Alstom completed 3-year upgrade and overhaul process of Virgin Trains’ Pendolino fleet

4-7-2013 — /europawire.eu/ —To mark the end of a three year process to upgrade and overhaul Virgin Trains’ Pendolino fleet that will help make sure the sets continue to provide a reliable service on Europe’s busiest rail line, a special event has been held at Alstom’s Longsight Traincare Centre in Manchester.

The Longsight team were joined by senior management from both Alstom and Virgin Trains to mark the end of the £60m process that saw 1.3 million parts changed on the trains, 936 bogies overhauled and 1,872 wheelsets delivered by suppliers.

Tim Bentley, Managing Director of Alstom’s West Coast Main Line activities, said: “We’re delighted to reach the successful conclusion to a hugely complex and challenging activity.

“Combining engineering capability from across the group and, in particular, locally at Manchester developing local jobs and skills. Delivering a sophisticated industrial solution involving multiple stakeholders invisible to the daily train service this showcases our capability perfectly.”

Mike Hulme, Vice President Train Life Services UK & Ireland for Alstom, said: “The H3 programme was already pretty complicated and then we decided to make it even more complex by also carrying out the integration of two extra cars.

“But there’s been a real buzz every time I’ve been on site and I’m very proud to have been part of the organisation that delivered these two very complex programmes.”

The last of the H3 Pendolinos – 390002 – is now back in service, having been turned around by the team at Longsight in just over a fortnight.

Chris Gibbs, Chief Operating Officer at Virgin Trains, said: “The real test of an overhaul for me is whether or not our passengers know about it. I’m delighted to say that our passengers were completely unaware of the H3 project – they take that kind of thing for granted and, as long as it goes smoothly, they know nothing about it.

“But I know there’s a huge amount of work that goes into it – you’ve done your jobs very well. On behalf of not just our staff but also our customers, I’d like to say thank you for doing a top quality job.”

The Pendolino fleet has been in service for more than 10 years and has completed an additional 2.5 million miles of reliable service since the H2 overhaul. In addition to the overhaul work, the Longsight team extended 31 of the nine-car trains to 11 cars at the same time.

Even though the third heavy overhaul of the Pendolinos is now complete, Alstom is due to start planning the H4 overhaul at the end of the year. Additionally, after Longsight developed a specialist bogie workshop, Alstom will also be bringing its Class 180 bogie work to site.

A time lapse film of some of the H3 work is available to view below.

H3 in numbers:

• 28,000 components and parts changed on each set
• £43 million of mainly UK material spend
• 120 people taken on and trained specifically for H3
• £3.7 million spent on new and improved infrastructure, from lifting jacks to new workshops

Press contact
Jonathan Smith, Head of Media Relations, Alstom UK
Tel 01788 545602 or 07801 775650
jonathan.smith@alstom.com