Hitachi’s modified Class 385s for ScotRail due to begin testing

A Class 385 with modified windscreens was due to move to Scotland for dynamic testing as this issue of RAIL went to press.

Three-car 385004 has been fitted with redesigned windscreens at Hitachi’s Newton Aycliffe facility. It was due to start tests on the main line during the week commencing May 21.

Hitachi spokesman Doug McIlroy told RAIL that different designs have been fitted at each end of the electric multiple unit. He said representatives from drivers’ union ASLEF would be involved in the tests, as would ScotRail.

He also confirmed that once the design is signed off, eight ‘385s’ currently undergoing mileage accumulation in Scotland (385014-016, 385103/104/122124) will move to Knorr-Bremse Rail Services’ Springburn facility for modifications. It is likely that those at Newton Aycliffe in an advanced state of assembly will also be modified at Springburn. There are 17 sets at the County Durham site that have undergone some form of dynamic testing (385003013/031/033, 385105-108).

The ‘385s’ should have entered traffic from December, but were initially delayed because SR was unable to test them on the Edinburgh-Glasgow via Falkirk High route (the overhead line equipment was only energised last autumn, preventing testing of the ‘385s’ on the route for which they were built). ASLEF then declared it would not allow the trains to be driven owing to problems with signal sighting ( RAIL 849).

ScotRail Alliance Managing Director Alex Hynes told the Scottish Government’s Rural Economy and Connectivity Committee on May 9: “The initial indications are that the new windscreen is much better than its predecessor, which will enable us to do a campaign of windscreen replacement.”

SR has 70 Class 385s on order, and their delay has forced the operator to hire ten Class 365s from Eversholt Rail. The older EMUs were made redundant by Govia Thameslink Railway earlier this year, following the introduction of the Class 700s.

Neither Hynes nor Hitachi have given a date for the introduction of the modified ‘385’.