The winners of the new West Coast Partnership are unlikely to announce any new stock, given that HS2 will not be too far away and obtaining such a small order of tilting stock would be extremely expensive.
However, would it be possible for them to significantly upgrade the Pendolinos and Voyagers by retractioning them? How much of a boost would this give to acceleration (and thus journey times)?
Well I wouldn't be surprised if they were to replace the Voyagers with something bi-mode, replacing them with electrics was in most of the 2012 franchise bids so 5 years on there's no reason why their replacement is not completely off the table here. There's nothing wrong with the acceleration of either fleet: that's partly why they're so expensive to run, because comparatively speaking they're very heavy so it takes a significant amount of energy to allow them to do this.
Although HS2 is only 9 years away there will still be a need for conventional high speed stock (potentially both diesel and electric) for things like Chester to Euston, and to maintain links like Milton Keynes to Manchester, so I wouldn't put too much money on there being *no* new stock whatsoever. The bidders will be trying to impress DfT as much as possible, and the quality scores by which bids are assessed mean new stock is an attractive way of bumping the scores up, making both Ministers and TOC look good, even if only for 9 years (which was not unusual for frontline InterCity stock in BR days anyway, e.g. in 20 years most ECML services went from being run by assorted locos and MkIIs to 91s and Mk4s, with the MkIId/e/f vehicles being replaced by HSTs after only a decade...)
