@lionelb Yeah, not sure what to think of that. Either clever re-use of old stuff, or typical UK rail - making do with old rubbish rather than investing properly!
@pony@lionelb I think one is running somewhere on some tiny branch line. There was a company building them, then it went bust, and GWR bought the assets.
@jon@lionelb that sounds like the two abandoned branch lines in northern czechia AZD got for signalling and autonomous operation testing and runs some regionals on side for some reason, but the main purpose really is R&D
@pony@lionelb I think you're being forgiving. This was a private enterprise in the UK - Viva Rail - that thought they were onto something. But those London tube trains have horrid suspension, and using them for anything but short or very slow trips makes no sense to me. Only later did GWR then see some use in it.
For the (short) pilot route, that set-up will probably remain viable for a long time.
With lessons learned, a from the ground up project would avoid a lot of mistakes and cover longer stretches.
Are we still at the stage of hand-me-downs to third countries or does their lack of development allow them to jump straight into cutting edge solutions?
@lionelb Germany. Look at Germany. Stadler, and with a couple of years delay, Siemens are in the battery electric trains market properly - with adapted EMUs that also meet current passenger demands. While UK potters around with some project on an old 1960s tube train.
@nf3xn@lionelb This is a tube train. From the 1960s. With crap suspension, and the doors in the wrong places for regional service. After that length of life you reach a time when it's better to move on. If you're worried about waste, worry about cars, not 40 year old trains.
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