On Thu, 31 Aug 2006 16:54:32 GMT, Jack Taylor wrote:

So they're getting 24 3-car Electrostars for the North London Railway,
replacing 23 3-car 313s and 3 3-car 508s? That's not much of a
capacity upgrade - some might even call it the opposite.

That was my immediate thought. It's all very wooly and unclear. It certainly
looks as if it's replacement on like-for-like basis *unless* by North London
Railway they mean the North London Line (Richmond to Stratford) on its own,
releasing the current 313s to strengthen Euston to Watford and West London
Line services or increase frequency?

The plans are for the current (self-contained) WLL service to be
replaced with through running from the NLL (Stratford to Clapham
Junction), so it wouldn't be possible to use a different type of stock
just for the WLL. The Euston to Watford service will be axed
completely, but this only uses something like 4 of the 23 313 units.

It seems apparent to me from the figures that the proposed doubling of
the frequency on the WLL and NLL (and the reopening of the Queens Park
- Camden Road route) will be achieved simply by running the 376s in
addition to the 313s, rather than the 376s replacing the 313s. The
options in the contract would then allow the 313s to be replaced at a
later date with a subsequent build of 376s.