Latest Rail News

27.10.15

Third pre-series IEP Class 800 arrives at Hitachi’s London depot from Japan

The third pre-series InterCity Express Programme (IEP) train, T2, was moved to Hitachi’s North Pole Train Maintenance Centre in West London over the weekend.

The train is one of 12 pre-series units being shipped to the UK from the company’s Kasado Works in Japan, where they were built. It will now take part in the commissioning of the depot over the next six weeks.

It originally arrived in August just before the opening ceremony of Hitachi's new £82m manufacturing plant in Newton Aycliffe, attended by RTM. It is the third pre-series train to arrive in the UK and to undergo a suite of tests – including incremental speed tests, locomotive haul tests, running characteristics, brake and pantograph tests.

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Manufacturing responsibilities for the remaining 110 trains have now been transferred to the UK and will boast a localised supply chain, wherein 95% of the facility’s spend will come from within a 50-mile radius.

The new Class 800 bi-mode trains form part of the massive £5.7bn IEP set to revolutionise travel on the Great Western Main Line (GWML) from 2017 and on the East Coast Main Line from 2018. The order cost includes manufacturing and delivering the carriages, building new maintenance depots and upgrading infrastructure, as well as accounting for ongoing maintenance and servicing.

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The electro-diesel fleet will be equipped with an underfloor diesel engine generator designed to run on both electrified and non-electrified routes. This will be particularly beneficial for the GWML as RTM learned last week that the Department for Transport and Network Rail were still in discussions as to whether timescales for the region’s electrification should be delayed.

But the diesel engine generator can also be removed, facilitating a smooth transition to electric operations as the electrification programme expands.

The Class 801 trains, of which 63 will be built, will be entirely electric.

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Comments

With Apologies To Captain Deltic.   27/10/2015 at 13:38

Oooh look another nasty 'new' (That's a joke) Hitachi Javelin train just like those from St Pancras to Ramsgate - and its built in Japan not the nice new jigsaw factory in Newcastle - built with taxpayers money and given to the Japanese . Overweight rubbish carting around an obsolete diesel engine for 30 years - if they last that long - we need a train fit for the 21st century designed and built in Britain not some cast off design from Japan to give them a foothold in the EU.

James Doyle   27/10/2015 at 18:33

Hallo - a couple of smal points: 1 -not all Class 800 cars are hybrid. on a 5-car train 3 cars have an MTU 950 hp generator under the floor. On a 9-car train five have generators, and on the "all-electric" class 801 trains one car has a generator, to care for "last-mile" situations and breakdowns. 2- This gives the HST sets one advantage - no vibration!! Recently an RTM delgation from Aberdeen travelled south to a meeting on an HST rather than on a standard railcar set with underfloor engines. It will be interesting to see how passengers react to the proposed Abellio refurbished HSTs from Edinburgh to Aberdeen compared with the new Hitachis. The itachi AT300s forseen for the Penance service are to be more powerful. does this mean an extra coach per set being hybrid, or are the exixting engines being uprated to 1,000 hp or more?? Good Vibes!! JD

Joe Richardson   27/10/2015 at 20:15

Waste of money. The Intercity 225 trains can be tilt enabled and can go 140mph tomorrow for less money than new trains if thr DFT weren't s wasteful.

Andrew Gwilt   02/11/2015 at 00:38

Hitachi could also start building the AT200's for Abellio Scotrail and AT100's after building the IEP Class 800 and Class 801 trains for Great Western Railway and Virgin Trains East Coast as these new trains are to replace the Class 43 HST's and Class 91's fleet.

Jb   13/11/2015 at 23:47

Two points stand out from the above: 1. We should stop importing foreign locomotives and trains and build our own. 2. Loco hauled coaches are much to be preferred to underfloor mounted diesel engines.

Mark   29/11/2015 at 13:09

Yep, the HST is comfort first. I am concerned the 800's aren't being built with the same attention to detail. - Sparkly lights and reflections in cabin (good for shopping centres, bad for relaxation) - Limited leg room - Smaller windows - Poor mobile reception - Vibrations and noises from the floor These will all contribute to travellers feeling permanently unrested and on edge. I hope some tweaks can be made as mitigation. If not careful, these might end up resembling a cross-country journey which imho are one of the most intense and stressful journeys on the network.

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