RE, DISGRACE: Anger at plan to replace East Lancashire rolling stock with Tube trains

There is some really clever engineering to deliver what is effectively a new train, very much in the same way 80-year-old DC3 planes are being rebuilt with zero hours airframes and modern engines because no other aircraft can deliver people and freight to many remote locations, with unsurfaced airstrips, and do this with a plane which is both cheap to buy and cheap to operate, so it can viably run on marginal routes, where the income could never pay for the financing of a completely new plane.

So which would you rather have? No train service because the sums don’t stack up to have new trains, and the Pacers need to go, or have a major rebuild (perhaps as articulated units) by 2020, for various reasons? Or a low-cost conversion of a lightweight train with 20-30 years life in it which can potentially deliver growth in passenger numbers and thus the business that will fund further improvements?

The work is being promoted by the team who have already delivered the Silver Trains on the Chiltern main line, with the old slam doors converted to push-button operation, and a small generator on board to maintain lighting and air conditioning when the loco is not running – this with 40-year-old carriages which have a further 40 years of estimated structural life, and are fully written down in terms of covering their original costs.

I’ve seen the initial drawings and the whole concept looks really good – I can’t wait to see them in the flesh.

Tulyar (via web)