A Gatwick Express At An Unexpected Location
When I went to Milton Keynes to take the pictures for Platform Space At Milton Keynes Central, I was surprised to see one of the new Class 387/2 trains, replendent in the red Gatwick Express livery going the other way.
As I was drinking a hot chocolate, I didn’t get a picture, but there is a YouTube video of a Class 387/2 at Crewe.
The train is also seen to be wearing pantographs to get its electric power.
This article in Rail Magazine explains the sighting. This is said.
The ‘387s’ being commissioned are 387104 and 387129. They were moved from Derby Litchurch Lane to Bletchley on April 8 and April 20 respectively. They will be tested on the West Coast Main Line, driven by Freightliner Heavy Haul drivers, after which they will move to Brighton Lovers Walk ready for their entry into traffic.
The article refers to the older Class 387/1 trains. But obviously to test an 110 mph train, you need a fast line.
The Class 387/2 seen at Crewe, could of course have been on a sales demonstration, as surely the configuration of a Class 387/2 Gatwick Express, with lots of space for luggage and families, would be ideal for services to and from Manchester Airport.
Towards A Thames Valley Metro!
After my visit yesterday to Twyford Station and the Henley Branch and today to The Marlow Branch, I think something bigger could be emerging.
On the Great Western Main Line, between Paddington and Didcot, there are several branch lines and other more major routes that run local services into Reading and/or Paddington.
Taken in order from Paddington, they are.
- Acton to Northolt Line – 11 miles – Rather a leftover line that gets used for all sorts of traffic, including freight, diversions and driver training.
- Greenford Branch from West Ealing – 2.7 miles – Another leftover line, that is being rerouted to a bay platform at West Ealing – Could be transferred to the London Overground.
- Brentford Branch Line – 4 miles – Freight only
- Staines and West Drayton Line – 5.5 miles – Freight only.
- Windsor and Eton Branch from Slough – 2.5 miles
- Marlow Branch from Maidenhead – 7.15 miles – I wrote about it in The Marlow Branch.
- Henley Branch from Twyford – 4.5 miles – I wrote about it in Twyford Station and the Henley Branch
- Waterloo to Reading Line – Electrified, but links to the North Downs Line for Gatwick Airport, which isn’t!
- Reading to Basingstoke Line – To be electrified, with possibly some extra stations.
- Cherwell Valley Line from Didcot Parkway – To be electrified.
What follows are my observations.
Class 387 IPEMU Trains
Great Western Railway is to receive twenty-nine Class 387 trains from Thameslink and eight new ones from the factory.
These could easily be upgraded to IPEMU variants by the addition of batteries.
Once the power is switched on as far as Didcot Parkway station, I suspect that all these mainly short branches could be run using IPEMU trains, if passenger services were required or required to be run by electric trains.
Some like Greenford, Windsor and Eton, Marlow and Henley, would be as now, one train per branch. But elderly two car diesels would be replaced by new four car electric trains with a superior performance.
In Rumours of Battery Powered Trains, I reported on an article in Modern Railways magazine, which speculated that the extra Class 387 trains were to be IPEMUs and that they could be used on routes like Bedwyn and Oxford.
So it’s not my speculation!
Electrification Of The Branches
Some of the branches like Marlow Branch with its unusual layout and the Bourne End bridge and Windsor and Eton Branch with the historic nature of where it goes, will not be straightforward, as I suspect the heritage lobby will have a field day. As I wrote in Why We Should Use Independently Powered Electric Trains, the opposition to electrification in sensitive areas is stirring.
Electrification of the Greenford Branch might be more straightforward, but with five stations and a terminus in a bay platform at Greenford, I would suspect that a dedicated Class 387 IPEMU would cost less and only require the bay platform at West Ealing station to be electrified.
North Downs Line
In some ways, the North Downs Line is the most interesting, as I think that a dual-voltage IPEMU could easily supply a high quality service between Reading and Gatwick.
At present the direct service is hourly and takes around eighty minutes, using a two car Class 156 train.
Reading to Gatwick by Crossrail and Thameslink could on current figures and predictions for Crossrail times, take a few minutes over a hundred.
So the current direct route is quicker now with Class 165 diesel trains!
What difference would a faster four-car electric train make?
Crossrail’s Effect On The Great Western Main Line
The biggest effect will be when Crossrail arrives at all stations on the Great Western Main Line from Paddington to Reading.
Stations like Slough, Maidenhead and Twyford, where branches connect, will see a positive effect, as I suspect that more connections to and from the branches will be easier and involve less waiting.
Improving Services On The Branches
I think we could see some reorganisation of the services on the branch lines to give increased frequencies?
I think if Great Western Railway take the IPEMU route instead of electrifying the branches, there is scope for providing improved services from Slough to Reading and on the branches in the area. Diagrams could be arranged that after trundling down a few branches, the IPEMU did a section on the electrified lines to charge the batteries.
On thing I noticed on my trip to Marlow, was that Network Rail seem to be installing a lot of bay platforms at Crossrail stations. Some are London-facing for flexibility in the Crossrail schedules, but some are facing the other way. Could Network Rail be thinking out of the box and making sure, they don’t compromise any possible future services?
Reading As An Important Hub
As the routes develop, it would almost be like a Thames Valley Metro centred on the extremely well-connected Reading.
- Great Western Railway to Wales, the West Country and London
- Crossrail to London and beyond.
- Cross-Country Trains to the South, Midlands and North
- In a few years time the East West Rail Link could join Reading to Oxford, Milton Keynes, Bedford and the East.
The Class 387 IPEMU trains could serve the following stations from Reading, with very little extra electrification and perhaps the odd curve or two.
- Basingstoke
- Bedwyn
- Gatwick Airport
- Heathrow Airport
- Henley-on-Thames
- London Paddington
- Marlow
- Newbury
- Oxford
- Windsor and Eton Central
- Wokingham
If the Marlow Branch were to be extended, the trains could even reach High Wycombe.
Reading is going to have a very interesting time!
Twyford Station And The Henley Branch
I went for lunch in Henley-on-Thames today taking the Great Western Railway to Twyford station for the Henley Branch Line to Henley-on-Thames station.
These pictures document the journey between my two train changes at Twyford station.
The branch is a typical single-track rural branch line that trundles its way through the countryside, over the River Thames to a single platform, that can take eight car trains.
It is currently served by a single two car Class 165 train, that goes up and down every fifty minutes or so all day, which is augmented by a couple of direct trains in the peak.
I feel that the Henley Branch Line could easily by worked by an IPEMU train. This could be either one of Class 387 trains ordered by Great Western Railway and converted to the technology or a new Aventra train.
Consider the following about the Henley Branch.
- It is only four and a half miles long.
- The speed limit of the line is fifty miles per hour.
- The bridge over the Thames has a lower speed limit and would probably be challenging to electrify.
- The two intermediate stations of Shiplake and Wargrave are built for eight car trains.
- There is at least one level crossing on the branch.
- The bay platform at Twyford station looks like it could take a five car train.
The Class 379 IPEMU test train with its sixty mile range could probably do six up-and-downs without a recharge. When an IPEMU train needed a recharge it would just pull into Platform 4 at Twyford station instead of the normal bay Platform 5, raise the pantograph and charge the batteries. Alternatively, Plstform 5 could have a short length of overhead wiring for recharging the battery.
This Google Map shows Twyford station.
Twyford Station
Note the two car train in Platform 5 and the Henley Branch Line leading away to the north from the Great Western Main Line..
If Class 387 trains modified with IPEMU technology were to be used, Henley could receive four car electric trains as soon as the power was switched on as far as Twyford, with no major works on the Branch.
Two Class 387 trains could be coupled together to make an eight car train, that could also be run to and from Paddington during the peak and the Henley Regatta.
Is TransPennine Going For A One-Class Fleet?
This report on Rail News announces the awards of the two rail franchises in the North.
It says that First TransPennine will be committed to acquiring forty-four new trains comprising 220 vehicles. The article also says this about increasing services.
The frequency on many routes will be increased, so that there will be six trains an hour between Manchester and Leeds, and 35 a day between Manchester and Scotland — twice as many as now. A new route between Liverpool and Scotland will be introduced in 2019.
The numbers say they are five-car trains, which will certainly sort out some of their capacity problems.
At present First Transpennine has the following fleet.
- Class 156 DMU – 6 of two cars
- Class 170 DMU – 4 of two cars
- Class 185 DMU – 51 x 3 cars
- Class 350 EMU – 10 x 4 cars
All except the Class 350 are diesel-powered.
Add up the current carriages and you get two hundred and three.
So if some of diesel multiple units were retained, there would be a useful increase in fleet size.
But surely from the train maintenance and staff points of view, it would be better if there was one fleet of all the same type of train.
There may also be a slight problem with Scottish services, especially as the number of them is more than doubled.
This will mean that between Preston and Glasgow, they will need extra paths on the overcrowded West Coast Main Line.
I think we’ll see trains between Manchester Airport and Liverpool, and Glasgow, joining and splitting at Preston, as this will mean that Liverpool to Scotland services will not need any extra paths on the West Coast Main Line. Some could also split at Carstairs, with one train going to Glasgow and the other to Edinburgh.
I’ve used the Class 350 trains from Glasgow to Preston and despite being too small, they are also only 110 mph trains, whereas the Class 390 Pendelinos used by Virgin, usually run at 125 mph.
Simple common sense says, that if all trains cruised up the West Coast Main Line at the same speed, this maximises capacity. Also as parts of the TransPennine network in the East are also 125 mph lines, this might be desireable design speed. The government press release about the franchise award also talks about 125 mph trains.
But the biggest problem as is pointed out in the press release is that full electrification is not expected to be complete until 2022.
So trains will need some form of independent power source to bridge the gaps in the electrification.
- Five carriages
- The ability to run in pairs.
- 125 mph cruising speed.
- Some form of independent power.
Logic says that this means they will be Hitachi Class 800 trains, which would use their on-board diesel engines as required.
Currently, the factory at Newton Aycliffe is busy with Class 800/801 trains for Great Western Railway and Virgin Trains East Coast and EMUs for Scotland, so like the extra Class 800s for the South Western routes, they would probably have to be built in Japan.
Would this mean that early introduction into service would be very difficult?
The only alternative would be to stretch the current four car Class 387 trains to five cars and make them IPEMU variants, which would then use their on-board energy storage to bridge gaps in the electrification. If the technology can be proven for a route like Leeds to Manchester, then they could probably start to be delivered next year.
These are some points and questions about Class 387 trains and Bombardier’s IPEMU technology.
- Class 387 trains are built in Derby by Bombardier.
- There are currently a total of fifty seven four-car Class 387 trains either built or on order.
- There must be some standard Class 387 trains sitting in sidings, as they are destined for routes on the Great Western Railway, where there are no overhead wires.
- I doubt it would be difficult to lengthen the trains to five cars, as the closely-related Class 378 trains have received an extra car twice.
- This report in the Derby Telgraph, says that Bombardier have recently received an award for their IPEMU technology.
- This article in Rail Technology Magazine, states that Bombardier are doing extensive testing of the batteries at Mannheim
- IPEMU trains could be more efficient, as regenerative braking is used to recover energy instead of always recharging from external sources.
- As IPEMU technology improves, the range will get longer making it possible for electric trains to serve more destinations in the TransPennine network.
- Bombardier’s next generation train, called the Aventra, will all be wired for the fitting of on-board energy storage,
- The new franchise for First TransPennine has effectively started, as it just a continuation of more of the same. So early train delivery would show they meant business and it wasn’t just jam tomorrow.
- The standard Class 387 trains could be introduced on Scottish services as soon as trains were delivered.
If the IPEMU technology can be proven to be viable on First TransPennine, a lot of companies and groups will benefit.
- Network Rail will be able to avoid a lot of difficult, sensitive or expensive electrification.
- Bombardier could sell a few more trains.
- Passengers will get new electric trains in many places, as fast as they can be built.
- Some politicians and others could get a lot of credit.
It’ll be interesting to see what First TransPennine have decided to do!
Are The Class 387 Trains Getting Excited?
I travelled from Blackfriars to St. Pancras on one of Thameslink’s Class 387 trains.
With only a couple of hours to the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement, are these trains getting excited about visiting places they never thought they would?
Since I wrote Rumours of Battery Powered Trains a few months ago, nothing has been heard. In that article I quoted from Modern Railways, who said this about future orders for Class 387 trains.
Delivery as IPEMUs would allow EMUs to make use of as much wiring as is available (and batteries beyond) while electrification pushes ahead under the delayed scheme, and in the longer term would allow units to run on sections not yet authorised for electrification, such as Newbury to Bedwyn. The use of IPEMUs might also hasten the cascade of Class 16x units to the west of the franchise.
Note that IPEMU is Network Rail’s term for a part-time battery train, that has the same performance as a standard train.
It is a deafening silence!
There has been nothing heard about electrification either, except the award of the contract for the Gospel Oak to Barking Line to J. Murphy and Sons as reported in this article in Rail Technology.
So is it a case of no news is good news for electrification?
I still believe that a fleet of Class 387 IPEMUs could be used to extend electrification by stealth, into areas, where everybody thinks it is impossible to go.
I would use them to run these routes for a start.
- Liverpool to Newcastle – There is one gap of 43 miles between Leeds and Manchester
- Blackpool to Scarborough – There might need to be some electrification at Scarborough
- Liverpool to Hull – There might need to be some electrification at Hull
- Euston to Blackpool
- Euston to Chester
- St. Pancras to Corby
- St. Pancras to Leicester – There might need to be some electrification at Leicester
- Kings Cross to Hull
- Kings Cross to Harrogate
- Kings Cross to Lincoln
- Kings Cross to Middlesbrough
- Kings Cross to Sunderland
- Liverpool Street to Lowestoft
- Liverpool Street to Norwich via Ely
- Ipswich to Cambridge
- Ipswich to Peterborough
- Paddington to Oxford, Newbury and Bedwyn
- St. Pancras to Ashford, Hastings and Eastbourne
- London Bridge to Uckfield
- Assorted Branch Lines to Barrow, Felixstowe, Greenford, Maidenhead, Marlow, Windermere and Yarmouth
On many of these lines, IPEMUs could run as soon as they are built or modified from existing trains!
If anybody doubts the concept, it could be proven on the Gospel Oak to Barking Line in North London.
So how does electrification figure in George Osborne’s statement?
Note these points!
- Electrification cuts carbon emmissions.
- Electric trains are faster and more efficient.
- Electrification needs to be done all over the country, so a lot of areas will benefit.
- It looks like there are upwards of thirty Class 387 trains, that have nowhere to go! But fitted with batteries they do!
- Using battery trains means that the costs and disruption of electrification are reduced.
If electrification is enabled using battery trains, it will be the biggest rabbit any Chancellor has ever pulled!
Is This Another Line For A Great Western Railway IPEMU?
Nothing much has happened since I wrote Rumours Of Battery Powered Trains, which said that a report had appeared in Modern Railways saying that Great Western Railway was looking at Class 387 IPEMUs.
But I did find this article on the Get Reading web site entitled Green Park Station may open without any trains stopping there.
Apparently, the problem is that diesel multiple units can’t accelerate fast enough to keep to the schedule with the stop at Reading Green Park station, but electric ones can.
As it appears the wires won’t go up in time for the station’s opening of 2018, then the trains won’t be electric.
Unless of course an IPEMU could stick to the schedule. It would certainly have a lot of power in the battery, as Reading to Basingstoke must be less than twenty miles and it’s electrified at both ends.
The line is a classic for use of IPEMU technology.
Is The Cavalry Arriving?
I can’t understand this article on Global Rail News entitled Porterbrook buys more trains from Bombardier. This is said.
Rolling stock company (ROSCO) Porterbrook Leasing has announced that it will purchase an additional 80 Class 387 vehicles from Bombardier.
This deal is in addition to the 256 vehicles in this class already on order. Delivery from Bombardier’s Derby factory will take place between October 2016 and June 2017.
Now I’ve ridden in Class 387 trains many times and they are a very good 110 mph electric multiple unit. In a Future section of their Wikipedia entry this is said.
Once the 387/1s are released from Thameslink they will be cascaded to the Great Western Railway franchise. It will also receive eight new Class 387s, which will be built after the 387/2 order for Gatwick Express. They will replace Class 165 and 166 diesel multiple units on the newly electrified Great Western Main Line from London Paddington to Oxford and Bedwyn. This is scheduled for December 2016, however delays may defer this.
In November 2015, Porterbrook Leasing announced it had ordered a further a total of eighty additional Class 387 vehicles to act as a buffer stock of trains guarding against future demand for electric units, with a number of operators already expressing interest in obtaining the use of them.
At present, the trains are arranged in four-car sets and delivered or on order are 29 for Thameslink, which will be released as the Class 700 trains arrive, 8 for Great Western Railway and now 20 for Porterbrook. In addition there are also another 27 for the Gatwick Express, which can be ignored in this analysis.
So that means we have a total of fifty-seven four-car electric trains to accommodate on the UK rail network. There is one problem on the GWR, where 37 would have been used and that is that the electrification isn’t complete.
So they’ll be parked in sidings!
A couple of months ago, Modern Railways talked about rumours that the extra eight Class 387 trains for the GWR would be IPEMUs. I wrote about it in Rumours Of Battery Powered Trains.
In early 2014, I rode the prototype IPEMU, which was based on a Class 379 train between Manningtree and Harwich.
I was impressed and the prototype is now back in service as a regular Class 379 train.
So it would appear that converting Class 379 trains from standard to IPEMU is not an exercise that needs to completely rebuild the train. Incidentally, Bombardier have told me, that in the upcoming Aventra train, you just add and remove battery modules as required.
These facts lead me to speculate that a cunning plan is emerging.
Consider the following.
- Why would a professional company like Porterbrook buy trains on spec, just to have them sit in sidings? If that was their plan, then imagine the headlines in the Mirror and Mail!
- Changing production at Bombardier from Electrostar to Aventra will introduce a gap in the production of trains. Look at the gap, when Ford bring in a new Mondeo, for example.
- Bombardier has probably got the production of Electrostars down to a fine art, given the numbers of Class 375s, 377s, 378, 379s and 387s, they’ve produced in recent years. So if someone will order Electrostars, they’ll build them!
- Bombardier have proven that the concept of an IPEMU works.
- Everybody is getting fed-up with Network Rail’s performance, from David Cameron and George Osborne down to the passenger on the crowded Leeds-Manchester train.
- There is a need to get rid of a lot of tuly dreadful diesel trains.
- As the Class 700 trains arrive from Siemens, could the replaced Class 387 train be converted to an IPEMU immediately? This would enable the cascade of some diesel trains . It would just be an amusing game of musical trains!
- The new Hitachi factory is coming on stream to deliver Class 800/801 trains. Luckily they can be fitted with diesel engines, but we don’t need too many more high speed diesel trains. There have been rumours that Hitachi have been asked to dliver more electro-diesel version to Great Western.
If you look at all this together we end up with an oversupply of electric trains and a chronic shortage of quality diesel trains.
But suppose that Bombardier is building a virtually new production line for the very different Aventra.
Would it be economic for them to continue building Electrostars at a rate of several a month? You bet it will!
And would it be feasible to produce these trains as IPEMU variants as these could then be used to bridge the gaps in electrification on the TransPennine and Midland Main Lines. Using IPEMUs on these lines would probably release some quality Class 185 diesel trains.
They could also be used to release quality diesel units by running on routes like.
- Gospel Oak to Barking – Class 172 trains leased from Angel Trains
- Marshlink Line – Class 171 trains leased from Porterbrook
- Uckfield Line – Class 171 trains leased from Porterbrook
These three lines alone, would release eighteen two car and six four-car high quality diesel multiple units.
Note the following.
- The leasing company for the Class 171 trains is Porterbrook.
- Southern already operate Class 387 trains.
- Southern gets an all-electric fleet if they replsce the Class 171 trains with Class 387 trains.
So will Porterbrook swap the trains here, to release the Class 171s to serve elsewhere? If it’s profitable of course they will.
It almost looks like you get a free quality diesel train with each new electric IPEMU, without having the expense and inconvenience of putting up the wires or laying more third rail.
Another article in Rail Magazine about the Porterbrook order says this about who might receive the trains.
A number of parties have already expressed an interest in leasing this new fleet, notably Rail for London but also established operators and prospective bidders of upcoming franchises
Rail for London is one of TfL’s operating companies.
Incidentally, I was at Upper Holloway station today and took this picture of a bridge that is being replaced by 2017.
Upper Holloway Bridge
Someone told me, that the bridge will take longer than that. You certainly couldn’t electrify it now!
So I can’t see conventional electric trains running on that line before 2019 at the earliest, thus delaying the cascade of the much-needed Class 172 trains.
But an IPEMU variant of a Class 387 train could run on that line much sooner than that.
Just replacing the Class 172 trains with Class 387 trains would solve one of the major problems on that line, which is a chronic lack of capacity.
There would probably need to be a few platform extensions, but surely the increase in passengers would compensate.
In some ways, the beauty of this approach, is that where you are using IPEMUs to bridge gaps in electrification, when you electrify the gap, you can either convert the IPEMUs to standard trains or replace them with something designed for the line and send the IPEMUs on to another line to work their magic there!
I suspect George Osborne will order the cavalry to charge in the Autumn Statement on November 25th.
Is Northern Electrification Going To Use Battery Trains?
This report on the BBC is entitled Network Rail to restart electrification of train lines. This is said.
The electrification of two railway lines is to be restarted after the projects were halted so a review could be carried out, the government says.
Work on the TransPennine Express Railway – between Manchester and York – and Midland Mainline – from London to Sheffield – was paused in June.
Sir Peter Hendy, chair of Network Rail, said the “temporary pause” had “given us the space to develop a better plan”
The Aventra IPEMU
Looking at the electrification of the two lines in posts over the previous few days, I have come to the conclusion that properly engineered battery trains built by Bombardier in Derby called Aventra IPEMUs (Independently Powered Electrical Multiple Units) could charge their batteries on existing sections of electrification and jump the gaps at speeds of up to at least 110 mph and possibly 125 mph, by running on batteries.
If that sounds like something that is too good to be true, I don’t believe it is! I was impressed when as a paying passenger, I rode the prototype train between Manningtree and Harwich.
For those who think that a battery train is just so-much Mickey Mouse-technology, note that the battery supplier; Valence is linked to Tessla; the electric vehicle manufacturer. A review of their latest car is on Autocar. The biggest problem with the car is not the power, range and performance, but the time it takes to charge the car from a typical supply. In addition to the overhead wire or third rail of the railway, an Aventra IPEMU has to charge the battery, the train will also charge the batteries using the regenerative braking system.
The TransPennine Line
On the TransPennine Line from Liverpool to Newcastle, the only gap in the electrification is the forty-three miles between Leeds and Manchester.
Aventra IPEMUs have a range of sixty miles, so Liverpool to Newcastle would be electric all the way and could be faster by up to thirty minutes on the current three hour journey.
Read Jumping The Electrification Gap Between Leeds And Manchester for full details on what it would entail.
The Midland Main Line
On the Midland Main Line, the electrification reaches from St. Pancras to Bedford.
As Corby, Kettering and Leicester are all within an Aventra IPEMU’s range from Bedford, these places could be served by these trains, once a certain amount of track and station work had been completed.
Read Thoughts On Midland Main Line Electrification for full details.
Delivering The Projects
The BBC article says this about the schedule.
The TransPennine upgrade is expected to provide capacity for six “fast or semi-fast trains” per hour between Manchester, Leeds and York , reducing journey times by up to 15 minutes.
The Manchester to York section of the work is now planned to be completed by 2022.
Once completed, the whole line from Liverpool to Newcastle will be fully electrified, the Department for Transport added.
The electrification of Midland Mainline north of Bedford to Kettering and Corby will now be completed by 2019, and the line north of Kettering to Leicester, Derby, Nottingham and to Sheffield will finish by 2023.
My project management knowledge and observations of Network Rail, say that to get electric trains to Kettering and Corby by 2019, would be a very tight schedule to perform on a working railway using conventional electrification!
But if it were needed to replace the current Class 222 trains with Aventra IPEMUs, it would just be a matter of certifying the line for the new Aventra IPEMUs and training the drivers and other staff.
There would be little or no work outside in the elements and all of the electrification would effectively be done in a comfortable warm factory at Derby!
I also feel that if say Network Rail said that the projects would be delivered on a particular date, that the risk of non-delivery would be very small.
Aventra IPEMUs can’t be delivered earlier, as the Derby factory will be jammed solid with production of Aventras for Crossrail.
On the other hand to prove the concept, would Bombardier modify a Class 387 train to create an IPEMU variant to run in passenger service between St.Pancras and Corby. Note that there have already been rumours of Class 387 IPEMU variants for Great Western Railway.
I wouldn’t be surprised if such a train is created, as it would be a superb way to identify any problems, train staff, prove the credibility of battery trains to a sceptical public and even deliver electric trains earlier.
A Cunning Plan
There are twenty seven Class 387 trains running on the Thameslink route at the moment, that will be replaced by Class 700 trains between 2016 and 2018.
As the Great Western Main Line won’t be electrified to Newbury, Swindon and Oxford until 2019 or whatever, there does seem to be the possibility of some very new Class 387 trains going into storage.
But as they are very similar to the Class 379 that was used for the IPEMU demonstrator, I do wonder if those clever engineers at Bombardier could convert some of these 110 mph trains into an IPEMU variant that could be used on services on TransPennine and the Midland Main Line.
If there were any spare Class 379 trains, I’m sure that other train companies would find a use for them! Especially, if Bombardier developed a plug-in battery system for the trains, so they could be used to prove if IPEMUs improved the lot of passengers on secondary lines.
You have to make your assets sweat.
Conclusion
I may be wrong, but I can’t see any other way to meet the schedule that has been published, unless some form of IPEMU is used to bridge the gaps in electrification..
It could be said that the North needs fast electric trains now and George Osborne needs them by 2020, as he has an election to win!
It might not matter much to most people if the trains didn’t run until say August 2020, but George Osborne would be unlikely to win an election in May 2020, if the trains were not delivered and running smoothly.
The Anonymous Widower 