What is cheaper - Rolling stock question

[FlyingPotato]

So I generally hear a lot that rolling stock in the UK is more expensive as it requires a bespoke offering compared to Europe where trains can be bought off the shelf which got me thinking

Which would be cheaper over a time period of a 100 years

A: continue as we are doing
B: rebuild major routes to European gauge and buy trains off the shelf

In the short run, A is definitely cheaper but I'm interested in what people have to say over the time period of a 100 years

 

[Peter Mugridge]

In the long run, the wholesale rebuild will be cheaper.

The issues, apart from getting the politicians to fund it, would mainly be the length of blockades needed to carry out the conversion - most of the work would be rebuilding platforms and re-centering tracks, both of which could not be done piecemeal. Well... the platforms could be if they were then fitted with easily removable edges that could be taken away en masse at the final conversion date, but the track center work is the biggie. The tunnel re-boring would be huge, but not compared to the required track work itself...

 

[RailWonderer]

You also have the issue of operators needing new trains to be compatible with the legacy network that will still be on legacy gauge (assuming the UK did switch to European loading guage). That's why we are not having captive HS2 units, because a small order of units that will only be able to operate London - Brum is not viable.

The UK should have made that decision back in the 1860s when the network was expanding, like when Brunel's broad gauge was replaced with standard and narrow guage was replaced very quickly. The network is too large and dense now for it to ever happen. Plus trains last 30-40 years so in a century, only three generations of more expensive rolling stock will have run, which makes the added cost marginal when compared next to rebuilding all the track and platforms just to save some pennies on new trains.

 

[popeter45]

thou conversion is expensive i do think all new builds (such as east-west) should be built to enable easy conversion to a larger gauge eventually
also places running issolated services (e.g. much of the GA or C2C networks or even the Far north line) would be the best places to convert first as will have the least impact on the rest of the network

 

[30907]

Your first step would be to fit all new rolling stock with extending steps that could reach the mainland-gauge platforms once converted.
Level boarding is a good idea in itself, but you might need a bespoke design to bridge the extended gap, which would probably add to cost for at least the next 40 years.
Only then could you consider actually rebuilding the railway - and while stock such as I have just specified remained in service on the rebuilt system the risk assessment for the larger gap between train and platform edge would be challenging


BTW do we have an idea of the relative costs of UK-profile and mainland-profile stock?