On 24 Sep, 10:15, Rupert Candy wrote:

On Sep 23, 10:35*pm, "John Tattersall"
wrote:

"Rupert Candy" wrote:

Incidentally, why did they have to make a 'pretend Underground train'
out of a watered-down suburban train with only 2 doors per side?
Surely the future S stock would have made a much better base vehicle
for this sort of application?

Probably because the Electrostar bodyshell already meets existing safety
standards for the mainline railway, where as S stock is designed for
metro-type operation, so would need to go through acceptance procedures for
the NR system. Presumably Bombardier felt it was a lot easier (and less
risky) to get acceptance on a variant of an existing, in service design..

I hadn't thought of that aspect. What about the Met 'main line'? Is
that under LUL control as far as Amersham? It's a long time since my
Met commuting days...

LUL owned, maintained to LU standards by the infraco Metronet (which
in its previous privately owned incarnation collapsed into
administration, but it has since been purchased by TfL). It becomes
Network Rail's responsibility at some point to the west of Amersham.
Oh, and south of Harrow-on-the-Hill the double track into Marylebone
is also Network Rail territory.

Nonetheless you make a good point about the S-stock, but John's point
about acceptance is also very apt - TfL wanted new trains sooner
rather than later. Its possible the whole new train deal might never
have happened if they hadn't grabbed the bull by its horns and got the
new trains ordered early on.