Rolling stock’s uncertain future
Thanks to the COVID-19 vaccine programme and the great efforts made during the lockdown, the UK economy is gradually opening up again, and people are getting out and about and starting to spend once more. This is great for the country, the population and, of course, the economy. It is obviously good news for the UK’s railways, including heritage lines that are welcoming their first passengers in many months.
It is also good news for the ‘big’ railway, however there might be a nasty sting in the tail unless things change. No-one is to blame for this, it’s just a coming together of circumstances, but something needs to be done to stop it. I’m talking about throwing away perfectly good stock, in particular ‘green’ EMUs, just to save money. Because the UK Government has taken on the financial risk of running the railways it is paying the Train Operating Companies the bare minimum to run the service. The only way the TOCs can increase revenues further is to reduce outgoings. For several this means culling fleets while there is less demand for capacity. For many this simply means parking up stock until it is needed, but for others it means removing some fleets completely, relying on the gap before new trains are delivered being made less obvious by the slow return of passengers. However, this is only part of the story. Look at our headlines pages and you will see that South West Trains is abandoning its £45m re-tractioning and refurbishment of its five-car Class 442 fleet and instead is going to spend a further £25m refurbishing and reducing 28 Class 458s from five- to four-car sets to allow for the top speed to be raised to 100mph. SWR claims the change of heart is partly because the Class 442s will need more PRM modification to the plug doors in 2024, which would be complex and expensive. Surely it knew this would be needed years ago before the current work commenced? With much of the work on the 442s already complete it is to buy them off the lessor, Angel Trains, and scrap them. The 442s might be a lot older than the 458s, but with the new traction package they could have provided years of reliable service, though admittedly the 458s have proved very reliable, but on suburban routes. They remain untested on longer distance services such as those from Waterloo to Portsmouth.
There are, of course, other examples – look through Fleet Review for the past few months and see the number of perfectly good EMUs going off lease and being sent to the scrap man. Classes 313, 314 and 315 were very long in the tooth so they were expected, but today we are losing Class 317s and 321s, both of which could be suitable for the Swift Express Freight system also detailed in the news pages. It’s not clear how much demand there will be for these units at the moment, or indeed for hydrogen/ battery conversions to carry passengers, yet they seem to be being disposed of in undue haste in my opinion, especially if they could be used to only carry freight. To put it bluntly it is wasteful – similar to the situation a few year ago when perfectly good Class 56s, some with new wheelsets, were chopped up, when a few years later UK Rail Leasing and GBRf were desperate for them. A distinct lack of foresight indeed, but one easy to explain by short-sighted accountants.
And, of course, we now have MPs calling for a rolling programme of electrification for the next 30 years – some of the now ‘redundant’ EMUs could provide a stop gap, despite needing to be modified to meet PRM requirements, to allow immediate programmes to go ahead and save the need to buy new fleets for several years. And people wonder why I’m going grey…!
There’s plenty for you to get your teeth into this month, beginning with Part 2 of the Aire Valley coal story, which will conclude in the July issue. Alex Fisher takes a detailed look at Welsh stabling points in his Britain’s Depots series, while David Staines provides a fascinating tale from the Caribbean that is nothing short of extraordinary. Elsewhere, Yinka Jan Sojinu visits the SpoorwegmuseumUtrecht – the Dutch National Railway Museum – and discovers a flexible and fascinating collection.
As the UK opens up please keep sending in your photographic submissions, although please understand I cannot possibly use all of them. But you’ve got to be ‘in it to win it’ so to speak. This is particularly relevant as heritage lines reopen. A big thank you to everyone who has sent in shots and material.