UK: Both LNER and Great Western Railway have been able to reinstate many of their inter-city services after the Office of Road & Rail reached agreement with Hitachi and the train operators over how the cracking problems with the Class 80x fleets are to be managed.
Following extensive discussions, ORR has allowed some sets with minimal cracking to be returned to service on the understanding that they will each be inspected three times a day, to check the lifting pockets and yaw damper brackets. All three checks must be passed every 24 h if a set is to remain in traffic. Although insiders told Rail Business UK that engineers believed most cracks had been found as a result of the extensive examinations, further X-ray checks are being undertaken across the fleets to ensure that no cracks have remained undetected below the paintwork.
The first units were reinstated to traffic on May 13, and the following day LNER confirmed that it had 46 of its 65 IET sets available for use. Together with the reinstatement of some IC225 trainsets from warm storage, this would allow it to operate most scheduled services, albeit with a number of short formed workings. LNER trains resumed running to Aberdeen and Inverness soon afterwards.
GWR has put in place an interim timetable based on having 70 out of its 93 trainsets available. This includes half-hourly inter-city services between London Paddington and Bristol Temple Meads, and an hourly service to Plymouth, with alternate services being extended to Penzance. London – South Wales services via Bristol Parkway will run hourly off-peak and half-hourly at peak times, while both the North and South Cotswolds routes will have an hourly service. The company says that local stopping services will continue to operate as planned, and additional long-distance train services will be provided at weekends to accommodate summer visitors to Devon and Cornwall.
GWR has brought in additional trains from other parts of the UK to support its long-distance services, but some early morning and late evening services will not run. Following the testing of a Class 387 EMU on the Berks & Hants route, IET services between London and Bedwyn have been replaced by an EMU service as far as Newbury and a connecting diesel shuttle.
As well as the three Class 387 EMUs temporarily transferred from c2c, GWR is understood to be concluding an agreement for the use of Class 387s from another operator. Managing Director Mark Hopwood said he envisaged that the company could then operate its interim timetable ‘without resorting to any heritage traction or rolling stock’.
The Class 387s are expected to operate some services from London Paddington to Bristol Parkway and Cardiff, having been tested as far as Bristol Parkway on May 13.
Rectification programme
With many trains returned to service under enhanced monitoring, a joint Hitachi/TOC engineering team has been established to oversee the rectification programme. Engineers have reportedly indicated that this work is expected to take at least 18 months, with the Class 800, 802 and 385 fleets now totalling close to 1 500 vehicles.
GWR staff were told on May 14 that the Public Accounts Committee and Transport Select Committee have both demanded that Hitachi attend hearings to investigate the situation, whilst UK government ministers were reported to have spoken directly to Hitachi executives in Japan.
It is unclear how far the rectification programme will impact on the completion of the Class 803 trainsets for FirstGroup or the Class 810s for East Midlands Railway, which are currently under construction. However, Rail Business UK understands that delivery of the Class 805 and 807 sets for Avanti West Coast is likely to be delayed, with the entry of these trains into revenue service pushed back from 2022 to 2023.
