Varamis Rail Given Operators Licence from ORR

[jon0844]

That's the director, driver, control and the rest.

Makes me think of this...



(Image shows a still from a comedy sketch from Little Britain, depicting Dennis Waterman who did multiple things on shows he appeared in)

 

[Condor7]

Makes me think of this...

View attachment 202595

(Image shows a still from a comedy sketch from Little Britain, depicting Dennis Waterman who did multiple things on shows he appeared in)

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Brilliant

 

[Royston Vasey]

They filed their accounts to the year ending 30th June 2025 in March which are available from Companies House. I'm not going to try to disseminate them as accounts never tell the full story, but they do show £1.1 million of creditors falling due within twelve months and £87 in the bank.

Those twelve months are almost over, and they've barely run a train in that time, however they have refinanced the company with ~£1.5 million of debt financing since that point, which reading the Registration of Charge (i.e. the fundraising statement) was also earmarked to be used "in full or in part" to acquire the 325s. That sounds like it has happened given @Skimpot flyer's updates on the units.

 

[Acathater]

I’ve noticed somebody powering up their 2 x 321s at Carlisle in the last few days

they were still parked up there yesterday on the western side of the station on what I presume are abandoned platforms
livery = white & graffiti

 

[fwsmVor]

Whose responsibility would it be to get rid of the hypothetical mouldering EMUs of a hypothetical company that's gone bankrupt?

 

[MadCommuter]

Whose responsibility would it be to get rid of the hypothetical mouldering EMUs of a hypothetical company that's gone bankrupt?

I presume they are deemed to be an asset so ownership and responsibility falls to the administrator?

 

[sh24]

I presume they are deemed to be an asset so ownership and responsibility falls to the administrator?

Exactly that. An asset to sell to pay off creditors depending on how any security or charge is structured.

 

[Royston Vasey]

Exactly that. An asset to sell to pay off creditors depending on how any security or charge is structured.

I presume they are deemed to be an asset so ownership and responsibility falls to the administrator?

As per the recent Registration of Charge the 321s and 325 (if purchased) are "Secured Trains", that is to say the debt financing is secured against those assets.

If those backers are able/decide to call in the debt, the trains would revert to them on paper, but if there are substantial debts such that the company collapses and they are in default to other creditors, for example Network Rail, those parties would also register as creditors then the administrators would decide how to restructure and who to pay what.

What's the scrap value of ~40 BR EMU coaches?

They have a new managing director Matthew Carter-Brown who is or was also VP of an investment bank called PJT Partners which indicates that they may be one of or the sole new backers. His LinkedIn shows successive short stints as exec director or MD of small companies, so I imagine he's been brought in by the new backers to turn it around.

All this is in the public domain and my interpretation, I should add.

 

[Carlisle]

they were still parked up there yesterday on the western side of the station on what I presume are abandoned platforms

AFAIK there were never platforms on that side of the station just sidings / through lines covered by an overall roof until around 1958

 

[sh24]

As per the recent Registration of Charge the 321s and 325 (if purchased) are "Secured Trains", that is to say the debt financing is secured against those assets.

If those backers are able/decide to call in the debt, the trains would revert to them on paper, but if there are substantial debts such that the company collapses and they are in default to other creditors, for example Network Rail, those parties would also register as creditors then the administrators would decide how to restructure and who to pay what.

What's the scrap value of ~40 BR EMU coaches?

They have a new managing director Matthew Carter-Brown who is or was also VP of an investment bank called PJT Partners which indicates that they may be one of or the sole new backers. His LinkedIn shows successive short stints as exec director or MD of small companies, so I imagine he's been brought in by the new backers to turn it around.

All this is in the public domain and my interpretation, I should add.

Interestingly, after digging around, the Fixed Charge ranks ahead of any other creditor including HMRC and staff in the event of an administration. So they would be made good (or as much as you can be with 40 scrap EMU carriages) and everyone else...would not be so good.

 

[Wyrleybart]

Interestingly, after digging around, the Fixed Charge ranks ahead of any other creditor including HMRC and staff in the event of an administration. So they would be made good (or as much as you can be with 40 scrap EMU carriages) and everyone else...would not be so good.

Ironically, since Sims / Unimetals and Booths have closed, is there actually a profitable market for scrap trains ?
I noticed that EMR at Kingsbury are swapping the class 08, so is there still an incoming market for scrap at Kingsbury ?

 

[sh24]

I think steel is around £125/tonne scrap. 35 tonnes average x 40 vehicles x £125 is £175,000. Not a lot of cash compared to the Loan notes.

 

[midland1]

AFAIK there were never platforms on that side of the station just sidings / through lines covered by an overall roof until around 1958

Yea Carlisle has only ever had three through platforms.

 

[Skimpot flyer]

Units 325014 and one other are now in Platform 4 at PRDC, both with complete (from what I can see) grey wraparound vinyls.
This leaves 2 pairs of 325s in each of Platforms 2 and 3
(six units in total)

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Ironically, since Sims / Unimetals and Booths have closed, is there actually a profitable market for scrap trains ?
I noticed that EMR at Kingsbury are swapping the class 08, so is there still an incoming market for scrap at Kingsbury ?

Do Kingsbury now have a dominate market position? If so, could they get away with paying less per tonne for scrap metal ?

 

[silexa]

Units 325014 and one other are now in Platform 4 at PRDC, both with complete (from what I can see) grey wraparound vinyls.
This leaves 2 pairs of 325s in each of Platforms 2 and 3
(six units in total)

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 22 Apr 2026 ==


Do Kingsbury now have a dominate market position? If so, could they get away with paying less per tonne for scrap metal ?

EMR are pretty much the only ones left. Kingsbury has been looking busy whenever I've gone past recently.