Of course we have to remember that the sprinter fleet are getting on for 30 years old now, when they were first introduced here in the Midlands to replace the old slam door DMU's people loved them, with quicker journey times in most cases (unless you got a Tyseley power twin instead, with a Saltley driver they put even the sprinters to shame
) People have seen what some other area's have in the way of stock and want something similar.
The 153's were crap when they were originally the Leyland built 155's, we had no end of trouble with them on various test/crew training runs and always felt cheap and nasty compared to the Metro Cam 156's. The conversion to the 153 made them even worse.
I still can't believe we have pacers running on the network, they were a huge mistake from the beginning.