’315s’ swansong
Why spend money renovating an ageing, fleet of Class 315s on the brink of retirement? MTR Crossrail now has several very good reasons
MTR Crossrail’s award-winning Class 315 maintenance contract
It may have only been in operation for little more than a year, but MTR Crossrail is already a National Rail Awards 2016 winner. The performance of the fleet of elderly Class 315 electric multiple units it inherited when it took over the concession on May 31 2015 has improved to such an extent that the NRA judges felt compelled to give it the Maintenance Team of the Year award.
And so, at the ‘Railway Oscars’, held at the lavish Grosvenor House Hotel in Mayfair, London on September 22, MTR Crossrail collected its well-deserved accolade for the impressive improvement in the performance of a fleet of trains approaching their 37th birthdays.
The four-car EMUs date from 1980-1981, with 61 in the Abellio Greater Anglia fleet. They are owned by Eversholt Rail and maintained at Ilford. AGA used the trains on Inner London suburban trains and Metro services to Shenfield.
When the decision was made to take these services from the AGA franchise, the suburban trains went to London Overground, with 17 Class 315s transferring to LOROL, and the remaining 44 moving to MTR. Yet all remained at Ilford.
Neither fleet has a long future. LOROL has Class 710s on order for delivery from 2018, but MTR’s Class 345s, for use on the Crossrail route, have already begun testing, and will enter traffic next May.
Yet, despite the somewhat short-term future of the ‘315s’ with the Crossrail operations, the decision was still made to improve the performance of the trains, and MTR’s efforts certainly paid off.
This achievement is even more remarkable considering that MTR Crossrail recruited a new maintenance management team that, in the space of five months, was able to establish a new maintenance management software system, develop procedures and prepare safety management systems by May last year. The challenge here was to ensure that the transfer was seamless, and the introduction of the new management structure was implemented without an adverse affect on operations.
Once MTR Crossrail had taken over, it set about carrying out a complete fleet refresh programme that was completed by the end of November last year, with visible modifications to the interior and exterior of the veteran
This is a spectacular performance achieved in a short time. NRA Panel
EMUs. This was carried out in partnership with the rolling stock leasing company that owns the trains (Eversholt) and Bombardier, which undertook the work at its Ilford facility, the same depot in which the trains are maintained.
This work included installation of new interior panels and replacement seat cushions that gave the trains a more vibrant look and feel. They received a new-look blue and white livery with full branding, although not the same livery that will be carried by the Class 345s.
Considering the heavy utilisation of the Class 315s, and the nature of the traffic they support, it’s no surprise to learn that they can get grubby inside, but MTR Crossrail sought to rectify that by putting all 44
trains through a comprehensive, heavy cleaning programme, while at the same time introducing a revived cleanliness regime to ensure that, although the ‘315s’ will begin to lose their duties from May next year, they will remain presentable. This involves ensuring that the four-car EMUs, which almost always operate in pairs, are washed once every 30 days, which MTR Crossrail says is a “noticeable improvement to the prior system, in which trains were cleaned far less often.” There is also a frequent manual washing programme in place for the trains.
These initiatives have been successful, and indeed noticed by passengers. In Transport Focus’ National Rail Passenger Survey (NRPS), which is carried out twice a year, the satisfaction scores regarding presentation had risen 15% compared with the same period last year.
MTR Crossrail says that the maintenance team has also hugely improved the fleet management process, while at the same time ensuring that the reliability of the Class 315s remains high and the safety of the passengers remains unaffected.
Indeed, the Miles Per Technical Incident (MTIN) has “hugely” improved says MTR Crossrail. At its peak, the fleet’s MTIN was almost 40,000 miles per casualty, compared with AGA’s figures of just over 10,000. While this figure for MTR Crossrail was achieved in 2015’s periods 6 and 7, and was not sustained, dropping to a low of around 14,000 in 2015 period 10, it was still considerably higher than the maximum achieved by AGA.
The overall MTIN Moving Annual Average (MTIN MAA) also steadily rose from the starting figure of around 11,000 in 2015 P3 to almost 20,000 in 2015 P12.
The operator has worked with the previous user, AGA, to investigate common failures on the ‘315s’ and worked to eradicate these. This has had a positive effect - there’s been a significant reduction in the number of repeat failures across the MTR Crossrail network.
The operators worked together to investigate the root cause of each failures on the line, and identify what occurred. If this was not possible, then steps were taken to try
Despite the somewhat short-term future of the ‘315s’, the decision was still made to improve the performance of the trains.
to identify the most likely cause of any failure.
It is this practice that led to a significant reduction in repeat failures and faults with the venerable Class 315 fleet.
In the ten months of NRA observations, the Class 315 fleet met its availability requirements for 96% of the time, thanks to the maintenance team’s adoption of the new procedures. And much of the credit for this sparkling performance must also go to MTR Crossrail’s work with AGA.
These changes may be small, but they have clearly brought about reliability improvements. They include the introduction of electronic Battery Voltage Relays across the entire 44-strong Class 315 fleet, with LED lights fitted to the trains in a programme that began in March this year.
MTR Crossrail says that there is a new investment in batteries and other technical improvements that goes “above and beyond the maintenance regime”.
And, as if all that wasn’t enough, a planned overhaul has been brought forward by 18 months as well.
So, in hard statistics, where have the other triumphs been for MTR Crossrail?
The concession-holder was named the ‘Most-Improved Train Operating Company in the UK’ in a recent National Rail Passenger Survey conducted by independent watchdog Transport Focus. It achieved this with a 9% increase in Customer Satisfaction, compared with the previous year.
Satisfaction with cleanliness and upkeep of the trains also improved, rising from 54% to 75%, and from 45% to 64% respectively, from autumn 2014-2015.
And, impressively, cancellations were down by 18%.