ROLLING STOCK
Intercity Express Programme steams ahead
David Stevenson rounds up the latest IEP news. F
inancial close has been reached on the new fleet for the East Coast Main Line
under the Intercity Express Programme (IEP). Together with the financial close on the Great Western announced last summer, this means that 866 train cars in total will be provided and maintained for 27.5 years by Hitachi as part of the Agility Trains consortium.
Alistair Dormer, Hitachi Rail global CEO, said the announcement “signals a new phase” for the £5.7bn IEP, with the latest contract close worth £2.7bn.
“With all finance raised, our teams across the UK and in Japan, jointly with Agility Trains, can now fully focus on delivering all aspects of this programme, which will bring major improvements for passengers across two of the busiest train routes in Britain,” he said.
As well as sealing the financial close, Hitachi
is moving its rail headquarters from Tokyo to London, following its decision two years ago to set up an £82m train assembly factory at Newton Aycliffe, County Durham. The facility is currently under construction, and should be operational in the middle of next year. The senior team to run the factory is being recruited, with the bulk of the workforce to be hired in 2015.
Hitachi has also started construction on its new maintenance depot in Bristol at Stoke Gifford, is refurbishing the North Pole depot in west London and upgrading the maintenance facility in Swansea. It is also taking possession of Doncaster Carr, a site that has been a railway depot for over 100 years, to develop its own £70m maintenance depot for the IEP trains.
All work is on schedule and the 122 trains are expected to enter passenger service in 2017 on the GWML and in 2018 on the ECML.
Hitachi says the trains’ interior design
is at an “advanced stage” with final sign-off expected shortly. Three pre-series trains will be manufactured this year in Hitachi’s factory in Kasado, Japan,
with
arrival of the trains in the UK expected in the first half of 2015. The company has also entered into an agreement with Lordgate Engineering Ltd to supply the luggage racks and stacks on the GWML trains for IEP.
As RTM went to press, we were about to attend Hitachi’s IEP mock-up in Warwick.
A full review, including an interview with Hitachi Rail Europe’s IEP project manager Andy Rogers, will be in the next edition of the magazine.
FOR MORE INFORMATION
www.hitachirail-eu.com/super-express- iep_57.html
Engineering upgrade for Class 142s
An integrated driveline package provided by Voith will improve Class 142s in operation with Arriva Trains Wales and Northern Rail says, Angel Trains’ technical director Mark Hicks.
A
ngel Trains’ fleet of Class 142 Pacer DMUs are being overhauled with new wheelsets
comprising a modified gear unit, axle, wheels and axle bearings, as well as 188 new final drives and cardan shafts.
Voith has modified its KE-485 final drive design so that it can be a ‘drop-in’ replacement with no vehicle modifications.
The retrofit will improve the units’ reliability, reducing service and maintenance costs for its operators, the companies said.
The final drive and cardan shaft will “not require overhaul for the next million miles of operation” once they are fitted next year, Voith said. However, Angel announced last year that all its Class 142s will be withdrawn by 2020,
70 | rail technology magazine Apr/May 14
as the extensive refurbishment that would be requirement to make them properly accessible to disabled people is not seen as a viable option.
Mark Hicks, technical director at Angel Trains, reinforces Angel Trains’
said: “This upgrade contract commitment to
long-term asset stewardship and providing excellent value for our customers. Voith was a natural partner for this project because its flexible and innovative approach has been instrumental in producing an integrated driveline package.”
The Class 142 Pacers, built by BREL at Derby in the mid-1980s as a short-term stopgap solution to lack of rolling stock capacity, are among the country’s most unloved trains, and are frequently attacked by northern MPs as an example of the north-south divide on transport investment.
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