Maybe its time to update Thomas for modern times and make him more PC. He certainly would need a government subsidy to keep running. But that subsidy would be used to pay to have an extra 5 or 10 employees on the train and not to repair him so we should have some rusted out old train manned by about 10 employees, who outnumber the passengers.
This Topem Hatt needs to be replaced by some useless son of a politician as a member of the board of the company that owns Thomas.
Yeah, but how would you make a train appear gay?