train has had all of its passenger seats ripped out so that it can be transformed into a dedicated cargo freight train and loaded up with industry-standard cargo cages.
Hasn't something similar been reported before on the forum.
Yes ...
proposed by Varamis ... in 2020. At that stage there were four such proposals, though I think that was really two stock conversions and three potential operators.
Varamis came in as outsiders, so had to wait to go get an operator's licence. They are using class 321s converted (at least initially) by Eversholt under the branding "Swift Express". Recently Varamis have been buying them, not just leasing more. It does look as if they (and their backers, presumably) rate their performance so far as a success.
Porterbrook converted some of their rusty old 319s for parcels use, becoming class 768. At first
GB▸ Railfreight were announced as operators and ran trials, but it was ROG who ordered several of them for their planned Orion subsidiary. Then they both went very quiet, and seem to have dropped the idea. It's hard to be sure as no-one give much publicity to such abandoned plans.