ROLLING STOCK
technology is partly driven by operational needs and partly to increase security.”
This refurbishment programme will begin in January 2011, lasting for around five months and will cost in the order of around £6 million, on top of the rest of investment which is company has made in its fleet. So what has led to this significant round of investment?
“We made a decision before we took over the franchise that because East Midlands Trains was essentially a fusion of two old franchises, much of the rolling stock was coming from different sources. This meant that the rolling stock had different liveries and different configurations, along with the fact that the rolling stock had reached a stage where it simply just needed to be improved.
Oct/Nov 10
“Also, because we are a Stagecoach company, we wanted to brand the internal layout in the Stagecoach way, whilst also wanting to make improvements which we knew would be beneficial, both to the train crew and passengers. It was also a very important aspect of our bid for the franchise that we would spend a considerable amount of money on refurbishing the rolling stock and this is broadly speaking what we have done.
“Although we began that franchise right at the beginning of an economic downturn and recession, we made a decision pretty early on that it was such an important thing to do that we needed to get it right and carry on with that investment.”
Co-ordinating such a huge programme of investment and refurbishment has taken a huge
amount of organisation, time and effort, especially when you consider that the train company has to keep services operational at the same time.
“There are the obvious challenges of keeping the project on time and to budget, but the main issue has been around the availability of the rolling stock.
“The 153’s, 156’s and 158’s – which we term collectively the sprinter fleet – already worked on a very tight availability, even normally. This means that to take even one or two trains out at any one time to refurbish them is quite a challenge.
“We have been aided by the fact that the performance of East Midlands Trains has rocketed in the last two years jumping from number fourteen to number six in the industry league table.
Because we are now achieving very high levels of performance and reliability, it means that taking one or two trains out – provided that you do it carefully – doesn’t have as bad an effect as it would if you were always on the back foot.
“We have also made some fairly calculated decisions over which services we would compromise or where we could lose a train whilst having a minimal effect on the passengers.
“However, it has still been a real struggle to ensure that we do not drop the ball, so to speak. We have been very lucky so far and the planning which went into it has paid off.”
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