THE recent announcement by Great Western Railway that it has abandoned plans to introduce its 19 ‘Flex’ units (see Headline News, p9) provides an opportune time to detail the present status of the 86 Class 319s.
To date, only 12 sets (plus one car from another unit) have been scrapped, leaving over 85% of the fleet intact in one form or another.
Of the remaining sets, 37 have undergone ‘Flex’ conversion, and a further set was part converted before problems were found with one vehicle which saw its rebuild abandoned. Of the 16 ‘Flex’ sets which have been put into passenger use, the eight operated by Transport for Wales (TfW) are expected to be retired during the first few months of 2023; they were only intended as a stop-gap until the ‘Flirt’ units enter traffic.
The two sets which underwent ‘Flex’ conversion for use by Rail Operations Group’s Orion logistics have only seen limited use, as has No. 319373 which has similarly
