Why would you design it like that
if one pump is off, then that stationary pump is just uselessly adding losses as the water has to be pumped through these tight clearances.
if you think you need two pumps for that much extra head, you should get a bigger bowl and add more stages to the VTP.
if you think you need a standby pump in series incase of more head needed later, a vtp on top of it is not a good idea, neither is a vtp mounted horizontally else where.. what i would do is have a horizontal centri pump down the line, as many as you need. Have 2 parallel lines with valves to control the path of liquid, so when you need the pumps, you can control the fluid to go in the pumps line and switch on the pumps.
two vtps in serial? i dont think so
Tronical