There's not enough for Scotland, and a mixed fleet would create more problems than it would solve.
How will the ROSCO determine whether or not CAF has adequately fixed the reliability issues once TPE has withdrawn them? A few test runs cannot replicate squadron service.
The general issue is that payment milestones are usually linked to fault free running, so if they're not running, they're fault free, hence you need to pay them.
Where would you get another 13 68s to replace all 26 ScotRail HSTs? As I understand it, it is not possible to manufacture any more, because a Stage IIIb compliant engine would not fit in the 68 bodyshell.
Chiltern only use loco hauled sets because there's a shortage of DMUs. I expect they'll happily keep the Mark 3s until they can obtain DMUs to replace them.
If sorted and the price is right l would imagine an open-access operator might be interested.
What open access operator would that be? Can you honestly think of any untapped market in a post-COVID world?
Realistically it depends how long CV persists and after that how long economic recovery takes.
Elephant in the room...
How long will the Castles last?
And why wouldn't they use DMUs on that given half a chance?
In theory the Castle HSTs are best on Bristol - Cornwall and some Cornish stuff to make sure there’s a good facilities set. Don’t want to use Turbo units on them; the 255s will eventually struggle to continue to be worthwhile.
A further issue with that is that the ROSCO would presumably have to pay a hefty retainer to DRS to keep the 14 68s available while remarketing the Mk5As.
Whether sorted or not, I think Open Access is dead.
by the time any of this comes to fruition it could be class 90 haulage. You read that right
Not so easy actually! The trains are booked to pass each other at Sheffield. So if you attached/detached a set there, you would need an extra driver on duty at all times to shunt that set around from the northbound to the southbound platform. That's likely 2 or 3 driver diagrams to cover that duty all day, i.e. nearly £1m a year staffing cost.
No. There is absolutely no point imposing impractical rolling stock on a route AND then lopping the service short.
We are about to go into a period where all sorts of fleets are going to get parked up because of a downturn in demand and the vast costs which have been racked up since March 2020. These trains are reported to be unreliable - it is not just about headline price. Operators are better off with the best elements of their existing stock and binning off anything non-standard. There are costs involved in getting staff trained, maintaining this stock, handling its unreliability beyond whatever CAF offer. One of the benefits for the operators of leasing is that you can just offload stock (outside its lease term) and the loss sits with the lease companies. The DfT appears to be under no obligation at all to allocate this stock to any other route.