Small diversion to Drayton Park at weekends

Its VERY impossible without huge expenditure! However, from December 2015 Drayton Park station will be open at weekends as trains to Moorgate will run all day Saturdays and Sundays (as well as to just after midnight on weekdays). And from spring 2018 the class 313s on this service will be replaced by brand new 6 car air-con articulated dual voltage EMUs. Take a look at the GoVia announcement made when they were awarded the new TSGN franchise a few weeks ago.

Probably North West around Manchester or the "to be electrified" Welsh Valley Lines.

Merseyrail?

I'd be very surprised if they were cascaded simply because of their age and reliability. It is difficult and expensive to keep life expired trains in service. It can be done but it is a long way from being good practice. The only circumstances I can foresee where your prediction may prove right is if local politicians in the North West *demand* they are sent the trains in order to provide extra capacity on newly electrified routes. If you read the prospectus for the Northern Rail refreanchising there is a very strong emphasis on cost efficiency which suggests to be me that running old, expensive to keep running trains would not be a popular move with the DfT.

I honestly can't see Welsh politicians asking for them given they want class 319s or to order brand new trains when the Welsh franchise is renewed. There will actually be a few designs knocking around and production lines waiting for orders so if the DfT / Welsh Assembly get themselves sorted out there might well be an opportunity to buy new at reasonable prices. If we end up with "feast or famine" with train orders then the cost of smallish batches of trains goes up and up. I can see the merit in a co-ordinated programme of EMU orders for LOROL, Merseyrail, Wales, Northern Rail, Transpennine plus trains to run on the Electric Spine services. Whether that actually happens is down to lots of people having a big outbreak of common sense!

MerseyRail are already seeking to establish a specification for new-builds to replace their 507/508 fleet. Recently a ROSCo brought some of the superfluous 508s up to Warrington from the south with an anticipation that MerseyRail might be interested - they weren't.

We'll probably end up with them though; so the politicians of the south can boast about "investment in the rail network of the north" without actually investing any real money.

MerseyRail are already scoping out their new rolling stock, and seem quite keen on class 378 or similar. They will probably procure them as 6 car air-con articulated units with the possibility of dual voltage as further extensions to the network will be AC overhead. The preference seems to be for a seating arrangement akin to the LU S8 stock. What will happen to the 313s is a good question. The original Business Case (as approved by the Treasury) for the Welsh Valleys was predicated on a cascade of refurbished 313s. However, that is now in doubt, not least because the Welsh Government feels insulted that it will be given 41+ year old rolling stock. The 315s are also in play, albeit reduced to 3 cars. However, they are also not far off their 40th birthdays!

Why divert? Drayton Park is directly above the Victoria Line.

Can't see that happening. The benefits are far outweighed by the cost.

An the cost of adding a tube station while the Vic is running is likely to be £xxxxxxxm for use on odd Saturdays and Sundays in the winter. Not a very good business case.

I quite agree with all of you on the Cost/Benefit issue; I'd not want to spend money on it either! I was merely observing that it would not be necessary to dig tunnels (or unblock old ones) at Highbury when the line actually goes where you want already!

AIUI Drayton Park was never a massive traffic generator even when Arsenal were playing at home, due to the choice of destinations served from there. Certainly when I travelled to college in the area I used it purely as a novelty; it was much easier to go to Holloway Road!

And the DLR, whose trains are formed of 2 or 3 articulated cars.