In addition to my post last week 2Bil or no 2Bil the issue regarding the availability of the 2Bil EMU train packs has been raised on a number of online forums, by retailers and also on Hornby’s own Facebook page where they have posted the following in response to a question raised there:

The popularity of the 2-BIL, although not a surprise has placed us in a very difficult situation. The original plan for the release of the 2-BIL was scheduled for early January, with this in mind orders for the unit had to be placed with our supplier very early in 2012. Obviously, as we had no orders to base our requirements on we had to estimate what we believed the demand would be. Of course if the model had been scheduled for release say in September 2013 we would not have been in the position we now find ourselves but we were determined to have a totally new model out into the market as early as possible in 2013.