Final Hitachi class 395 train arrives in Southampton
Full fleet of Hitachi class 395 trains now in the UK Logistics specialists Wallenius Wilhelmsen Logistics, DB Schenker Rail (UK) Ltd and Hitachi Transport Systems worked together seamlessly to bring the 29 trains to the UK and to deliver them on schedule to the Ashford depot. All Class 395 trains have been manufactured to latest UK and European safety standards in Hitachi’s manufacturing facility in Kasado, Japan and shipped from Kobe, Japan some 12,580 nautical miles to Southampton in the UK and then to Ashford, Kent – an overall journey of over 12,800 miles or 20,600 kms from factory to customer. The Class 395 is Hitachi’s first rolling stock in regular service in the European market. Currently operating on Southeastern’s limited ‘preview’ service, journeys between Ashford and St Pancras take just 37 minutes on the 140mph train, almost an hour quicker than some trains on the existing Mainline service. The full passenger service will start in December 2009. The timely delivery of the trains from Japan and successful completion of 4,000 miles ‘fault free’ running enabled Southeastern to launch its preview service nearly six months early on 29th June. For its first month of operation the service has seen near perfect punctuality at 99.1 % and proved so popular that two peak-time trains were doubled from six to 12 carriages. Hitachi Europe originally won the £250 million contract for 28 high-speed trains in October 2004. Southeastern later added the 29th train to the order to provide additional capacity. The first train arrived in Southampton on 23 August 2007. Quelle: Hitachi Europe Ltd |