Booked unit
Handy to know.
ON twitter they at least have been publishing services planned to be a refurb HST, otherwise, not that I know of.
There is, but what is at Doncaster to work it, as I don't believe there were any ScotRail power cars there. There was a path for 43142/144 to go over from Brush but that was cancelled at customer request and the new path isn't due to get there until after the Haymarket move has gone.
I agree this would impact new trains as the subsidies go towards leasing costs but electrification isn't affected by subsidy as it's a capital cost and infrastructure investment. From other forums, Glasgow southern suburban (Barrhead, East Kilbride and Kilmarnock), Dunblane to Perth and the Borders lines are in the frame to be tackled next. If electrification goes ahead, the question becomes where does the stock come from? If subsidies are being cut, it would suggest a stock cascade from elsewhere rather than new stock to reduce leasing costs. That would likely rule out the 80x bimodes so I guess you're right; that means the HSTs stick around longer for longer distance services. You could look at converting the power cars to bimode I suppose
There are certainly aspects of their competence which deserve criticism. Nevertheless as has been expressed on this thread the failure can be shared around to many other factors e.g. Network Rail . They do run Dutch railways and others internationally, so they are engaged with good knowledge skills based and are a competent international rail operator. Easy to blame them yet the progress has been significant. Plenty features to improve and to appreciate the poor level of rail infrastructure they inherited and still exists. To ditch them is political expedience and bad judgement, leaving instability in the current HST project and future direction..
If it had be delivered as planned it would have resulted in the best value though. My understanding is that the First and National Express bids were both basically "more of the same".
That's the nature of the business though. As famously summarised by the quote attributed to John Glenn "I felt exactly how you would feel if you were getting ready to launch and knew you were sitting on top of 2 million parts — all built by the lowest bidder on a government contract."
Word is that TGS' are being looked at as the fifth coach so that bike and heavy luggage space can be extended.
