03.12.15
Eversholt brings in Alstom for Class 365 ETCS upgrade
Eversholt Rail has hired Alstom’s signalling business SSL to fit ETCS in-cab signalling to its Class 365 EMU fleet, as part of Network Rail’s long-term programme to roll out ERTMS.
Eversholt says in-cab signalling offers significant opportunities to reduce the total cost of Govia Thameslink Railway’s (GTR’s) operations and marks a real change in the way the network will be operated and maintained.
The trial fitment of ETCS (the European Train Control System, one of the major elements of ERTMS, the European Rail Traffic Management System) to each of the affected fleets will be delivered as part of the National Joint ROSCO Project (NJRP) – a partnership between Eversholt, Angel Trains and Porterbrook, in association with Network Rail.
The NJRP will procure First in Class (FiC) design and fitment of ETCS equipment for the first fleets needed for the ERTMS infrastructure and new franchises. Eversholt’s Class 365s will be the first fleet in the UK to have its FiC contracted.
The FiC design and installation for passenger vehicles operating after 2019 – when the roll-out of new signalling equipment will start – marks the initial phase of deploying Level 3 ERTMS across the UK network by 2025. Network Rail’s currently published timetable says it hopes to achieve full ‘signals away’ Level 2 ETCS on the East Coast Main Line from King’s Cross to South Doncaster by 2020, though the Hendy Review lists ETCS Cab Fitment Fund and ETCS Infrastructure as projects that will have ‘significant delivery in CP5 (2014-19) and completion in CP6 (2019-2024)’.
Eversholt’s FiC design process will start shortly with fitment, integration and reliability testing planned for 2017, before more units in the Class 365 fleet are converted ahead of full ETCS operation on the East Coast Main Line.
The modification will be carried out at Alstom’s Wembley Traincare Centre, with Eversholt and GTR.
Eversholt’s Class 365 fleet has also benefited from enhancements and heavy maintenance works as part of a £30m two-year partnership with Bombardier announced in November 2013.