Southern Trains

[First Class]

RE: Southern Trains

(23/11/2012 08:50)Penny Return Wrote:  

(23/11/2012 07:39)childwallblues Wrote:  Southern Trains currently have an order for 26 x 5-car Electrostars placed earlier this year for delivery in 2013/14. They have now exercised an option to order a further 8 x 5-car Electrostars for delivery from December 2014.
An interesting development is that Southern is to go out to tender for a further 100 units with an option for a further 116. Nothing else is known as yet but it is clear that this order is in connection with Thameslink.

What a surprise ! more new investment for the southeast while we on Merseyside get
sweet FA

Perhaps you haven't realised that some of these "additional" units could be ending up on the newly electrified line between Liverpool & Blackpool/Manchester.

It is nothing to do with Thameslink! Class 700s are being arranged for those services.

After all, with the discovery that the Class 319s will be incompatible with the 25kV wires, (all new installations of AC wiring are required to meet higher EU standards, which require modern pantagraphs and technical modifications), it is even more likely new stock will be used, rather than cascaded.

New OHLE must conform to the EU TSI standards, which gives a higher tension than the existing UK standard.

Any Thameslink stock also needs to be ATO capable, which the 377s aren't. It needs dedicated new build stock.

In an even more surprising twist, it could transpire to contribute towards a Merseyrail fleet replacement, as there is an additional option to order 200 more 377 carriages, (dual voltage).