Rolling stock news - DafT shuffles the deckchairs

Eye hears that there are to be quite a few HLOS rolling stock deals to be signed over the next 10 days.

First Great Western, as speculated in Modern Railways, is to get 30 class 150 vehicles from LooRoll and London Midland in late summer 2010

Northern loses the 180s to East Coast but gain seven 142 sets from First Great Western and quite a significant number of Class 150s (sources suggest up to 20)

EMT gets four more 156 units from Northern so that all Nottingham - Liverpool services become four car throughout the day.

So a great victory for Manchester, Liverpool, and Leeds (prop Gordon Brown) but not so good for the Tory Shires.

Could there be an election in the offing?

Quite possibly - but even Labour's strategists can't speed up Bombardier's production lines.

Testing of the first of eight two Car 172s for LooRoll has only just begun.

These units are followed by four for the Chiltern Gau of the Reichsbahn.

Which could push the LM deliveries into next year!

Wasn't there supposed to have been a Rolling Stock Plan published last autumn?

UPDATE: This from Ithuriel...

Doesn't 'shuffling the deckchairs' give a misleading impression of purposeful activity?

Isn't it more the case that DfT is trying to find enough beach towels so that those in the unshuffled deckchairs can share two between three?

The Fact Compiler wonders if there is a measure for Deckchairs in Excess of Capacity?

UPDATE: This from Leo Pink...

That would be DIXC as in 'Whistling Dixie'.

Which is all that passengers on capacity starved TOCs can do...