Late electrification delays debut of ScotRail ‘385s’
SCOTRAIL expects 21 Class 385 electric multiple units to be available for service in February.
Hitachi Rail Europe (HRE) is building a total of 70 EMUs for the operator, with 60 assembled at Newton Aycliffe (County Durham) and ten being built in Kasado (Japan).
Currently at the northeast facility are three-car 385014/016/031033 and four-car 385104/122-124 (all of which were built in Japan) and 385006-013, 385105-107 (assembled at Newton Aycliffe).
The trains were due to enter traffic on December 11 on the newly electrified Edinburgh-Glasgow via Falkirk High route. However, older Class 380s will be used instead ( RAIL 839).
SR Alliance Managing Director Alex Hynes, speaking before the Rural Economy and Connectivity Committee at Holyrood on November 8, suggested that one of the delays was due to HRE not having access to the network due to late delivery of the electrification.
“We test each train individually to ensure that it is correctly built and reliable. Each unit has to do a number of fault-free miles before we are prepared to introduce it into traffic,” he explained.
“The service between Edinburgh and Glasgow is very good. I commute on it every day. It is a reliable service, and the last thing that our customers would want is for us to rush those trains into traffic and for there to be a dip in reliability. I have decided that I would rather have a more gradual phased introduction to service, to maintain our punctuality standards on the route.”
Asked if the trains would enter traffic in February, Hynes replied: “I cannot guarantee that. The service introduction programme will deliver the ‘385s’ into traffic early next year, we hope, but I am not wholly in control of that process.
“Hitachi, the rail regulator, the operator and Network Rail all need to work together to make sure that the train is accepted and tested before we can introduce it into traffic. As it stands, I am not yet prepared to make a commitment on when that will happen, because of the complexity of what we are trying to achieve.”
Currently three-car 385001 and four-car 385102 are in Scotland for testing, and they have been running between Edinburgh and Glasgow ( RAIL 840). The first trains have also been completed at Newton Aycliffe, while 385002 and 385101 are being tested in Germany having completed tests at the Velim test track in the Czech Republic.
Hynes added: “My ambition is also to keep the customer at the heart of the decision making, which is why we will introduce the
‘380s’ into traffic in December. We will operate seven-car electric trains with faster journey times next month.
“The introduction of ‘385s’ will be as soon as possible in the New Year, but I cannot give a cast-iron guarantee, because what we are doing is complicated. We are talking about brand new trains and a brand new type of train on brand new infrastructure, so we need to make sure that we get it right. “Obviously, the infrastructure has been delivered ten months late, and we do not want the service introduction to be ten months late, too. We have therefore been working around the issue to see what testing we can do where, in this country and abroad, to get the trains into traffic as soon as we can.
“As well as testing the infrastructure and testing the train, we also have to test the compatibility of the train with the infrastructure. Obviously, that element of the testing cannot be done until the infrastructure is available. It is true that the late delivery of electrification has contributed to the delays with Hitachi.”