Scottish HSTs capable of extending their repertoire

Regular readers of RAIL will be well aware of the routes on which the Scottish HST fleet will be deployed. I doubt if they will be confined to these routes, as I am sure ScotRail Alliance Managing Director Alex Hynes and the Abellio team will be lining up more plans.

Also, with maintenance of the power cars being carried out at Haymarket, there will be a need for stock moves between Haymarket and Glasgow Queen Street - for the latter’s departures to Aberdeen and Inverness after maintenance, or for maintenance at the end of a day. It would make sense for these stock moves to be revenue-earning, rather than empty coaching stock.

It is true there was a recession which affected the numbers of HSTs produced during the manufacturing run. The Scottish region asked for them, but it was declined. Instead we got the push-pull Class 47s (not the greatest of successes due to the intensity of a 100mph service), followed by the ‘158s’ and then the ‘170s’.

I believe HSTs would have been a victim of their own success, with overcrowding because of the limit on the length of these trains that could (at the time) be accommodated at Queen Street.

The HSTs are almost with us. They won’t last for ever, though, so the Scottish Government should be giving some serious thought as to what replaces them in ten years’ time.

Electrification of these routes is on the wish list, but with the length of time it takes NR to complete such tasks the commitment needs to be made soon, very soon, or we will have some very expensive maintenance on our hands. Or another solution entirely? Let’s hear the ideas. Stephen Walker, Kilsyth