I am not sure if this has been mentioned in the thread but would the 10 Class 350/4 units that are for FTPE more than the number of Class 170 units that will be taken away from them ? Is so, they will have a net gain of one unit.
I am, as usual, waiting for postings to expose my lack of understanding of the situation.
Well that's one way to look at it. Another way is to say that up until a few weeks ago, TPE were to have 40 extra vehicles instead of 22 so that's a loss of 18 after TPE had made plans for much higher capacity on some of it's routes. TPE had planned a 5th North TP service from May, and some small amount of strengthening on other existing services so any loss now is a problem. No matter how you spin it, it's bad news for the commuters that will still probably have to shoehorn themselves onto those peak (and plenty of off peak too) services.
There is lots of talk about that the fact that with the arrival of the 350s and the loss of the 170s then TPE still has a net gain of units. But it isn't that simple.
From May this year a new timetable has been designed taking into account all available units. The Scottish services become hourly all day to relieve the overcrowding and provide valuable extra capacity, this is an increase on now. There are not, therefore, 10 185s released as it is not a direct swap from one traction to another.
The 185s that are released are used in a number of ways, primarily provide a new hourly service between Liverpool and York. This is very important as this route is very busy and this service provides extra capacity as well as providing a new faster service between key locations to make rail more attractive too. and replace 2 car 170 workings to allow the 170s to run in pairs.
The 170s themselves run in pairs for much of the day - the are 2 x 4 car 170 workings on the South Route and 3 x 2 car units on the North Route which spend much of the day coupled together to make a 6 car. These are provided on the busiest services where 1 x 185 or 1 x 170 as now are currently insufficient for the level of demand.
These extra workings and diagrams have all been planned, extra train crews recruited, new train crew depots opened, new depot and other staff taken on to service the trains so by simply abandoning the plan would have significant cost implications.
Now, it would theoretically be possible to replace the 170s with only 4 extra 185 units. These might be available if some of the North West services were transferred to Northern. But it would mean a reduction in capacity on some services compared to now and also compared to the new May timetable, a move which would not be welcome. And as mentioned, where do the Northern units come from for these services? Well, if enough EMUs were available for Liverpool area services, and the current DMU operated Liverpool - Blackpool service was cut back to Preston, then all these could be electric workings and release DMUs, but they, as mentioned elsewhere, have already been allocated to Todmorden Curve, strengthening, etc etc.
