Viva Vivarail’s D-train transformation!

“But there are lots of branch lines where you actually never really exceed 60mph. The line speed on a lot of branch lines isn’t more than 60mph anyway. And even where it is, trains don’t get up to it because you’ve got curves, or there are big restrictions at the stations.

“We’re not by any means saying this train is suitable for everything, because it’s not. But there are quite a number of applications where it is.”

So are there specific lines or branches for which the D-trains would be perfect?

“Oh yes. We’re talking to two or three customers who I can’t reveal at the moment, in other parts of the country. But what I can say is that we’re talking to all of the three bidders for the Northern franchise, and they’re all very interested.

“I can’t actually give you any more specific detail on that because we have non-disclosure agreements with all of them, because obviously they’re all competing. But what we can say is that the train is suitable for a lot of lines in the North - there are lots of branch lines. The one we did the simulation on (Huddersfield to Sheffield) is an example.”

RAIL visited Vivarail shortly after the publication of the Northern franchise Invitation To Tender, which promised that 120 new-build carriages would be acquired by the new Northern franchise and that the Class 142 and ‘144’ Pacers would be phased out by 2020 (RAIL 770).

The ITT stipulates: “These must be newly-built (not re-using components from existing rolling stock)”, which indicates quite clearly that the D-trains are not an option for that requirement.

Rail Minister Claire Perry then compounded its chances further by telling BBC North East journalists that the 120 carriages cannot be “London’s cast-offs”, while the BBC’s One Show on March 16 quoted the Department for Transport as saying they could not be “converted London Underground trains”.

Isn’t that a pretty clear message that the D-train will not be heading north?

“It is quite specific in the ITT - yes,” acknowledges Shooter. “There’s a huge amount of politics in the Northern franchise. I presume you’ve seen the exchange of letters which is on the public record between Philip Rutnam and the Secretary of State ?”

Shooter is referring to a letter Rutnam sent to McLoughlin on February 26 in his role as Accounting Officer, in which he expresses his “reservations about the proposal to issue Invitations To Tender (ITT) for the Northern and TransPennine Express franchises containing obligations to withdraw all Pacer vehicles by 2020 and to bring into operation a minimum of 120 new-build vehicles” (see Network News, pages 14-15).

Rutnam says the benefit:cost assessment suggests this represents “poor value for money” to bring the replacement forward to 2020, and reasons that “new-build vehicles will be much more expensive than Pacers”.

He continues: “There may be better ways of achieving value for money than the precise stipulations in the ITT.”