No date confirmed for return of full-length Class 345s
NO date has been given for the return to traffic of nine-car Class 345s on TfL Rail trains between London Paddington and Reading.
Crossrail Chief Executive Mark Wild told the London Transport Assembly in a letter dated July 3 that they had been removed from traffic due to a software problem, and that all TfL Rail ‘345s’ in traffic were once again running as sevencar sets ( RAIL 909).
Bombardier built the trains at Derby Litchurch Lane. Spokesman Will Tanner told RAIL: “A defect has been discovered that affects the signalling system on some of our Class 345s operating TfL Rail services to and from London Paddington. As a precaution, the nine-car units have been temporarily withdrawn from passenger service while we work to resolve the problem.
“All other Class 345s [the sevencars] operating TfL Rail services to and from London Paddington and London Liverpool Street continue to operate as normal. I can’t give you a date when we will be able to return to nine-car operation but will do as soon as I can.”
Those that had been used in nine-car formations were 345021/ 027/028/034/037/053/054/058/ 060/063-065. Some have been returned to traffic in the shorter seven-car formations.
Testing of nine-car sets had also begun using 345002/004/030/034/ 035/043/059/061/062/065/066/ 070, although this was prior to the withdrawal of the nine-car trains from passenger traffic.
Testing in the central London tunnels uses nine-car sets, with 345024/025/031-033/036/041/050 employed on these. As they do not run on Network Rail infrastructure, that work is able to continue.
The Class 345 order for 70 trains was intended for them all to be nine-car sets. However, many of the electric multiple units were delivered as seven-car trains because the infrastructure on the London Liverpool Street-Shenfield route was not long enough for the full-length sets.
That meant intermediate vehicles were either stored at Harry Needle Railroad Company’s Worksop site, or at Old Oak Common. A number of ‘345s’ were eventually delivered to the capital as nine-car trains, while others were extended using the stored intermediate vehicles.
Not all the ‘345s’ have yet been
delivered to London, with 345019 and 345046 at the Old Dalby test track while 345045/048 remain in store at Worksop. One (345001) is also at Old Dalby having been returned from Old Oak Common.
Transport for London ordered the Class 345s for Crossrail in a £1 billion deal in 2014, initially for 66 trains but then extended to 70.
The first was unveiled at Derby in July 2016, with the first carrying passengers between London and Shenfield the following June. However, delays have plagued the project, with a host of technical and infrastructure problems.