FIRST TRENITALIA has ordered 23 new trains from Hitachi as part of the new West Coast Partnership.
Valued at £350 million, the order is for 13x5-car bi-mode trains and 10x7-car electrics. The new trains will be introduced between May and December 2022 and will replace the Class 221 Voyager trains currently operated. Construction will be at Hitachi’s Newton Aycliffe factory in County Durham.
The bi-modes will operate services to destinations off the electrified route, chiefly to North Wales but also to Shrewsbury. The electric trains will be used for services from London to Birmingham and Liverpool, with the latter due to see a half-hourly service all day from December 2022. Significant emissions reductions are promised from the elimination of diesel operation on electrified sections as currently seen with the Voyagers, with an expected reduction in CO2 emissions across the franchise of around two-thirds. Hitachi told Modern Railways it was unable to confirm the rating of the diesel engines on the bi-modes but said these would be replaceable by batteries in future if specified. The electric trains will be fully reliant on the overhead wire, with no diesel auxiliary engines or batteries.
The fleets are financed by Rock Rail West Coast, a joint venture of Rock Rail and Aberdeen Standard Investments. Maintenance will be carried out by a joint team from Hitachi with Alstom, which maintains the Pendolino fleet, and will be based at Oxley depot in Wolverhampton.
ONLY SOUTH OF PRESTON
Unlike the current West Coast fleet the Hitachi trains will not be able to tilt. Bid Director Caroline Donaldson told Modern Railways this will be compensated for by their improved acceleration and deceleration characteristics and that the operator is also working with Network Rail to look at opportunities to improve the linespeed for non-tilting trains. The routes on which the Hitachi trains will operate have been chosen with the lack of tilt capability in mind, with this having the greatest impact north of Preston, where only Class 390 Pendolinos which continue to make use of their tilting capability will be used.
On-board Avanti promises better and more reliable free Wi-Fi, at-seat wireless inductive charging for electronic devices, plug sockets and USB slots, real-time passenger information and a new catering offer. The seven-car electric sets will have 453 seats, similar to the number on a nine-car Pendolino, while the bi-modes will have 301 seats, compared to 258 on a five-car Class 221 Voyager. The Hitachi sets will have 26-metre vehicles, similar to most other Class 80x sets supplied by the manufacturer to other operators.
Speaking to Modern Railways, FirstGroup’s Managing Director for Rail Steve Montgomery explained that Hitachi offered a combination of the best price and the best product: ‘Hitachi offered a mixture of new trains along with the ability to work with the interiors, which are going to be slightly different to their current designs. Obviously, price played a factor, but it needed to be something that worked for us on the West Coast so that we met the customers’ needs. The Hitachi proposition was the best to enable us to do that. As a Group we’re going to be their single biggest customer by a distance, they understand FirstGroup and we understand Hitachi. Between us we have a very good partnership that we can take forward.
