In a way, I'm surprised the economics of converting 22 HST sets for Scotrail added up. On GWR's West of England route, HST rebuilds were considered and ruled out with new Class 802s proving a better investment for a longer period of time.
Although it couldn't have been foreseen, the extended HST rebuild times at Wabtec do beg the question of whether a new fleet, built for a 30 year lifespan, would have been a better long term investment, although I appreciate that the franchising structure meant that bidders weren't necessary looking beyond the end of the current franchise.
In the meantime, Scotrail customers can look forward to an improvement in capacity and quality over their current Class 170s, which can only be a positive thing. I do however wonder whether a 'stopgap' train could have actually been a new train for the next 30 years, without the upheaval and cost of needing another fleet replacement programme in 7-10 years(?).
In my view, good for customers (depending on the quality of the refurbishment and how the reliability of the HSTs pans out), but not so sensible as a business decision.