Having read most of the previous posts, my fear is that the next home for Class 175 will be somewhere like Long Marston, wasting away until they are sold for scrap, or sold overseas. Yes, that would be a waste of money, but with the current system, and involvement of DfT, does anyone here expect sensible, logical ideas??
Personally, my latest thoughts are that there would be some logic in using them to replace the Scottish HSTs, which are over 20 years older than the 175s, but..... where is commonsense ???
Would it really be a waste of money ? There are 27 of them and they are all 20+ years old now.
They are also non-standard - a bit like the 365s a victim of being an early example of its type and not entirely successful. Had the 175s been more reliable then perhaps there would be more demand for them, but instead it didn't lead to more orders because they were quite problematic.
And before anyone says "But BR would have..." - no they wouldn't. I present the example of the Class 125 DMU - 20 built in 1958, not especially reliable and non-standard mechanicals. Withdrawn around their 20th birthday when the GN Suburban electrification went live.
What should they have done with them that would not have been beyond stupid?
Not overcharged for the leases, resulting in WMT calling their bluff and replacing units which are perfectly good and very popular (yes, even the /2s) with new ones, and then those /2s as yet having no home.
As ever Bletchleyite being selective with the facts to suit his own argument.
The bit overlooked about the replacement of the 350/2s is LNW needed additional stock in any case for their pre-Covid service plans.
There are 37 Class 350/2s, plus 8 Class 319s with LNW - there are 45 730/1 and 730/2 s on order for LNW - BUT these are 5 car units, so running as 1 or 2 unit formation offers far more seating than the current 350/2s do - especially when comparing 8 car 350/2 to 10 car 730.
The 350/2s are much more likely to find a home than the 175s IMO - mainly because they are more standard.
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