Its one of those quaint British things that you can get yourself into a vehicle/room but cannot get yourself out !. It was safety culture that prevented the internal door handle iirc BUT now the coaches are fitted with CDL (Central Door Locking) can we not have our freedom back please. I suspect and internal handle is easy enough to fit as it looks like the door latch mechanism is there on the inside face of the door just waiting for a handle/slider.
I think I read somewhere (possibly a Modern Railways article about mrk3s on London - Norwich) that 2020 compliance for mrk 3 doors required either power doors or internal handles. However, the option of internal handles wasn't as simple or as cheap as one might suppose, since the CDL would need to much more heavy duty than at present due to the increased likelyhood of accidental use of the door handle. Or something like that.
So, is this a case of a train which has had a good run but is life-expired and due for replacement rightfully being replaced, as some sources say? Or are the higher powers actually needlessly replacing trains which, as other sources suggest, have plenty of life left in them?
I'm currently undecided, but what do people think?
My answer: both. The majority of the IC125s should be withdrawn in 2019 but a number should live on. The reason is that I think the ROSCOs are right that new diesel stock should be avoided. We can't possibly electrify fast enough to replace all IC125s with electric traction by 2020. Plymouth/Penzance should remain worked by IC125s for as long as possible, by which time the wires will hopefully have reached Penzance.
There's also growth on other services to consider. 2-car units are woefully inadequate for ATW's Manchester services for example, using referbed mrk3s to suplement the nation's diesel regional express fleets although in their current 125mph form the class 43 locos wouldn't be suitable. Re-geared to 100mph, with a DVT on the other end, maybe but that raises the question of whether it would be cheaper to just order a batch of new class 158 look-alikes.
In the case of IC225s though, the higher powers really are needlessly replacing trains which have plenty of life left in them.
What will we need long 125mph diesel trains with unremarkable acceleration once we have IEP (with its bi-mode option) and have electrified most of the 125mph lines (with the MML to Sheffield and the GWML to Swansea, the only HSTs with a guaranteed future are the dozen-ish required for the London - Cornwall services)?
The fact that they may be physically sound (if you throw enough money at upgrading the coaches) is separate to the "need" for them.
That's a good question. There is a need for the coaches (or a new batch of regional express DMUs, like class 158s) in my opinion but (apart from London to Taunton/Plymouth/Penzance, and with a short-term derrogation to cover Hull/Cheltenham/Weston-S.M. services for a year or two longer to give the wires time to go up so the IEP replacement can be electric rather than bi-mode) no need for the 125mph diesel locomotives which currently sandwich them. Sadly there are rumors that even London - Cornwall services may become IEP worked by 2020. That would be a bad move in my opinion.
The basic problem is that the HSTs (and I reckon the IC225s as well) are at the point where they just aren't really all that useful on the railway. Once IEP comes to the ECML, IC225s will just eat up paths and get in the way of the nippier IEP trains. Even on the MML, I'd expect them to be tripping up the Meridians.
Sure, the Mk3s are spacious and comfortable*, and perhaps newer trains aren't so much, but that's not the fault of the actual train. You could pack in hard, uncomfortable 3+2 seating into a Mk3 just as easily as you could do out a Meridian or an IEP with big, comfortable 2+2 seating, all with tables, all aligned to windows. I'm optimistic enough to hope that the IEPs will actually be fairly good comfort-wise.
I've alluded to this elsewhere, but I suspect the best use of HSTs is alongside IC225s on the MML, with the Meridians bolstering XC services, or possibly even used to run Paddington-Plymouth(-Penzance). Then, as we approach 2030, replace the entire MML fleet with new IEP trains.
IC225s would get in the way more on other routes than they would on the ECML. With the ECML you have some long non-stop runs (such as London - York on Scottish services). Less station stops and longer distances between them means less accelerating to do and therefore less of a time-penalty versus something that accelerates faster. Hence, the best home for the IC225s is probably right where they are, the second best probably being the GWML (there are more stops, but also higher top speeds and isn't the IEP acceleration supposed to fall-off more than a loco's at higher speeds?)).
So, what we need are a hundred-or-so "spare" coaches with button operated doors and a fairly modern spec... does this solve the problem of what to do with the 442s too? Stick unpowered 442s between two HST power cars?
The trobble with that idea is that the 442s aren't spare. However, it does raise an interesting option. One loco with 5 coaches, one of which is a DBSO (something like a class 422 driving vehicle). Would save the deadweight of a DVT, and I think one of the ROSCOs has a DBSO as one of the options in their Mrk3 booklet.
) by opening the door. As soon as the train got in I realized the door had to be opened from the outside, so I pushed the window down as far as I could, but I couldn't reach the handle. Eventually a woman stuck her hand out and opened the door for me
