New trains for the South West - announcement.

[whole diary]

[grahame]

Received, morning on 30th July. Initially posted in my holding area ... to be moved to a public area upon actual announcement.

Hi Graham
Not exactly "your patch" but I thought you would want to know.

We promised to let you know as soon as we had news on the new long distance trains for the South West

I am therefore delighted to confirm that both the Department for Transport and First Great Western have now signed the agreements needed to bring the new trains to the South West.

An official announcement will be made this morning  in Exeter by Claire Perry, Under Secretary of State for Transport.

I thought it might help to recap on some of the detail. The new trains will replace the 40-year-old High Speed Trains (HSTs^▸ (High Speed Train)) currently serving Penzance to Paddington and will be made up of seven nine-car and 22 five-car units. The five-car units can be coupled together to provide ten car trains.

They will all be bi-modes, able to run as electric trains under the wires as far as Newbury and then on diesel power to Cornwall, and will mean a 24% increase in seats for customers once they are all in service in 2018, creating more than 1,000 additional seats at peak times across the route every day.

As bi-modes they are future proofed against any further extension of electrification to the South West, as they can operate in electric mode as far as the limit of the electrified network.

They are similar to the new Super Express Trains that will run to Bristol and South Wales, but have been specially modified for Devon and Cornwall and will utilise higher engine operating power to cope with the track gradients and will have larger fuel tanks to operate the longer distances on diesel power through to Penzance.

This and the use of automatic sliding doors, rather than slam doors, will help speed up typical journey times from London by up to 5 minutes (to Exeter), up to 6 minutes (Plymouth) and up to 14 minutes (Penzance).

First has already completed the procurement of the new trains, selecting Hitachi Rail Europe as the supplier. The ^360 million fleet will be financed by Eversholt Rail and leased to First Great Western.

We are really excited to be delivering the new trains and are grateful to all our partners and stakeholders for their help. We know how important it is to improve connectivity and capacity for business and for leisure travellers on this key route and it is great to now have the confirmation that we can go ahead with our plans.

Best wishes

[Rapidash]

Technically speaking not the SET^▸ (Super Express Train (now IET)), but close enough for this thread. (Hopefully!) The South West bimode fleet 'o doom gets the go ahead:

Western Morning News

Ministers have given the go ahead for a new ^360 million fleet of long distance trains for the South West, to be introduced to routes between Cornwall and the capital by 2018.

The 29 state of the art Hitachi trains will improve journey time and increase capacity by 24% ^ creating more than 1,000 additional peak-time seats.

They will also be capable of operating on both non-electric and electric routes, and will cut the average travelling time between Penzance and London cut by 14 minutes.

Rail minister Claire Perry visited Exeter to mark the announcement today. She said the new trains will make ^a real difference to the millions of commuters, business travellers and tourists who use this route every year^.

^This industry initiative goes hand-in-hand with the work this Government is doing to reverse decades of underinvestment in transport infrastructure in regions like the South West,^ she said.

Huzzzah?

Admin Note: Edited to give copyright correctly then merged with new topic

[grahame]

Has now hit the press ...

http://www.standard.co.uk/news/transport/new-trains-to-ease-cattletruck-trips-for-commuters-10426509.html

[Richard Fairhurst]

Good news. No mention of their use on peak Cotswold Line services but I presume that's still on the cards.

[JayMac]

The Department for Transport have issued a news release:

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/new-fleet-of-trains-to-bring-better-journeys-to-the-south-west

As have First Great Western:

https://www.firstgreatwestern.co.uk/about-us/media-centre/2015/july/new-fleet-of-trains-to-bring-better-journeys-to-the-south-west

[ChrisB]

Technically speaking not the SET^▸ (Super Express Train (now IET)), but close enough for this thread. (Hopefully!) The South West bimode fleet 'o doom gets the go ahead:

Western Morning News

Ministers have given the go ahead for a new ^360 million fleet of long distance trains for the South West, to be introduced to routes between Cornwall and the capital by 2018.

The 29 state of the art Hitachi trains will improve journey time and increase capacity by 24% ^ creating more than 1,000 additional peak-time seats.

They will also be capable of operating on both non-electric and electric routes, and will cut the average travelling time between Penzance and London cut by 14 minutes.

Rail minister Claire Perry visited Exeter to mark the announcement today. She said the new trains will make ^a real difference to the millions of commuters, business travellers and tourists who use this route every year^.

^This industry initiative goes hand-in-hand with the work this Government is doing to reverse decades of underinvestment in transport infrastructure in regions like the South West,^ she said.

Huzzzah?

Admin Note: Edited to give copyright correctly then merged with new topic

Overall, it's got to be.

[grahame]

More also on the FGW^▸ (First Great Western) site at
https://www.firstgreatwestern.co.uk/newtrains

[SandTEngineer]

.....I bet the seats won't be anything like the ones shown in the DfT^» (Department for Transport - about) press release.....

[ChrisB]

The Department for Transport have issued a news release:

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/new-fleet-of-trains-to-bring-better-journeys-to-the-south-west

The deal will allow First Great Western to buy 29 new long distance trains.

Wrong.....as it says further down the same article...

Mary Kenny, Chief Executive Officer of Eversholt Rail Group, which will finance the fleet and lease it to First Great Western, said....

Bloody hell, FGW^▸ (First Great Western) can't get it right either.....

The deal will allow First Great Western to buy 29 new long-distance trains to serve the south west from 2018

[trainbuff]

Does this include the option for a further 30 trains and will the AT300's be able to achieve more than 1oomph under Diesel power alone between Newbury and Westbury?

Can anyone answer this?

[ChrisB]

They're designed for 110mph under diesel power.

I guess any additional option would be between FGW^▸ (First Great Western) & the ROSCO^» (Rolling Stock Owning Company - about), and may be commercially sensitive.

[IndustryInsider]

I was expecting them to be 100mph in diesel mode, the SET^▸ (Super Express Train (now IET)) 800s are like that I believe?  Can you point me to where it says 110mph?

[ChrisB]

I can find confirmation on the Hitachi site of the 100mph for the 801s, but the AT300 page has no definitive speed listed at now.....I'm sure it used to have. I'll post something when I find it....either way

[trainbuff]

Yes I was also led to believe.....and Railfuture state in their last magazine.... that they are only set up for 100mph. Additionally someone I know, who should be familiar with this, acknowledged that these trains can only do 100mph. He described the gain in acceleration as 'compensating' for the lower top speeds. If a Dawlish Avoiding Line were built times saved would be reduced from 6 minutes to around 4minutes if not electrified with only 100mph
I too would like to see the spec that describes speed of 110mph

[IndustryInsider]

I can find confirmation on the Hitachi site of the 100mph for the 801s, but the AT300 page has no definitive speed listed at now.....I'm sure it used to have. I'll post something when I find it....either way

Many thanks, ChrisB.  Though the 801s won't be going very fast at all on diesel power, as they're the electric sets.