Because Virgin wanted a 2 year franchise extension in exchange for the disruption and costs involved in adding the 2 coaches to the fleet. DaFT» thought that Virgin thought they had them over a barrel, and decided to call their bluff.
It's a bit simplistic to say that you can "just" lengthen the platforms, if nothing else the depots will need a bit tacked on to the end.
This saga just highlights the stupidity of the current way of running the railway. As Christian Wolmar asks what are TOCS for?
I would suggest it is not too simplistic just to lengthen the platforms all it requires is a good engineer/designer to design the extensions and a set of builders to do the work. On the old Southern the Civil Engineer could have ordered up pre-stressed concrete platforms in kit form from Exmouth Junction Concrete depot. All you have to do on site is to drill the foundations for the legs. The Chessington branch stations are all of this design.
As for the depots they seem to be modular contruction so you just add a couple of
RSJ▸ spans.
It's easy, it only costs money.
The problem is we seem so scared of spending money without all sorts of safeguards to ensure the money is spent correctly (no risks taken) which only add to the costs in the long run because in any project there is risk and you can't avoid it, however, clever you are.
So what are the risks in this project? That by 2012 we will be in a deep recession and train travel will drop so
WCML▸ will have 2 coaches too many on it's trains. But by 2015 another boom will start and train travel will be up again so WCML will be 2 coaches too short. However, even if there is recession the M1/M6 will probably still be in gridlock by 2012.
