£2m upgrade underway at Eastcroft
Greater stabling capacity for depot at the heart of EMR’s regional operations.
EAST Midlands Railway’s Nottingham Eastcroft depot is undergoing a £2 million upgrade, which will create extra capacity for stabling trains.
Train cleaning and fuelling facilities will also be improved as part of the work.
Located to the east of Nottingham station, the depot carries out the majority of dayto-day maintenance on trains used for EMR Regional services, operating routes as widespread as Crewe-Cleethorpes and Norwich-Liverpool.
The EMR Regional fleet currently comprises Class 153, 156, 158 and 170 diesel multiple units providing 251 services a day, which will increase to
269 in December when EMR reinstates some which were temporarily withdrawn in June.
Upgrade impact
EMR says the improvements at Eastcroft, due to be completed in June next year, will create more stabling capacity as its complement of trains changes in the coming months.
A further 27 Class 170 units remain to be cascaded to EMR from other operators, 16 twocar sets from West Midlands Railway (which will be released once its new CAF Class 196 fleet has been introduced) and three two-car and eight three-car units from Transport for Wales, which are due to arrive in 2022. The operator’s six remaining Class 153s are due to disappear from the fleet by the end of 2021.
EMR fleet director Neil Bamford said that although the number of people travelling was still lower than it had been before the Covid-19 pandemic, more passengers had returned to the company’s regional services than to its intercity routes.
“That is why this investment in Eastcroft, at the very heart of our EMR Regional service, is so important,” he added.
“It not only increases the capacity of the depot – it also helps to support the further development of EMR Regional services and will improve the service we can provide to passengers, in the short, medium and long term.”