Passengers on the East Coast Main Line are to benefit from the arrival of five brand new Inter City trains, following completion today of a $74 million (£60 million) deal between FirstGroup and Hitachi Rail Europe, financed by Angel Trains.
The new vehicles will offer Hull Trains passengers extra seats, with 61 more per train.
Hitachi will build five AT300 trains of five carriages each, operating as ‘bi-modes’ – meaning they will be able to run on either electric or diesel power.
The new vehicles are expected to come into service in 2019 and would be able to travel on the electrified East Coast Main Line from London King’s Cross and then on diesel power on the unelectrified line to Hull and Beverley.
As part of the agreement, the new trains will be fully maintained by Hitachi at its new facility at Bounds Green, north London. Hitachi will build the trains at their manufacturing facility in Newton Aycliffe, County Durham.
The benefits of the new trains include:
- More seats – 327 seats per train, 20 percent more than the current services
- Greater comfort – new interiors, air conditioning, Wi-Fi, power sockets
- Quieter and more environmentally friendly – electric power is quieter with lower emissions
- Reduced journey time possible – the new trains will have faster acceleration and a higher top speed of 140mph
Hull Trains was crowned the UK’s Rail Operator of the Year last month at the National Transport Awards. It consistently scores amongst the highest customer satisfaction levels of any operator in the country and the ORR recently granted a further ten year track access from 2019, giving the business and its customers certainty of services until December 2029.
FirstGroup was also successful recently in a separate application to the ORR on new open access plans to operate five trains throughout the day each way between London King’s Cross and Edinburgh, designed to compete with low-cost airlines and open up rail travel between the two capitals to thousands of new passengers.
Steve Montgomery, FirstGroup’s rail division managing director, said, “Hull Trains is a great success story and its enduring high customer satisfaction scores really demonstrate how open access rail services can deliver for passengers in certain markets. These are exciting times for Hull Trains as the city of Hull moves towards UK City of Culture status in 2017. The new trains we are introducing will provide 20 per cent more seats for our customers and also offer the potential for faster journeys. We also intend to invest in the current Hull Trains fleet to ensure they are fit for the next three years.”
Karen Boswell, managing director of Hitachi Rail Europe said, "Customers travelling on Hull Trains services between Yorkshire and London will enjoy a host of benefits from new Hitachi Inter City trains, which are modernizing rail travel on routes across the UK. These trains have been designed to increase the number of seats available whilst harnessing the latest in comfort design to boost passenger experiences. Using our innovative bi-mode power model, these trains can begin operation immediately on the UK rail network which means passengers won’t have to wait to enjoy the new benefits."
