You get claims like this, and then they get disproven.
It was almost impossible to have proper cab end gangways, leading to silly designs like the Juniper EMU, then came the Electrostar and Desiro fleets with, er, proper cab end gangways. (That Hitachi have stuffed it up is neither here nor there).
It was almost impossible to have properly-sized overhead luggage racks, then came the Desiros, Pendolinos and Class 800s.
It was almost impossible to meet the latest emissions regulations with underfloor engines, then came the Class 195s and 800s.
Normally, these things aren't actually true. Good engineers find a way, bad engineers make excuses. (Even worse ones claim they have when they haven't - yes, you and your dodgy cab windscreens, Hitachi).
There's a few things I could say to the above but I'm not going to bother as they are not particularly relevant to this thread.
Clearly these trains could be considered an alternative to the HST Short Sets for Scotrail, and Wales if you believe the rumours, what will be interesting is to see which proves the most reliable, the new train with single engine point of failure, or the modernised very old train without the single engine point of failure. It would also be interesting to know how the overall costs of each compare as well.
The one thing you can say is that in terms of basic kerbside appeal is these trains make HST's look like something out of the Arc.
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