We HAVE to use them now. More 170s and 158 going off lease mean's if we don't use unrefurbished HSTs there will literally be no trains to operate the service
We know these trains are needed like yesterday!
Well this is all down to a totally inept government and Department for Transport, sitting around doing nothing but talking rubbish about the ten top priority things there going to sort out. Still waiting for one.
Just delay all TOC's new timetables and rolling stock movements with no penalties for 12 months and let everyone try and catch up.
The whole country, not just Scotland, is in a mess, railway wise in one form or another.
The HST refurbishment is going very slowly for reasons we now all know about, it's not going to get any better or quicker.
Is there enough drivers & guards trained up to run a descent service without having to cancel service mid diagram on classic sets never mind the refurbished sets?
Has as already been mentioned will there be enough HST sets? Doubtful...
So the travelling publics travel nightmares will continue all because the DfT accepted franchise bids for TOCs which were really unrealistic time wise but promised so that that bidder won that franchise all at a price with great returns.
Eventually though and i know this doesn't help just now but Scotland will have one of the best 40 year old fleets in the country brought upto a descent state fit for the use over the next 15 years or so, whether reliable or not, time will tell.
I would rather be travelling on these HST sets than most modern new trains but only if there going to turn up as timetabled.