Alstom delivers ahead of time the last Pendolino coaches for the West Coast Main Line (UK)
Posted: 18 October 2012 | | No comments yet
Alstom delivers the last Pendolino coaches for the West Coast Main Line…
Alstom delivers the last Pendolino coaches for the West Coast Main Line in (UK) operated presently by the operator Virgin Trains. This delivery which occurs ahead of time concludes the train delivery part of the €1.8 billion order placed by the UK Department of Transport in 2008.
The contract included the supply of four Pendolino trains (11 cars), 62 additional coaches to complete its existing fleet as well as the maintenance of the entire fleet which represents a total of 56 Pendolino trains. The maintenance is performed by Alstom in its five maintenance centres which are located along the West Coast Main Line.
With this contract the UK Department of Transport’s ambition was to enlarge and improve transport’s capacity of the West Coast Main Line – where the number of commuters has been increasing since 2003. Through its state-of-the art tilting high speed trains, Alstom played a major role in increasing the West Coast Main Line’s transport capacity.
Alstom’s Pendolino high speed train which can operate at 225 km per hour is equipped with Tiltronix technology, a tilting system which guarantees passenger comfort and safety when the train takes curves at higher speeds than conventional trains. Since the launch of Alstom’s Pendolino, more than 400 trainsets have been sold in the world, covering over 500 million kilometers in commercial service. Pendolino trains can cross more than 10 borders and soon Austria and Poland will be added to the 11 countries in which they are being operated: Italy, Germany, Czech Republic, Switzerland, Slovenia, United Kingdom, Portugal, Spain, Finland, China and Russia.
The Pendolino trains were built at Savigliano’s plant – where the train has been manufactured for more than 30 years – as well as in Sesto San Giovanni – respectively 1,200 and 390 employees. 20 high-speed New Pendolinos for PKP Intercity and eight for the Swiss Federal Railways (FFS) are presently being manufactured in those plants.