Forum menu
Haha!
I thought someone was gonna dig something like this one out from the engineering works last year:
[img] 
[/img]
56s on hybrid rakes of mk2s and 3s would be far more interesting though!
I don't really see a problem with the existing set up of fixed car sets for intercity travel. There are back ups anyway. More flexibility for commuter trains would be the ideal- ironically, the best commuter train journey I had recently was an Edinburgh Fringe extra train- old stock hauled by a 47 with a luggage car for bikes. Lots of bikes! It worked great, much more spacious than being crammed into a Turbostar. But empty seats don't make money.
Because the railways should be about making money. Ahem.
It's virtually all 4-car EMUs down here, so quite a bit of versatility on commuter sets. Plenty of services that leave London as a 12-car, then split mid way. Works well enough.
I see no real issue with fixed rakes either, particularly on longer distances. The reality is that even with loco hauled stock you can't just 'chuck another couple of coaches on the back' if it's a busy service after all.
I travel on Chiltern at lot and they run class 67's at one end, 7 mark 3 carriages and a DVT at the other end. They're fast, roomy, comfortable and make a nice noise when they set off. The 67's are being replaced with some brand spanking new [url= http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Rail_Class_68 ]68's[/url].
I actually think Chiltern do a lot right, their punctuality is good, the trains themselves are good and they even dealt with the landslip between Banbury and Leamington very well. The show of sh... that is Cross Country are a different altogether, seem unable to run a train on time and even when they do there is no space in the Voyagers which seem to be a reverse tardis (huge on the outside, tiny inside).