'385s' in traffic
Hitachi's new ScotRail EMUs finally in use
SCOTRAIL’S Class 385 electric trains are now carrying passengers between Edinburgh and Glasgow, following months of delays while Hitachi designed and installed modified windscreens.
One pair of trains, four-car 385104 and three-car 385003, entered revenue service on Tuesday July 24 running as a seven-car service. ScotRail had provisionally accepted the pair (and began paying lease charges) the previous Friday, and on July 23 the ‘385s’ ran a 1252 Glasgow Queen StreetEdinburgh Waverley special for invited guests, including staff and stakeholders.
Speaking to RAIL after this run, ScotRail Managing Director Alex Hynes said he expected a full Edinburgh-Glasgow operation with Class 385s by the autumn, explaining that to do this ScotRail needed Hitachi to deliver 12 threecar and 12 four-car trains. He said that ScotRail was still finalising December’s timetable change, but that he expected end-to-end journey times of 42 minutes to appear from the change. He said accelerating all services would take place next year, although he wouldn’t confirm whether that would be May or December.
Hynes also retains his aspiration for 39-minute journeys, which he first revealed in RAIL 846: “It looks totally doable if we put some system thinking together.”
Meanwhile, ScotRail is now running electric services to Falkirk Grahamston, and Hynes said he expected electric trains to run beyond there to Stirling and Alloa by December. “Electrification is going really well,” he said, adding that he expected the wires to Alloa to be energised in October.
Aboard July 23’s preview run, ScotRail Chief Operating Officer Angus Thom told RAIL that he expected the switch to Class 385s on Edinburgh-Glasgow (E&G) to bring an increase in passenger numbers, just as in Ayrshire when services switched to Class 380s a few years ago. The increase came because the ‘380s’ provided a more reliable service, he said.
Hynes has similar expectations, recalling that Northern experienced a 14% year-on-year increase between Liverpool and Manchester when services switched to electric trains, using Class 319s. Overall, Hynes expects ScotRail’s passenger numbers to rise from 100 million today to 125 million in 2025.
The Class 385s enter service many
months late. Hitachi had expected the Office of Rail and Road to authorise their use in passenger service last March ( RAIL 846), but then discovered a problem with windscreens that led to drivers seeing several images of signals.
At short notice, ScotRail drafted in Class 365s displaced from Great Northern services in England by new trains. These trains have allowed ScotRail to run E&G services entirely with electric trains on several days. The most recent have been July 19 and 20, when it needed all the diesel units it could find for services to Carnoustie, carrying passengers to the open golf competition.
When fully delivered, ScotRail’s Class 385 fleet will comprise 70 trains (24 four-car units and 46 three-cars) to give a total of 234 cars. Four-car trains will seat 273 passengers and three-car trains 206. They can run at up to 100mph and weigh 159 tons (fourcar) or 125 tons (three-car), with coaches 23 metres long.
Hitachi is the builder and SMBC Leasing the fleet owner.
ScotRail intends to use them on E&G, Edinburgh-North Berwick, South Glasgow suburban routes (Cathcart Circle/Lanark), Glasgow/ Edinburgh-Dunblane/Stirling/Alloa, Glasgow-Falkirk Grahamston via Cumbernauld and Glasgow Central-Edinburgh via Shotts.
Hynes was not prepared to commit to a date to introduce ScotRail’s ‘7-Cities’ HSTs, following problems refurbishing the first train at Wabtec, Doncaster.
He explained that Wabtec had had problems recruiting sufficient staff to work on the project, but said he hoped to have the first in service a month after Wabtec delivered it. He added that training recently started for Glasgow Queen Street drivers using an unrefurbished HST based at Eastfield depot.