Stadler Presents Mock-Up Of Tram-Trains For German And Austrian Operators
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on Railway Gazette.
This is the first paragraph.
A mock-up of the Citylink tram-trains that Stadler is to supply to operators in Karlsruhe, Saarbrücken, Neckar-Alb, Oberösterreich and Salzburg was unveiled at the Betriebshof West depot in Karlsruhe on December 13.
This is the most interesting paragraph.
‘Maximum standardisation and the fact that the order was shared between different operating companies reduces the costs by to up to €1m per vehicle’, said Karlsruhe Mayor Frank Mentrup at the unveiling ceremony.
It shows the value of standardisation and large orders.
The Anonymous Widower 
Its a no brainer but D(a)fT would rather dump the problem on the private sector operators and then wonder why it all cost so much. Its an utter disgrace the amount of money thats been waisted by each operator buying something slightly different and having to retype test it let alone all the extra costs for bespoke runs.
As i said on the other article we should have just bought 250 Stadler 745’s to same design and divvied them out to operators that work diesels part journey under the wires.
Comment by Nicholas Lewis | December 30, 2022 |
It could be the civil servants.
A friend was selling investigation software to police forces. One Chief Constable said that he wanted the best system, he could have, but that it shouldn’t be sold to other forces.
I was also told by a doctor, who had been head-hunted to work in a Staffordshire hospital from London, that his wife, who was a senior ambulance controller in London would have to retrain to do the job up North, as all the systems were different.
Is this to maximise brown envelopes or their virtual variety?
Comment by AnonW | December 30, 2022 |
Doing the same things in umpteen different ways is just part of the British Way of Doing Things. I first realised this in my 20’s when I first visited the Continent and found out that but for some marginal differences you didn’t have to know seven different etiquettes of getting a meal in a restaurant.
BTW I’ve got three different Hospital Numbers, each of which uses a totally different configuration. When I visit the Royal Surrey County Hospital in Guildford, depending on which of three different Hospital Trusts fund my condition Dermatology (St. Peter’s Chertsey), Cardiovascular (Frimley Park), or everything else (RSCH Guildford) I have to remember which one applies.
Amazingly in 2015 it was agreed two of them would merge but unsurprisingly we’re still waiting
Comment by fammorris | December 30, 2022
Consultants are the nett beneficiaries in these situations
Comment by Nicholas Lewis | December 30, 2022
I’m lucky here, as the three local hospitals; Barts, Homerton and Royal London are one trust; Barts. All three have been substantially rebuilt this century. I’m also a lab-rat at the attached medical school.
Comment by AnonW | December 30, 2022 |
This is not exactly unusual, except when it comes to the UK. Each organisation wants something slightly different which adds cost. In the end, based on the contracts signed, it probably adds more than £1M per vehicle over the contract lifetime.
As for the police example, that is just simply scandalous but unsurprising. Again, it adds cost unnecessarily, whereas costs could have been shared across forces. I despair.
Comment by Andrew Bruton | December 30, 2022 |
Of course we shouldn’t overlook the intention of TfL to standardise on the New Deep Tube Stock which starts with an initial batch of 94 nine-car trains ordered at a cost of £1.5 billion to replace 1973 Stock on the Piccadilly line. If the government wakes up to the benefits standardisation provides they’ll be able to replace all existing tube stock on the Central, Waterloo & City and Bakerloo lines on favourable terms. If they don’t Siemens will be wondering about their future investment policy, especially with the ever developing hiatus in orders (fast approaching 4 years) for GB railways.
Comment by fammorris | December 31, 2022 |