Boris tweets us to say Kulveer Ranger and he are going to Willesden Junction today for the official launch of the Class 378 ‘Capitalstar‘ trains for the London Overground network. Let’s see how many of the following things are mentioned:
- They were ordered in 2006
- They were specified as having fewer seats than existing trains to speed loading times
- They have the same interior ambience as a bendy bus
- They’re horribly late owing to supply chain and manufacturing problems at Bombardier in Derby (also affecting lots of other projects)
On the other hand, I suspect the following will get mentioned:
- They’ve got air conditioning
Actually, I’m rather looking forward to having a go on them, but it’s still aggravating that Boris gets to take credit for things he didn’t do and, moreover, would never have done in a million years.
Tags: class 378 · overground · trains3 Comments
3 responses so far ↓
Talking of bendies… I was intrigued to see them being used as Rail Replacement Buses on the Victoria – Brixton route during this weekend’s Vic line suspension. It’s something that I’m personally quite happy to see (and something that would have been helpful on the London City route during the recent DLR blockade at Canning Town) – but I wonder if we will begin to see more of the ‘old’ bendies cropping up for such usage?
With all the talk of funding blackholes, etc, I really, really, hope that the spotlight is cast onto the bendy scrapping and the vanity routemaster, both of which are pouring away vital TfL funds.
Did I hear right this morning that the Jubilee was screwed where they’ve been accelerating the work on the signalling system? The acceleration was a direct Boris/TfL agreement with Tube Lines, by the way.
Dunno, but it was suspended between Startford – Greenwich North due to ’signal problems’ both this morning and last Monday, so I would guess that the accelerated works over the weekends are either overrunning or leaving the route buggered.