Not as far as I know, as at the time that the fleet orders were announced the additional electric trains were promised as being for the expansion of East Coast services, and EC already have four HST diagrams that run entirely under the wires.
Yes, the 180s are covered by a section 54 agreement that keeps them on the Great Western until some time in 2016. After which they are free to go elsewhere.
I think that there was originally closer to thirty two mark 4 rakes, although now there is a total of thirty complete 225 rakes - One less than there are class 91 locos, of course.Also according to Wikipedia, East Coast have 31 Class 91s, and 32 IC225 sets. Clearly one of these IC225 sets is magical and does not require a locomotive to haul it!
That sounds to be right. Although I will confess to be having difficulty at keeping up with how the loans and permanent transfers from EMT might have affected this total.
Conjures up a picture of a team of people carrying out 24/7 surveillance to make sure they don't escape. Or perhaps they are tagged? A cleaner "stole" a train in Stockholm the other day and it demolished a house.
I did also include "and associated equipment" into my considerations - Based on Hitachi's figures I was assuming that each engine raft weighed 8 tonnes. This didn't seem too unrealistic based on the stringent weight restrictions that the DfT originally imposed on the IEP specification (But which Hitachi have flouted by around 100 tonnes for a 10-car set above the DfT target set, although still making them lighter than a comparable Pendolino formation). So the 9-car Bi-mode sets should be about 32 tonnes heavier than their electric bretherin, the 5-car Bi-mode sets half of that - A total of 40 tonnes in engine weight beneath a 9-car Bi-mode set or 24 tonnes beneath a 5-car Bi-mode.
Replacing East Coast's HSTs. Having 10 x 5-car Bi-mode trains offers more flexibility to match train capacity to loadings at different times of the day and over different sections of route. Though admittedly 13 x 9-car IEP trains and 10 x 5-car Bi-mode IEP trains to replace 13 HST diagrams seems like a lot at face value.
You are right in both cases - As I said in a previous post (Although I recognise that progress in this thread this evening has been rather fast paced), there are four East Coast HST diagrams that are entirely under the wires, and the additional electric units were also billed at the time that the fleet sizes were announced as allowing for additional and expanded services.
tbtc was suggesting that the 5-car Bi-modes, rather than the electric sets, could be used on Hull services. Though electrification to Hull in CP6, as an extension of Transpennine electrification, could be a possibility.
Yes, that particular era of the IEP story has been entirely surpassed now.
