ScotRail has problems with its new Class 385s

There’s trouble in Scotland. The new trains for its flagship Edinburgh-Glasgow route have serious problems that mean they can’t be used.

It leaves train operator ScotRail in an impossible situation. It is losing trains to other operators as part of a cascade programme, but has nothing to replace them. It’s short of trains and this is causing overcrowding and complaints.

The new Class 385 electric trains that Hitachi is building should have been in service last year. Several have been delivered and tested on the ‘E&G’ route for which they are intended. But drivers have complained that they’re seeing multiple lights from signals through their windscreens at night when only one should be visible. At places with several signals visible, this means they could read the wrong one.

Hitachi must fix this problem and fix it quickly. Responsibility for authorising these trains into public use lies with Ian Prosser, who is Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Railways and Director of Railway Safety at the Office of Rail and Road. He told me, rather cryptically, that authorisation would “be a little while yet”.

That’s no comfort to ScotRail, which has acted to tempt passengers onto a slower route between Scotland’s two main cities by offering cheaper fares. Meanwhile, it has to decide if it’s worth trying to draft in a temporary fleet of electric trains from elsewhere. This sounds easier than it is, because it must consider driver training and fleet maintenance.

Meanwhile, Hitachi’s reputation has taken a severe knock. It was embarrassed when the inaugural run of its Intercity Express Programme trains last October resulted in footage of water pouring into a carriage from faulty air-conditioning. Now it must contend with Class 385 problems.