Brake problem takes ‘385s’ out of service for a week

New Hitachi Class 385s in Scotland were withdrawn from traffic for more than a week owing to a brake problem.

ScotRail 385004 and 385122 were working the 1216 Edinburgh Waverley-Glasgow Queen Street on October 4, when the driver reported a brake failure near Winchburgh Junction. It is understood that the driver only had the emergency brake working. The train was terminated at Linlithgow.

As a precaution, SR removed all the ‘385s’ from traffic the following day (it had kept others in use on October 4, but ran them with on-board technical support). That meant the return of diesels to Edinburgh-Glasgow via Falkirk, while electric multiple units were used for other duties as cover.

In a statement, ScotRail said: “The original issue saw a small loss of signalling across the brake signalling cables on one train. The train remained safe as the overarching brake control was not affected. The driver was in control of the train at all times and had the ability to bring it to a safe stop.”

The problem related to a voltage spike as the train passed a neutral section. This spike caused the brake circuit components to fail.

ScotRail Alliance Managing Director Alex Hynes said: “There can sometimes be difficulties when introducing a brand new fleet, but it’s great that customers will once again be able to benefit from these modern electric trains.”

Hitachi Rail Programme Manager Andy Radford said: “We’re pleased to have been able to fix the issue - our engineers moved quickly to find a solution, test and introduce it.”

This was not the first time that the trains had been affected by a brake problem. RAIL understands that on the week beginning September 17, an investigation found a fault with the brake controller that was rectified by a component swap.

Class 385s are used in pairs on the Edinburgh-Glasgow and North Berwick routes. ScotRail has 70 on order, of which eight are passed for passenger use.