100 new trains for region with £680m investment
THE new West Midlands rail operator has revealed it will deliver 107 new trains across the region with a £680 million investment.
West Midlands Trains has awarded the tender to Bombardier Trains and Construcciones y Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles (CAF).
Bombardier’s facility in Derby will produce 333 electric carriages made up of 90mph trains for metro services and 110mph trains for longer journeys.
CAF, based in northern Spain, will also produce 80 diesel carriages for longer journeys but it not known at this stage where they will be manufactured.
The new trains will provide space for an extra 85,000 passengers on rushhour services into Birmingham.
A total of 413 carriages will be built with financing led by Infracapital and Deutsche Asset Management. The deal forms part of a planned £1 investment into the franchise.
West Midlands Trains is a joint venture between Dutch firm Abellio, East Japan Railway Company and Japanese conglomerate Mitsui & Co which was awarded a nine-year tenure in August.
It will take over the West Midlands franchise on December 10 from London Midland to run routes such as the Cross City line between Redditch and Lichfield via New Street station.
Other services covered by the franchise go to London and the North West.
Abellio UK’s managing director Dominic Booth said: “We are delighted to award this work to Bombardier and CAF, which means we are now overseeing £3 billion of investment into 1,700 new carriages across all our franchises.
“It is great news that so many of these trains will be produced in the UK.” billion