Freightliner plans to reinstate Class 70s

Class 70s are to be retained by Freightliner, despite all 19 in its fleet currently being out of action.

Delivered from 2009-11, the ‘70s’ have frequently been removed from traffic by Freightliner in the past few years, including at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic ( RAIL 904).

It had been speculated that they were being sent off-lease, with 70009 at Leeds Midland Road no longer sporting branding and having been out of traffic since January 2017.

However, sources have told RAIL that the company actually needs more locomotives as it looks to bid for contracts including aggregates trains for HS2.

While a number of the locomotives are simply stored, work is under way on returning others to serviceable condition - including 70009, which is having its engine renewed and a wheel swap. This is due to be completed by the end of July.

Others undergoing repair are 70003/010/013/016-019. Of these, 70013 was stored in April 2017, 70017 in May 2018, 70018 in March 2017 and 70019 in March 2018. The rest of the fleet was removed from traffic in April this year.