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Recliner[_2_] · January 10th 13, 11:52 AM posted to uk.railway,uk.transport.london

On Thu, 10 Jan 2013 12:43:23 +0000 (UTC), d
wrote:

On Thu, 10 Jan 2013 12:35:10 +0000
Recliner wrote:

But given where we are now, wouldn't you complain even more if the D
stock wasn't replaced by the S stock in 2016, but by some other new
design of sub-surface stock in 10-15 years time?

I only use the district line once or twice a year so I don't know the
condition of the D stock, but presumably they must've been given a full
service (or whatever its called) when they were refurbished so must be good
for a few years yet. There's stopping LU just buying S stock for the district
in another 10 years other I suppose that their own idiotic re-inventing the
wheel idiology whereby they'd insist on wasting money retendering for an
entirely new design for its own sake rather than buying a proven one.

Once the production ended, it would be much more expensive to place a
repeat order for another S stock fleet. At the very least, two smaller
orders cost you much more per unit than one giant order with its
economies of scale.

If you left it more than a couple of years, then costs rise further:
the Derby factory may have gone, as might some of the suppliers, and
many of the out-of-production components might have to be replaced by
newer, different models, which all puts up costs. You'd almost
certainly end up with a different, incompatible fleet, even if they
looked similar (like the 1995 and 1996 TS), which would reduce
flexibility.