Boltar wrote:

Barry Salter wrote:

The uprating of the power supply during the last closure was to enable
Class 465 "Networker" EMUs to run through, but it needs further uprating
for the new, more powerful, Electrostars that will be running the
service, and an increase to 16 trains per hour on the core route.

I think you actually meant to write "more power hungry" rather than
more powerful. Efficiency doesn't seem to have been in the brief when
they were designed.

B2003

More powerful might just equate to more power hungry as well, though
I've no idea whether the Electrostars are more powerful than the
Networkers (and to be fair to Mr Salter, he didn't mention efficiency -
though I agree with your underlying point that it's important). Plus
AIUI the new ELLX will be more intensively worked (i.e. more trains)
than the 90's power upgrade allows for, which might suggest that it
wasn't done with enough foresight.