East Midlands Trains has unveiled the first of its three refurbished High Speed Trains at Derby Etches Park.
Owned by Angel Trains, the six-coach sets transferred from Grand Central at the start of the year, and had been in traffic until the start of the Derby remodelling scheme.
The catering vehicles from the GC sets were replaced by vehicles sent off-lease by Great Western Railway. Three Trailer First Mk 3s have also been converted to Trailer Standard coaches, with 41201-203 now 42584-586 respectively.
The first set to be treated was DY23, formed of Trailer Restaurant Buffet First (TRFB) 40205, Trailer First (TF) 41204/207, Trailer Standards 42402/408, 42584.
EMT says the remaining two sets - DY21 (formed of TRFB 40221, TF 41205/208, TS 42404/405, 42585) and DY22 (formed of TRFB 40204, TF 41206/209, TS 42401/407, 42586) - will be refurbished by the end of October. Each set has 306 seats and has been refurbished with leather seats in First Class as well as power sockets and WiFi.
LORAM is carrying out at the work at Etches Park, with SNC-Lavalin and DG Design also involved. All three are based at Derby.
“These trains are being upgraded and improved to match the standard of the rest of our main line fleet,” said EMT Fleet Director Chris Wright.
EMT said the average weekly mileage for the six-coach sets is 2,200 miles, and that they have better acceleration than the HSTs leased from Porterbrook because they are shorter (and therefore weigh less).
HSTs can only operate on the Midland Main Line until the end of next year before needing to be withdrawn, as they currently do not meet disability access requirements.
AndrewJG8918 - 10/09/2018 10:28
At least East Midlands Trains will keep them for good few years before the are expected to be replaced by Bombardier’s new Aventra Bi-mode stocks or Stadler Flirt Bi-mode stocks that will replace the Class 43 HST intercity units used on London St. Pancras-Derby, Nottingham, Sheffield, Leeds, Leicester and the Class 222 Meridians to be retained for other services or cascaded to Crosscountry if they too are to be replaced.