Wasn’t able to keep them out during the day, some internal things meant that wasn’t possible so the original plan stood firm.
While I respect everybody’s opinion on these trains unfortunately there is a massive disconnect between enthusiasts and people who actually work in/run the railway. Whilst I have nothing against the 315 and for my time in the railway they were very very good in terms of reliability they needed to be replaced. Massively uncomfortable for those who drove them, although relatively simple to operate. There comes a point in the life cycle of a unit where something has to give. Things change and the world moves on. Towards the end of the life of the 315 it became very apparent that to keep them running was becoming inherently difficult/expensive. Many suppliers of parts no longer even exist, with many issues cropping up being completely unrectifiable. Corrosion/subframe/structural issues....they were patched /plastered/taped over to almost the state where they were unrecognisable under the hood from the units they once were. Theres only so many times you could call up MTR and ask if you could take Motor components from one of their units going for scrap or as it became common in the latter part of their operation, borrowing entire units completely because it was cheaper than to attempt a repair on an LO one up for exam to keep them running.
710s are people eaters. That’s all they designed to do and they do that very well, all be it at the expense of comfort. Because we can’t increase capacity on WA without a massive timetable change or astronomical infrastructure modifications, they are exactly what WA needed (pre COVID anyway). And the vast majority of passengers who use the services want nothing more than to get from a to b in a relatively comfortable environment, through hot/cold/busy/quiet, (during the mixed fleet stage you’d be surprised how many people actually had no idea there was a different train pulling into the platform) and an operator wants a unit that has commonality with other parts their business well as a good maintenance contract/regime, so that when things don’t go so well problems are easily rectifiable in acceptable timeframes/minimal cost. 710s represent what running a modern railway is all about these days unfortunately.
So I’m surprised 315s survived as long as they did to be honest. However it is a true testament to them that they managed to get this far and shows that BREL did some cracking engineering. When I look around at some of the other units coming out of Bombardier/CAF/Siemens/Stadler, I doubt they’ll have the same sort of lifespan of the 315. But no doubt they’ll be replaced by yet another modern EMU that will be lighter/higher capicity/cheaper/more energy efficient than the one it replaces, because that is unfortunately what building a train is about in the modern world.
www.realtimetrains.co.uk
