FGW Franchise

[Carlisle]

Unless we soon get a revolution in battery technology I think its pretty unlikely we will ever see them fitted to the 20 year old class 365s

 

[LateThanNever]

I rather doubt that there would be many branch lines for the D78s to run on anyway, almost all of the TV branches are to be electrified and most of them will have platform extensions or modifications where necessary carried out to allow 4 or 8 365s. The only branches in LTV that would be likely candidates for the D Train would be the Marlow - Maidenhead and if little interest is shown by TfL/Chiltern, West Ealing to Greenford. Class 165s will be covering the Metro West area while Class 150s will be covering the branches in the West of England.

But if the acceleration is better on West Country branches where top speeds are rarely above 60 then D trains might be ideal!

 

[swt_passenger]

No, but it wipes out the possibility of incremental extensions based on beating the target.
The DfT definitely wanted to go further (with the same money, of course).

I don't think that is necessarily so. The economics of wiring beyond Newbury will be completely different if they do Southampton to Bath in a few years time, either beforehand or simultaneously. Also affected by any decision to do the XC NE/SW axis...

 

[Steve14]

Interesting I know there has already being mention of some Battery 387's, I wonder what the alternative Rolling Stock solution is for Portsmouth - Cardiff is, HST's perhaps? and is the motivation behind this to free up some 16x for TPX?

An actual potential use for the Vivarail units is interesting, and FGW do have a number of branches which are relatively short and fairly low speed and the 150/153's etc. could be used elsewhere.

10 387's to leave Thameslink March/April 2016, the 8 new ones delivered start of 2017, IEP to have more standard and less 1st than the draft layouts perhaps not entirely surprising given the recent 1st class reduction.

In all honesty it wouldn't be wise introducing HSTs on that route as the acceleration isn't that great in comparison to a DMU. The Adelantes however would be suitable for this route or perhaps the 166s.

One route which I feel is underrated and extremely slow is the PAD to Banbury. It stops at every bloody station and although someone who wishes to get to Banbury quicker could go through Marylebone. The HSTs would be fantastic for this as they would be using their full optimum power along the GWML and with no initial plans to electrify the route between Oxford to Bham, the HSTs could call at the principle station like the Pad to oxford in this order: paddington > slough > reading > didcot > oxford > banbury.

 

[Carlisle]

I don't think that is necessarily so. The economics of wiring beyond Newbury will be completely different if they do Southampton to Bath in a few years time, either beforehand or simultaneously. Also affected by any decision to do the XC NE/SW axis...

Yes I guess in DFT eventually opt for the more sensible electric spine via Andover rather than tearing up the third rail via Winchester then Salisbury to Bath should be a fairly simple future addition sometime