Right, thank you for the clarification. I take it, though, that I am mostly right in that there is no significant operational linkage (apart from the use of some resources shared between the two routes such as capacity at Reading depot) although there are (complex) funding and contractual linkages?
I just wonder whether there might also be a bit of a fudge in here somewhere to help GWR cope with the high 'Train Service Provision Payments' due to Agility Trains for the trains supplied under the 'InterCity Express Programme'? Perhaps included in part of "DA3"? Or am I being more suspicious of the DfT than I need be?
The original BR/BAA contract for the HEx infrastructure and service has an end date of 2023. However HS2 Ltd is looking for access to the Old Oak Common site for construction work to start on HS2 by the end of next year and the HEx depot and access tracks are in the way.
Therefore it would have been essential for HS2 Ltd. to have supplied HEx with equivalent facilities for the few remaining years of the BR/BAA contract regardless of whether the site was leased or owned. The solution announced today, as I wrote in my earlier post, saves money all round - HS2 Ltd. (or rather the taxpayer) doesn't have to pay for a new maintenance depot and the overheads of running HEx will reduce as the costs of the OOC depot fall away as the maintenance will be shared at the existing Reading depot.
