There seems to be a lot of talk elsewhere about the folly of GWR having so many 80x 5-car sets, suggesting 9 cars woud be preferable in so many cases.
How'bout the excess 5-cars are merged into 8/9 car sets. This would need construction of a small number of coaches BUT would release a large number of 'power cars' (DPTS or DPTF). Purely speculative but could they form the 'pointy bits' behind a new XC fleet? New coaches to XC standard would be required (ie not whole trains) and if this were to come to fruition then a common fleet along just about all their route (ECML/TPE/AWC/GWR) would simplify operations and maintainance.
Lets say there are 40 5-cars in GW that are not ideal for purpose, they could form 20 8-cars and transfer 40 DPTS/F to XC. XC probably need 30 proper length sets, but the biggest contributor to the cost would be the DPTS/F as their maintainance will form a key part of the contract.
How'bout the excess 5-cars are merged into 8/9 car sets. This would need construction of a small number of coaches BUT would release a large number of 'power cars' (DPTS or DPTF). Purely speculative but could they form the 'pointy bits' behind a new XC fleet? New coaches to XC standard would be required (ie not whole trains) and if this were to come to fruition then a common fleet along just about all their route (ECML/TPE/AWC/GWR) would simplify operations and maintainance.
Lets say there are 40 5-cars in GW that are not ideal for purpose, they could form 20 8-cars and transfer 40 DPTS/F to XC. XC probably need 30 proper length sets, but the biggest contributor to the cost would be the DPTS/F as their maintainance will form a key part of the contract.