Not quite, but with two Avanti Voyagers gone to cold storage instead of CrossCountry (which desperately need more capacity and the Voyagers make perfect sense to join the rest of the fleet) and now the future of relatively new trains (the 379) is on the brink of scrappage after many decent mid-life trains being wasted, I'm ready to throw in the towel and give up on this joke of a broken country they call the 'UK' - it's just left a terrible taste on the railways here
Not to be rude, but there's more to a country than how they run their railways.
Exactly, but I specifically mentioned the railways cos of how glaringly mismanaged that is in particular (given how much I love train travel), especially its importance in getting people out of car centricity. The worse the railways get, the more people will end up going to cars (as not as many people are willing to be seen dead on a bus, as much as I hate to say it) which ultimately leads to more soulless infrastructure to cater for cars over people. Many factors are making us resent this broken country, but scrapping of modern units when there's a capacity crisis combined with the time it'll take to get more new trains built & in-service, that's the final nail in the coffin for me! Apologies for going a bit off topic, I'll end the rant here.
Have a look at my location, and guess whether or not I agree with you!
Absolutely. No one gets upset about empty office blocks or shop units and begs that a use is found for them.
It is panto season, so 'oh yes they do!' Especially banks. In Norwich, the Cozy Club is in an old NatWest, while a short distance away, Gurney's Bank hosts concerts. The former HSBC at Mitcham Corner in Cambridge is being turned into a café and crypto bar. The Bank House in King's Lynn is a hotel. The desire not to destroy useful stock is not only trains.
I mean the simple question is why?
It is all down to whether the owners heart is in finding work for the trains and whether the Government will allow it to happen. It also depends on whether the demand for such services is there.
And we come back to this old fallacy. No, leaving locos around at Bristol Temple Meads is not feasible. Bournemouh was/is far less busy than TM, and leaving a loco in the platform at TM takes out 2 platforms so you'll be forever shunting it around the station. They stopped doing loco changes at Bournemouth for a reason. What worked 40 years ago is not feasible today.
GA already have too many 720s on order, as discussed elsewhere. There is nowhere for those 720s to be sent, let alone more, so the surplus ones could easily end up in storage.
Of course they will return to 2019 levels. Population growth effectively guarantees it.
And companies have generally worked out that team discussions, on the job training, mentoring, staff training and development is virtually impossible with long term working from home, so anyone who wants to progress their career is likely to be back soon, at least in middle of the week (if not Mondays and Fridays)
But that doesn't mean 5 days a week in the office AND it doesn't require everyone to be at their desk before 9am.
But the whole point of this suggestion wasn't to expand capacity but to replace older 465/9s, seeing that the Networkers are coming up for replacement.
Southeastern is interested in replacing some or all of their Networkers because they’re becoming more expensive to maintain. An invitation to tender has been put out. It could be decided that new trains are too expensive. In that case they’d look at existing stock.
The GN 387s are dual voltage with no real first class... exactly what Southeastern need. 377s would need shoes and first class removal. I know it makes it more complicated with the cascade getting larger, but they are all effectively subsidiaries of the DfT now so... Just send the 379s to GN and the 387s to SE...
319s are already being replaced by 323s.
Unfortunately the GN 387s are exactly what is needed on the GN so they aren't available.
The 323s are best replaced with the 350/2s that are coming off lease. It's just a question of if the Dft will pay for the driver training.
No they aren't. The DfT won't pay for driver training and the 323s are the right length for the Northern operation and platforms.
There's just no need for it. The 323s arguably feel a bit dated inside now, but that's largely because they've only had what appears to be a bare minimum level of work done - which should be a pretty clear sign that there's no money for anything better! Other than that, there is nothing wrong with them, and they seem to fit well into Northern's operation.