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Post by davopazza on Nov 24, 2015 18:23:00 GMT 1
Virgin Trains is to spend £21m refurbishing its fleet of 45 trains which run on the east coast mainline between London and Edinburgh. The company said all 401 carriages used on the route would be overhauled with more than 20,000 seats replaced and new carpets and curtains fitted. www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-34910891The work will be carried out at depots in London and Edinburgh. An additional £16m is also being spent on fitting 35 new engines to Virgin's diesel High Speed Train fleet. David Horne, managing director of Virgin Trains on the east coast route, said the investment would benefit customers ahead of the introduction of the new Super Express Trains as part of the Government's InterCity Express programme in 2018. The first refurbished train will enter service on 14 December, Mr Horne said. Virgin Trains East Coast, which is owned by the Virgin and Stagecoach Groups, was awarded the franchise to run the east coast route in 2014 and is committed to investing £140m over eight years. In my opinion and porberbly controversial think this is somewhat a waste of money with the trains having a maximum of three years left. I understand the engine replacement but new seats, carpets I done as I am use them quite often heading south and find them comfy. The only way I could see it being beneficial is if the trains are going elsewhere after the east coast retirement.
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Post by westyorkshirebus on Nov 24, 2015 19:25:26 GMT 1
I expect they will be going somewhere else, plus the entire new fleet won't be in use straight away, it'll probably take a couple of years for them all the filter through.
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Russ
Forum Member
Posts: 421
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Post by Russ on Nov 24, 2015 20:25:20 GMT 1
Why fit new engines when the HST fleet had there engines replaced a couple years ago with MTU units
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Post by Burnside on Nov 24, 2015 23:21:06 GMT 1
Some of Great Western's HST's are to move to Scotrail, so if there is a new operator lined up for VTEC's trains, it wouldn't be a waste of dosh.
As for the engines, who knows?
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Post by timelesstable on Nov 25, 2015 21:20:03 GMT 1
Network Rail sell-off to fund upgrades: This article looks more at the problems in South Wales, but that scheme was protected while the ones for the North we being reassessed or what ever the pause terminology was used. Just me, but this looks like a loss of focus on the Northern Powerhouse and more power to the Welsh minority. www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-34926322Network Rail wants to sell £1.8bn of railway arch space, disused depots and shop space in bigger stations to help raise the cash to upgrade UK railways. New chairman Sir Peter Hendy came up with the idea after he was drafted in this summer to rescue the company's disastrous £12.5bn enhancement plan. He says by selling off non-core bits of property, Network Rail can now deliver "the bulk" of the planned programme. One critical scheme, the plan to electrify the line from Swansea to London, has been dogged with delays and extra costs. The first budget estimate was £640m. It now stands at £2.8bn. Work on the core part of the line, to Cardiff, should be finished by 2019, Network Rail says. But new, multi-billion pound intercity trains are arriving more than a year before that. It raises the embarrassing prospect of sparkly high-speed trains initially providing a slower service because they can't run on electricity for the whole route. Other all-electric versions could be idle for months.
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