Inside the beating heart
The ‘Voyager’ fleet has clocked up almost 400 million miles in 20 years of service, supported in that time by the team at Central Rivers depot – which, as Paul Bickerdyke discovers, can see up to half the f leet pass through in a typical day.
The ‘Voyager’ fleet has clocked up almost 400 million miles in 20 years, supported in that time by the team at Central Rivers depot – which, as Paul Bickerdyke discovers, can see up to half the fleet pass through it in a typical day. locomotive proved to be the catalyst to creating Didcot Railway Centre. Chris Milner shares some of the early founders’ memories and looks at some of their achievements.
LOVE them or not, the Class 220 and 221 ‘Voyagers’ play an undeniable key role on the inter-city networks of both CrossCountry and Avanti West Coast. The fleet of 78 four and fivecar units connect Penzance with Aberdeen, Bournemouth with Manchester, Euston with Holyhead and many other towns and cities in between. In terms of distances travelled, they are arguably one of the hardest working fleets around, with each unit completing an estimated 250,000 miles per year, meaning the total fleet mileage to date is approaching 400 million miles.
Because of the geographical distances involved, there are a handful of depots around the country that are used to fuel and service the sets at the end of each day. But the beating heart of the operation is Central Rivers depot in Barton-under-Needwood, a few miles south of Burton-on-Trent in Staffordshire. Here up to half the fleet is cleaned, fuelled, serviced, and maintained every day – many of which are turned round on a single night shift – and there is capacity to stable up to 36 units at any one time.
Depot flow
Each night between 21.00 and 00.30 there are typically around a dozen pairs of XC and AWC units arriving at the depot for servicing, with a corresponding number leaving again the next morning between 04.00 and 06.30 – with additional arrivals and departures through the day, plus also XC Class 170 ‘Turbostars’. In a typical day, CrossCountry requires 53 out of its 58 units to be in service, while Avanti West Coast requires up to 18 out of 20.
Central Rivers is positioned to the south of Burton on the west side of the line to Birmingham. It has connections to the main line at both the north and south ends, but units normally enter from the south – those coming from the north first going past the depot and reversing direction.
On entering the depot, units first pass through the single-road automatic visual inspection system (AVIS) shed – which, as the name suggests, performs a number of automated diagnostic tests that can pre-warn the engineering team of any issues that might need addressing.
Units then move forward to the two-road fuelling lines, which can be a pinch-point on
the night shift as each vehicle in a four/five-car unit needs 1600L litres for its daily diagram, which typically covers 700-1300 miles.
Fuelling is followed by a trip through the single-road wash plant, then the driver changes ends to bring trains back into one of the seven stabling roads, where the passenger saloons are prepared for the next day.
Any sets that require mechanical servicing are shunted across to the four-road, doubleended servicing shed, while there is also a two-road maintenance shed for roof-mounted work, a two-road maintenance shed for lifting and bogies swaps, and a single-road wheel lathe. There is an additional shed road between the regular servicing shed and the stabling sidings that is used mainly for oil changes – but also when a unit needs special attention and
cleaning after hitting an animal, or the more difficult and sensitive tasks required after being involved in a human tragedy.
Any units that need heavy overhaul work are generally sent away to Alstom’s other facilities in Crewe and Ilford.
A greener future?
CrossCountry operates all 34 four-car Class 220s plus 20 five-car and four four-car Class 221s, while Avanti uses 20 five-car ‘221s’. All were built by Bombardier, since acquired by Alstom, and are owned by Beacon Rail.
The units were constructed in 2001/2002 and Central Rivers was specially-built to maintain the fleet. The first unit to arrive at the depot in 2001 was No. 220016, and to mark 20 years of the fleet this unit was given ‘Voyager 20’ branding on each vehicle at a special event at the depot on July 27, with representatives of Alstom, Beacon Rail, CrossCountry and Avanti West Coast in attendance.
While acknowledging that the units are not always universally appreciated by passengers (and enthusiasts), and that there are still some issues to resolve, the team had praise for the acceleration, mechanical reliability and high mileages these “go anywhere workhorses” are asked to perform.
For example, despite attracting criticism for running long-distances ‘under the wires’ on the West Coast Main Line, they come into their own during periods of disruption when the wires are down (providing shuttle services through affected areas), or on diversionary routes, as well as for reaching destinations away from the wires (such as Holyhead).
Further improvements are being planned, however, with developments such as engine ‘stop/start’ technology (to reduce engine idling) and hybrid battery-diesel trials that should hopefully make them cheaper and greener to run.