New Great Western Railway maintenance depot planned at Exeter
Planning permission for a new £40 million depot at Exeter has been submitted by Network Rail on behalf of Great Western Railway.
NR submitted the plans on February 24. If approved, the depot would be sited on land adjacent to Exeter St Davids station, where a former goods shed once stood.
The operator wants to improve the existing depot facility, and says the new depot is needed to deal with the increase in fleet size in the South West - Class 15x diesel multiple units are being cascaded west from the Bristol area and Hitachi Rail Europe Class 802s will serve the area.
GWR Regional Development Manager West Dan Okey said: “With brand new electric trains coming to suburban London services and bi-mode Intercity Express trains on the main line in Devon and Cornwall, this will allow us to move part of our existing regional fleet to Exeter - providing more carriages and more frequent services to the area.”
If approved, the new facility will carry out servicing, cleaning and routine maintenance on trains, and support the existing depot. Also included in the plans are office space and staff facilities.
GWR hopes construction will begin in spring 2019, and will be complete in mid-2019.
As part of the 2015 franchise award ( RAIL 770), GWR will increase capacity by more than 50% in the South West, by cascading Class 150/2 and Class 158s to the Devon and Cornwall areas, releasing Class 143, ‘150/1’ and ‘153’ DMUs that will be withdrawn or cascaded to other train operating companies.