Five more Aventras ordered for Crossrail

An extra five Class 345s have been ordered by Transport for London, in a £73 million deal.

TfL already had 65 on order for Crossrail, with deliveries having reached 345030. Thirteen have been accepted for passenger traffic.

The trains will be built by Bombardier at Derby Litchurch Lane, and will enable the Elizabeth Line (Crossrail) to serve Heathrow Terminal 5. They will be delivered by the end of next year. The contract also includes an expansion of the existing maintenance deal.

“The additional trains will allow us to serve all the terminals at Heathrow and provide an increased frequency when the line is fully open in December 2019,” said Mark Wild, TfL’s Managing Director for London Underground and the Elizabeth Line.

On the day the deal was announced (March 27), 345005345017 were available for service, 345001/018/025/028/031 were at the Asfordby test track for testing, 345002 was at Wembley, 345003/019-020/022-023/027/ 029/030 were at Old Oak Common where they are being used for driver training and testing, 345021 was at Abbey Wood for testing in the Crossrail tunnels, 345024 has been based at Arriva Train Care’s Crewe depot for tests, while 345004/026/032-034 are built at Derby but have yet to be released.

Construction of 345035-345065 continues, while the additional units will be 345066-345070.