GTR back on track with Class 700 introduction

Govia Thameslink Railway Engineering Director Gerry McFadden says that problems encountered with the Class 700 Desiro City fleet have largely been conquered.

The National Audit Office report into the Thameslink Programme highlighted that the trains were three months late being introduced last year, and that acceptance of trains was stopped between May and July this year to enable Siemens to remedy the faults.

The NAO stated that acceptance of the trains is behind schedule. It said manufacturer Siemens had difficulty finalising on-board software, which delayed their entry into traffic.

The first train was accepted by Govia Thameslink Railway in March 2016, with GTR putting ‘700s’ into traffic that June. Further technical issues appeared as they entered traffic, although GTR told RAIL on November 27 that reliability was improving.

McFadden, talking exclusively to RAIL on November 28, said software was a key problem. “The ‘700s’ are very, very different to anything we have operated in the UK before. There are as many differences between an Electrostar and a ‘700’ as there are between 1963 stock and a Desiro. Overall, it was better to pause the project,” he said.

Air-conditioning was an issue, he explained. When introduced, the HVAC system was set at 21°, but the air was cycled at around two degrees warmer. This has been reset at 19°.

There were also problems with other systems: “It was odd things. Screens would go blank, and you don’t want drivers having to do recovery in the peak. You want them to have confidence in the trains. Driver Only Operation

screens were not always working. Smoke detection systems would get blocked. Most issues were software, and the bad thing is that software needs testing before it can be applied.”

McFadden said the pause in acceptance was to allow reviews of modifications to be completed.

“The rate of acceptance now means we are going hell for leather. I introduced the Class 377s, ‘387s’, ‘442s’ and ‘313s’ for Southern, and none of those came near the pace we are going at.

“We are introducing two 12-car trains per week. That is the equivalent of six four-car sets. We were also removing six sets per week, and we went fully ‘700’ on Thameslink at the end of September.”

He said Govia Thameslink Railway still had a long way to go, although improvements delivered recently include better performance on leaves due to new Wheel Slip Protection being fitted.

Having been introduced on the Great Northern route to Peterborough, the ‘700s’ will now be introduced onto Southern routes to Littlehampton and Horsham in December, “or as near as possible to the timetable change”.

See RAIL 842 for an update on the eight-car Class 700s and Great Northern plans.