The first Virgin Trains Pendolino with a First Class carriage converted to Standard is now in service - the first of the 21 nine-car Pendolinos to have a carriage converted. When finished, the project will create an extra 5,500 standard class seats, a net increase of 2,100.
The work is taking place at Alstom’s Oxley depot in Wolverhampton, with all trains due to be converted by September 2015.
Each of the nine-car Pendolinos will also receive a major interior refresh and a deep clean when the conversion takes place. After the nine-car trains have been upgraded, the remaining 35 11-car Pendolinos will also undergo the interior refresh and cleaning, with the full Pendolino fleet completed by mid-2016.
- For more on this story, read RAIL 773, published on April 29
Alan Francis - 11/04/2015 14:34
So 21 trains each have one carriage converted to standard. Assume 60 seats per car and that's 1260, not 5500. Net increase will be about 400, not 2100. Rail has been taken in by Virgin's spin.