Easter date set for return of first Renatus ‘321’ rebuild
WABTEC Rail is targeting the end of March for the return to operator Abellio Greater Anglia (AGA) of the first Class 321 being refurbished under the Renatus project.
Thirty four-car electric multiple units owned by Eversholt Rail are being rebuilt in a £60 million project to revamp their interior, introduce air-conditioning, and make them Passengers of Reduced Mobility (PRM)-compliant.
Eversholt said it will wait until the result of the East Anglia franchise is known before committing the rest of its ‘321’ fleet for overhaul. All 107 Class 321s must be made PRMcompliant by 2019, but will only be brought up to full Renatus standard (Renatus is Latin for born again) if AGA retains the franchise, or if the successful bidder opts to proceed.
The first 30 will therefore be painted in AGA colours, but refurbished inside using a generic monochrome colour scheme.
“June 2 will be a key decision point for us, when the preferred bidder is announced,” said Eversholt Rail Group Programme Manager Chris Jenner. “The outcome will dictate how many Renatus orders will be delivered.
“The Renatus project is pitched towards the East Anglia franchise, which talks about transformation of rolling stock, but we are also looking at opportunities beyond that. We have now reached a key interim milestone, and the supply chain for this project is fully mobilised.”
The first three four-car units (321303/304/321) are in various states of rebuild at Wabtec Rail’s Doncaster facility. A fourth (321301) was due to arrive imminently as this issue of RAIL went to press.
321303 arrived on August 24 2015 and will be delivered to AGA by Easter, at which stage it must undergo further testing before returning to traffic. The timetable is for the first ten trains to be returned by October, and the entire initial batch of 30 by mid-2017. Should the full project go ahead, all 107 will be overhauled by the end of 2019.
On arrival in Doncaster, the units are stripped down to their bodyshells and shot-blasted to remove any corrosion. New HVAC units, ducting, wiring, windows and floorboards are installed before the trains enter Wabtec Rail’s new purpose-built workshop for painting, re-panelling and final fitting out.
Costing £2.4m, the new three-road shed was opened on September 9 2015 by the Princess Royal. It has modern lighting, 60 tonnes of lifting capacity and a mezzanine area to provide greater undercarriage access than undertrack pits.
Wabtec Rail said it will reach full steady-state production once the first seven units have been completed. After that it will be able to move each individual carriage from one stage to the next every two days - except painting, which takes four.
“This is the first significant fleet upgrade for some time,” added Jenner. “This is a transformational upgrade to deliver new trains in a cost-effective way. We are investing jointly to deliver a quality product and secure capacity so that we are ready to deploy them ahead of the new franchise.”