News
Britain’s Intercity Express Programme reaches financial close
Keith Barrow Associate editor
as preferred bidder to finance, supply, and maintain Britain’s next-generation long-distance train, Agility Trains (a consortium of Hitachi and John Laing Investments) and the Department for Transport (DfT) have finally reached financial close on the first phase of the £4.5bn Intercity Express Programme.
A
Hitachi will deliver a total of 596 vehicles which will replace most of the ageing 200km/h High Speed Trains (HSTs) used on the Great Western Main Line (phase 1) and East Coast Main Line (phase 2). The fleet of 92 electric and bi-mode trains will be maintained at
LMOST three-and-a-half years after it was selected
new depots in Swansea, Bristol, London (North Pole) and Doncaster. Under the fixed-price train provision agreement between DfT and Agility, Hitachi will maintain the fleet for 27.5 years. The initial phase comprises 21 nine-car electric trains and 36 five-car bi-mode trains for the Great Western franchise (369 vehicles), while the second phase includes 12 five- car electric trains, 10 five-car bi-mode trains, and 13 nine- car bi-mode trains for the East Coast franchise (227 vehicles). The first four trains, all bi- mode five-car sets, will be assembled at Hitachi’s Kasado plant in Japan before final assembly moves to a new purpose-built facility at Newton Aycliffe in northeast England, which will employ
730 people. Construction will begin next year on the plant, which will come on stream in 2015. The site will initially assemble up to 20 vehicles per month for the first contract, although it will have capacity to produce up to 36 vehicles per month.
The first aluminium bodyshell has already been assembled at Kasado and has undergone extensive testing in the plant’s environmental chamber. In addition to stress tests on the shell, Hitachi has tested engine rafts from different manufacturers in an effort to optimise heat dissipation, exhaust
configuration, and integration with other systems. MTU’s 1600 series V-12 and the Cummins QSK19 are among the contenders for the
diesel engine contract, and Hitachi will announce its preferred supplier at InnoTrans this month along with details of some of the other companies that will support the project.
The contract stipulates that Hitachi must achieve minimum reliability of 96,560km per three-minute delay for the electric units and 72,420km for the bi-mode trains.
Agility expects to reach financial close next year on the contract for the East Coast trains, which are due to enter service in 2018. This contract will include an option for a further 30 nine-car electric sets, which would replace the fleet of 225 trains built for the East Coast Main Line in the late 1980s.
CEREMONY was staged on July 27 by French Rail Network (RFF) and Eiffage to mark the start of construction of the 182km Bretagne - Pays de la Loire high-speed line. The ceremony was attended by Mr Jean-Yves Le Drian, minister of defence, the presidents of the two regions that will be served by the new
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Construction starts on Le Mans - Rennes high-speed line A
line, Mr Pierre Berger, director general of Eiffage, and Mr Hubert du Mesnil, president of RFF.
The ƒ3.3bn project is being
realised as a public-private partnership between RFF and Eiffage Rail Express which is responsible for financing, designing, constructing and maintaining the line for 25
years. RFF is contributing ƒ1.4bn and the national and regional governments ƒ1.9bn to the project.
The line, which will include 32km of links to the existing network, is an extension of the existing TGV Atlantique from Paris to Connerré, 20km east of Le Mans. There is also a line around Le Mans which
intersects with the existing line at Sablé-sur-Sarthe for services to Nantes.
Once work is completed in autumn 2016, journey times from Paris to Rennes and Brest in western France will be slashed by 37 minutes, while trips from Paris to Nantes will be reduced by eight minutes.
IRJ September 2012
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