What made the Electrostars so successful? The golden years of real privatisation
Electrostar was created in the few golden years when privatisation began, and train design worked to this boardroom logic of the new masters:
‘If I buy an aeroplane I don’t tell Boeing how to build it. I don’t buy a car and tell the manufacturer how big the boot should be or what engine to fit, no, the manufacturers will produce standard products which will be cheaper to produce, be supported for life with maintenance and materials, and the manufacturer will then make sure they are easy to maintain and reliable.’ Quite right, within reason, as unlike planes and cars, train designs don’t normally get time to mature and manufacturers have been known to cut corners when the money gets tight (the day after the contract gets signed). In principle, we were all keen to make sure the best product was produced, and what’s more we did not think we knew all the answers, we had as few ‘red lines’ as possible. The original specification ran to about 30 pages, barely enough for an appendix to a BR specification.
THE PASSENGER
The assumptions on the passenger environment were all related to making it better. The ROSCO held the long-term …
