ROLLING STOCK SPECIAL
East Midlands Trains has been busy refurbishing its entire fleet, including its newest trains, the Meridians, explains project manager Chris Elliott.
M
illions of miles and thousands of passengers take their toll on even the most modern of train sets.
East Midlands Trains has been busy car- rying out a full fleet refurbishment to get every carriage looking as good as new.
The company is spending £30m across the fleet, including £6m on its newest vehicles, the 27 Meridian Class 222s – for which it has set a tight target. If all goes to plan, each train will be refurbished, top-to- tail, in ten days. If project manager Chris Elliott gets his way, that will come down to just eight.
Speaking to RTM as the first refurbished Meridian had just gone back into service, he said: “The first train entered service six and a half years ago. We reckon, on aver- age, the train sets have done around 1.5 million miles since their introduction.
“The refurbishment target for the Meridians is ten working days. The first train set we had in and planned for 15 days and it was completed in 15 days.
“We have just started the second train set. We look as though we might hit our final plan, which is actually to do a five-car train within eight days.
“We can do that because of the planning and the project management system we’re using, as well as using local contractors.”
Passengers have welcomed their plush new surroundings, Elliott said, explaining: “The first thing passengers will notice is a striking new interior to the trains, with the leather upholstery within first class.
“The standard class has brand new flat cloth covers on all of the seats, with new carpets throughout and new curtains in first class.
“Additionally, we’ve fitted some extra safety modifications, where we’ve had accidents due to luggage falling off over- head luggage racks. We’ve fitted a bespoke bump-strip to the actual rack.
“We’ve also put additional luggage space in the vestibules, and certainly on yesterday’s first train out, that was being well used.
Image: Chris Elliott
“We spoke to a number of passengers on the first day out, and one of the striking things we got was the number of stand- ard class passengers getting on and asking whether it was first class.
“There are no external modifications to the trains whatsoever – just a good clean. Any paint that’s been damaged on the exterior is being re-matched in, and all the internal panels where there’s damage, scratches, scrapes and so, that’s all being looked at and refinished.”
This is the final fleet of trains for East Midlands Trains to be refurbished as part of the £30m project, £6m of which is for the Meridians, procured through HSBC Rail, now Eversholt Rail, by Midland Mainline.
The trains were re-liveried two years ago into East Midlands’ franchise colours.
Elliott said: “We started with the 158s, then we did the HSTs, the 153s and 156s are ongoing at the moment, and this is the final fleet. All of the East Midlands Trains fleet will have a full refurbishment, due for completion in early 2012.
“One of the key factors to the success here is the use of local contractors. Whenever there’s a problem, people have been able to turn up within ten or 15 minutes and the product cycle times to get things away and back has been reduced at the same time.
“The three main contractors from the Derby area are DG8 Design, who helped us with the design work; the Derby Engineering Unit, who provided the modification kits; and then there is Millennium Site Services,
who have done all the painting and refur- bishment of the seats. All are based within four or five miles of us here.
“There’s also a company called Transcal, who normally provide services to high- class car firms like Aston Martin, as well as British Airways and Emirates airlines.”
This emphasis on local contractors has proved a huge benefit at every stage of the refurbishment, Elliott explained: “That was most definitely a conscious decision; it was the only way we could get the times down to what we wanted.
“I very much believe this is a model for fu- ture refurbishments. I’ve led the 158 and HST refurbishments for East Midlands Trains, and the lessons we’ve learnt throughout are if you can keep close con- trol of it, it helps significantly.
“There is quite a strict plan. It’s all about keeping to that and keeping communica- tion between ourselves and those contrac- tors if things are not correct, or there’s any problems. I talked to three main contrac- tors several times today. “The work from train to train is quite similar. There are some defects that you see on one train that you won’t see on another where pan- els have been dam- aged and things like that, but it’s all about keeping a strict pro- duction line phi- losophy going. We will start a new train every two weeks.”
Chris Elliott
FOR MORE INFORMATION W:
www.eastmidlandstrains.co.uk
rail technology magazine Feb/Mar 11 | 35
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