Alstom has completed major refurbishment work on the Pendolino fleet which comprises 56 Class 390 ‘tilting’ trains used by Virgin on the West Coast Main Line. The project is Alstom’s fourth heavy overhaul of the fleet.
Alstom built a brand new bogie overhaul facility at its Manchester site to carry out this work, which has dramatically reduced the time it takes to overhaul each train. The facility makes it possible to overhaul an entire set of bogies for either a nine-car (18 bogies) or eleven-car (22 bogies) vehicle in just five days. Altogether, the bogies of 26 vehicles can now be overhauled within one week. This has helped Alstom to reduce the total time it takes to overhaul each train to seven days. As well as the Class 390 trains, the facility can accommodate Class 334s, 175s and 180s, as well as other manufacturers’ trains.
The fleet comprises 574 cars, 3629 interior and exterior doors, and 1148 bogies, which have now been completely overhauled. During this process, the bogies were washed and stripped, with wheelsets, gearboxes, drop links, yaw dampers and other associated components exchanged. In addition, 4,100 modules were tested and 2.3 million consumables were replaced.
“This project has been a real success story for Alstom and the team of highly-skilled engineers who have done a fantastic job in such a short space of time. The new facility was purpose-built for our work on the Class 390 trains, but with the flexibility to accommodate a much broader set of trains, allowing us to significantly increase our manufacturing capability in the UK. We have supported over 120 local jobs with this work and put millions of pounds into the local economy by working closely with local suppliers in the North West,” Said Rob Whyte, managing director regional and intercity, Alstom UK&I
“Punctuality is the number one priority for our customers and this program can only help us to deliver an increasingly reliable service. We’ve already seen a noticeable improvement in train performance for which the team at Alstom in Manchester deserve great credit in the timely way it was delivered!” Said Peter Broadley, Virgin Trains commercial operations director.
The Pendolino trains were built by Alstom in the UK for the West Coast Main Line route. The train runs can run at a maximum speed of 225km/h. Alstom maintains the entire Virgin Pendolino fleet – 52 original trains and four additional trains that were supplied in 2012 – at its specialist Traincare Centres in Wembley, Wolverhampton, Manchester, Liverpool and Glasgow.
