On Sat, 7 Nov 2009 05:27:53 -0800 (PST), D7666
wrote:

On Nov 6, 10:43*pm, "Paul Scott"
wrote:

Could North Pole find a new life as the depot for the coming GW ML
electric trains, or as home for HS2's rolling stock?

Probably the former I should imagine, if only because it is the project
likely to happen at the earliest, by quite a few years.


But if I were the operator I'd not want my depot at the inner London
end for either the intercity or suburban operation.

BR made this mistake the last time for BedPan by placing its depot at
Cricklewood. Yes CW (as a depot) was closed because of Thameslink, but
when extra depot facilities were needed, it made more sense to build
new at the end of the route at Cauldwell and not re-open CW - which
was vacant at the time ((CW depot building has long had non rail use -
but not continuous use - it was vacant around the time Cauldwell was
announced)).

Depots are better off ''out in the sticks'' as that is by far the best
place to berth and hence maintain anything that has any kind of London
flow. This is why what is now Chiltern built at Aylesbury, SWT at
Salisbury, LM at Northampton, WC at Manchester, and so on. Even the
bulk of C2C stabling is not East Ham but Shoeburyness.

Reading is just about OK for Thames Valley EMU but no closer. IEP need
to be Bristol and/or Cardiff/Swansea.


Earlier this year Agility Trains (Hitachi et al) announced that the
proposed new maintenance centres for the IEP would be at North Pole
(part of site only), Reading and Bristol Parkway. These are in
addition to several upgraded existing facilities (undisclosed). Of
course this predated the GWML electrification announcement, so it
could all change

http://www.agilitytrains.com/assets/...uncement.p df.

David