 331 replacement if they do a full Juniper!
No, 6-323 and 6-331 fits at locations where 8-319 or 8-350 wouldn't.
Who says they can't be reformed?
Who says that would be worthwhile?
Northern are losing money every day and the 323s are getting old and the 331s are built by CAF. The 350s are some of the most reliable trains in the country.
...and could have lease prices to match.
Swapping 323s and 331s on which Northern's traincrew are already trained for 350s which would need a complete training programme to be undertaken would not be a very good way of addressing Northern's losses.
greatvoyager
Established Member
I meant if they removed the pantograph, as if they go to SWR, it would not be needed.
They wouldn't remove the pantograph, it's already been installed, not much point removing it. SWR would be a good place though considering the 442 issues
XC wouldn't want to break the services up to use electric trains.
In the event 331s don't last very long (like 332s), they'll need new trains, and they definitely need new trains to replace the 332s.
Why not? If there was a bit of an overlap, with Voyagers. For instance with then running through to Darlington or Middlesbrough. There could be enough to limit the risk of losing passengers due to the split
Especially with the extra capacity that doing so would provide across the rest of the network.
Especially with the potential for there to be 8 coach trains running over the electrified network. These trains which would have seating capacity on a par with a HST, whilst being much cheaper to run (fuel costs, track access charges, etc.) meaning that they wouldn't need to sell as many tickets to cover the basic costs.
However I doubt the space on the line would be enough for an increased service that, to put it bluntly, only exists because it can.
greatvoyager
Established Member
Shoe gear is being removed from some of the 319s which have been converted to 769s, so I wouldn't say it would be out of the question considering little of the SWR network there is OHLE.
It should be assumed, the /1s spend some time on third rail for a short period at Southern.
They're dual voltage (from build) though...
In the real world (not on forum / magazines etc), modifying rolling stock isn't so simple, takes time and funding, the sort of things that affects decisions...
I can tell you that collector shoes are only the tip of the iceberg.
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