Class 99 will become the Class 66 replacement, says GBRF CEO Smith

THIRTY BI-MODE Class 99s on order for GB Railfreight will replace the ubiquitous Class 66, says GBRF chief executive officer John Smith. Speaking at the Rail Freight Group conference on October 5, he said: “If we started saying we are going to be carbon neutral, we can’t be running Class 66s in 25 years’ time.” Discussing the new locomotives, which will be built in Valencia by Stadler, Mr Smith continued: “I believe this will be a replacement for the Class 66. It will do what a Class 66 does now, and we need, in the meantime, to get wires up.

“We need the Felixstowe branch wiring; we need some of the gaps filling in. Certainly, there’s not a lot of money around, but some of the cheaper infill schemes, we definitely need those.”

He confirmed that 30 Class 99s have been ordered, with options for more, and said that the Class 66s are expected to be ‘parked up’ by 2050. No new Class 66s have been built for the UK since 66779 Evening Star in 2016, as they do not meet emissions requirements.

This has resulted in GBRF looking to import locomotives from mainland Europe to bolster its fleet, with the Class 66s being the main type of locomotive in use with the freight operator. GBRF currently operates 104 Class 66s, with more expected to join the fleet in the future.

Mr Smith also confirmed that there is a delay to the Class 99 introduction built into the business plan, saying: “We already have in our business plan that these things are going to be six months late and aren’t going to work for another six months. And I don’t quite get that, if we’ve got a vision for the future.

“We don’t have an unlimited supply chain of people who are willing to build these things, but we’ve got to have a supply chain that understands that reliability of the trains that we operate is hugely important.” Elsewhere within GBRF, six Class 69s are to be fitted with specialist coupling equipment, enabling them to operate on Rail Services’ business, although only three will be available at any one time.

First to be fitted will be 69008 (ex-56038), which is nearing completion at Electro-motive Diesels at Longport, and this will be followed by 69009-013 (being converted from 56065/060/032/077 and 56312 respectively). It is expected that eight Class 69s will be available for traffic by the start of February, by which point 56098, currently painted in BR large logo blue, will have been sent to EMD’S Longport facility for conversion to 69015.

Stadler Rail An artists’ impression released by train builder Stadler, showing how the GB Railfreight Class 99s should look when they are delivered to the operator. Chief executive officer John Smith expects that the Class 99 design will eventually become GBRF’S traction of choice, replacing the Class 66s currently in use with the operator.