Recent content by jrleighton

:idea: Agreed that HS2 rolling stock will be an aim for PRC. But so much easier to win there politically if there's already a more regular order to establish them. MTR....Yes, semi private. But MTRC is mostly UK standards, with Alstom being main supplier of hardware over recent years...

That's why they'll be looking for a breakthrough. It's a politically golden time for such a deal in the post-Brexit milieu. Check this out: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-crrc-usa-idUSKCN0WC17I

Has it? Umm

We shall see. Plenty of UK trade ministers passing through HK recently. And it would be great PR for both UK and PRC govs, with both looking for 'were going global' press. If an assembly plant were to be at the old Eastleigh works, even better, from Tory PoV to keep Eastleigh out of LibDems...

Think Chinese. MTR, and a post-Brexit sweetener to the PRC government...

There'll be plenty of DMUs around in the future with all the electrification and EMU production and cascading going on. No need to remove those 159s from the West of England route. However, there is a problem with capacity all across the network, so it makes no sense to chuck otherwise OK...

Warrington - Chester and Crewe - Chester electrified? Plus the Halton Curve too? Would it be more likely that the ATW north wales routes would become more 'Wales focussed' by continuing from Chester south to Wrexham and onwards from there, rather than heading into England? Either that, or...

Isn't the bigger picture that the Chat Moss route will be fuller, so removing the N Wales trains from there would be a bonus? Plus not running them into Piccadilly from the west, and then terminating them there. So much easier to run these trains into Lime Street. What about those who are...

Other Mark 3 derived EMUs have the pantograph, electrical equipment and the traction motors all on the same vehicle. Classes 319, 321, 317, etc.. Is it because of the higher power rating (as it's a 5-car EMU, not 4 car - and longer vehicles) that means that all of the gear would be too heavy...

Surely an obvious place for refurb A/C 442s would be to replace the coaching stock on the Liverpool Street - Norwich route. More capacity is needed on that line, so to move from 8 car to 10 car trains would be a plus. It's a line speed of 100 mph too. The fleet sizes are near enough the same...