Quote:
Originally Posted by hstudent
Why is it that most TOCs can't have a few locomotive engines to use in this sort of situation. If they did it would probably reduce the number of cancellations due to faults with trains as well?
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The sad fact is that nowadays, running a railway is about generating money and not about providing a transport service. Just look at the phenomenal amounts that franchisees are paying
into the treasury. Train passengers in the UK are really just paying another stealth tax, which is why we have some of the highest fares in Europe.
Thus it figures that it costs a TOC far less to cancel the odd service rather than permanently hire a 'Thunderbird' which is not often used (plus the incurred costs of driver training/traction refreshing).
There
are exceptions to this but they tend to be the prestigiuos TOCs rather than the everyday ones; eg GNER keeps a 67 in readiness at KX.