With regard to the Thameslink stock, I thought I read somewhere that there will be two internal configurations, effectively metro and outer suburban?
Your recollection is probably correct as there were three train configurations required in the original train technical spec published at
ITT▸ back in 2008, there was to be an inner and outer suburban version of the 8 car or 'reduced length unit',
IIRC▸ the former just didn't have first class. All the 12 cars were the same, so I then assumed they were all outer configuration.
A feature of the TRSP is the concept of fixed configuration Units of nominally 240m and 160m lengths with variances within the 160m Units for inner and outer suburban internal configurations.
That appears to have been changed somewhere along the line, and the only difference now is the length of the train.
Regarding the possibility of extending the 8 car trains later in their life, this is definitely mentioned in the various ITT documents - perhaps though, now that the DfT have done a bit of a U-turn on the expected routes, they recognise that it will not be expected, because there are now enough routes for Thameslink trains where the stock is limited by the infrastructure, e.g. the Wimbledon/Sutton loop.
(I haven't linked to the source documents because I can't find them now online, but I've checked in downloaded copies I've retained...)
Paul
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