Flex appeal

Congratulations to Porterbrook, and especially Helen Simpson, for the ‘out-of-the-box’ thinking to bring new life into the Class 319s ( RAIL 319).

With more than 100 Class 321s coming off-lease, there must be a case for Eversholt to do something similar, especially when they can be ungraded to the Renatus version. It would be a great way to reuse these reliable assets - they would be ideal for the Welsh Valleys, for example.

Southern/GTR could replace diesel-only Class 171s which spend a lot of time running above the third rail. Replacing these with Class 319 Flex trains would free up several diesels for use where the flexibility would not be an advantage, but where increased capacity is urgently needed. Dave Eccles, Norwich