Vivarail's 'D Train' - 'D' stock reborn

I doubt that because Vivarail bought xxx number of cars that they ever ever had any intention that xxx cars would end up being recycled into something else, no matter what form of electric / diesel / battery / steam / nuclear / duckweed one can think of.

What they did do was acquire the assets at probably scrap price when they were available. They had to buy then, the cars were not going to sit around in store, at someone else's expense, so Vivarail could cherry pick them off project by project.

I would also comment that with regard to certain key items of D78 obsolete kit needs two donor cars to make one 'new' one - i.e. one car is taken as the basis of a new car rebuild while another one is cannibalised for a number of small parts; this gen came from a former D78 maintainer; although I do not know which part those might be.

What we see going to scrap is what looks like a complete car but in fact is almost certainly a total non runner having donated useful parts.

There are, what, 7 3car 230, 3 2car 230, and 5 2car 484 = 37 cars used already, so maybe 37 other cars have possibly donated some parts and fit only for scrap. And that is never mind any other try out cars they may have used that were never more than bench tests. 40 cars going for scrap may seem a lot to observers seeing a lorry every week day for 8 weeks.

Sure anyone can come up with theories like covid disruption, and that the 230s are not exactly having a trouble free development path, but I doubt this has had anything to do with xxx cars bought does not make xxx cars rebuilt.

That is only based on what a former D78 maintainer told me.

The items from the donor car may be small but vital; and I have no idea what they are. I'll speculate and suggest since D78 were otherwise going for scrap, it might have been overall simpler and cheaper for Vivarail to buy the job lot to get those items. Or, it might be something that main line working requires two of that an LU has only one of; not that I have a clue what that might be.

Unfortuneately, said maintainer has passed away.

As noted on the Vivarail thread the charging kit for the battery trains for the Greenford branch has been assembled at Bletchley depot and is under test.

It will then be moved to West Ealing and installed.

Speaking with my engineers had on, test installing at an engineering base before going to revenue site (even a trial revenue site) is good practice. I would not myself indulge in conspiracy theory here.

On a different tack, if other forums reporting is correct, there is an inability to get a suitable grid power supply to West Ealing.

Not to mention the announcements recently about being unable to support many/any new connections for a while in west London.

From Modern Railways Twitter feed.

NEW:
@vivarail has confirmed it has filed a notice of intention to appoint administrators. MD Steve McBride says if the company is unable to secure a rescue package administration is 'inevitable'. Its statement says Greenford branch battery train trial due to start in early 2023.

oh dear, I am sorry to read this

I remember GWR considering some class 230s for the Greenford service. Was this order ever placed prior to the announcement of VivaRail entering administration?

The issues with Vivarail do not seem to have affected the class 484 units on the Isle of Wight thankfully.

I enquired of 484 yesterday as soon as heard of LM 230 issue; info I have, from within (although not from someone directly involved on the island) agrees with the suggestion 484s are not VivaRail maintained.

As I said in another post, this is not a GWR project, but a DfT project with GWR as the TOC involved. It is not a case of GWR ordering anything, but DfT contracting a pilot trial with both VivaRail and GWR and whever else needs to be involved.

A 230 unit is available, converted for this pilot, AIUI it has been available for some time and haunts Bletchley depot (where the operational LM units are also based.)

I'm a bit surprised this possibility doesn't seem to have been well catered for.
Under the much criticised LUL PPP, when Metronet failed, there was already a provision ready for what was I seem to recall known as 'Railway Administration' so that safety, service and maintenance continued without significant impact on the passengers.
Is there something better in place for potential failure of bigger suppliers to the main line railways?

I remember that - we had to amend our email signatures to Metronet Rail xxx Ltd (in PPP Administration) and there were additional disclaimers about the administrators and their liabilities, but I can't remember if we had to add that manually or if it was done for us.

It’s been reported that Adrian Shooter the former MD and Chairman at Chiltern Railways and MD at VivaRail sadly passed away yesterday.