gsnedders

Maybe I’ve misunderstood, but how much differs between these and the earlier certification for the parts of these? Clearly the control car is new and needs to be certified, but the regular Venture cars are already in service, as are the locomotives. (And the future pantograph cars and the locos which can take power from them would clearly need certified too, but that’s not about these sets specifically.)

I could well imagine Amtrak wanting to hold Siemens to a high-bar especially for first-of-type testing, to ensure everything works well together per contracted specification, but that isn’t a (FRA) certification matter.

look, lets not forget, the only 150s around london got replaced with new build 172s over 10 years ago (and since with 378s and later 710s). If they're too poor for londoners to use, then the rest of us shouldn't have to put up with them either.

It's worthwhile pointing out that the only usage of 150s around London, on the GOBLIN, didn't last long: it only started in 2000 (when the 150s were already 16 years old, replacing 40 year old 117s/121s), and lasted for a decade, but there were only ever eight in usage around London, versus the 137 built. The later replacement of 172s with 710s was really more to do with increasing capacity and the electrification than anything with the stock (and the 378s shouldn't have ever been there, but they were available and the 710s late).

They were replaced by the 172s under London Overground, hence funded by TfL, rather than the remaining franchises operating 150s, where the replacement would be funded by the DfT… and I don't really expect the DfT to do more than spend the bare minimum on trains…

When it comes to corporate policies, there's varieties in what they cover (and different levels of cover from each insurer), so there's not a singular answer then.

The cracking I'll take as a reasonable point; the seats are a matter of interior fit and other TOCs could feasibly order them with very different seats to the IEP sets (though e.g. GWR's order was only allowed with near identical interior fit to the IEP sets, but I don't think that's been so true for other TOCs).

Only the bulk of the LNER and GWR orders were made by the government without the TOC having any choice, but the R&D cost was amortised across that order which means that further orders haven't been too expensive—and they're good, capable intercity stock, and what else is currently available which is?