TfL orders 10 more Elizabeth line trains – saving Alstom’s Derby factory
Transport for London (TfL) is getting ten more Elizabeth line trains, after a £370 million contract was signed that will also save Alstom’s Derby factory from closure.
Alstom’s Derby factory, where the Elizabeth line trains were made (at the time Bombardier), has an order book gap, which means that without a modest order for some more trains soon, it might have had to close the factory entirely and shift future orders to overseas locations.
As it happened, TfL was also lobbying to be allowed to order some more trains that it said would be needed to carry passengers between HS2’s London terminus at Old Oak Common and central London.
Opened in 2022, the Elizabeth line’s current 70-strong fleet of Alstom-built Aventra Class 345 trains will be insufficient to meet demand later this decade and through the 2030s. The addition of the HS2 trains stopping at Old Oak Common would have piled additional pressure on the railway.
It was expected that TfL would need at least four more trains to handle the additional HS2 traffic, but with passenger numbers on the existing service soaring, talks had been underway to lift that to ten new trains to cope with growing demand.
As it happens, Alstom had also said it needed an order of 10 trains to restart production lines at the Derby factory.
It’s now been confirmed that Alstom has signed a £370 million contract for ten additional trains with associated maintenance for the Elizabeth line. The additional Aventra electric multiple unit (EMU) passenger trains will be built at Alstom’s Derby facility, saving the factory and a lot of jobs in Derby and the surrounding supply chain.
“We are delighted to now have a confirmed workload for Derby Litchurch Lane and our supply chain across the UK.” said Nick Crossfield, Managing Director UK and Ireland at Alstom.
He added: “The UK remains one of Alstom’s most important global markets.”
The contract includes new trains which are funded by £220.5 million from the Department for Transport. In accordance with section 101 of the Greater London Authority Act 1999, the government will provide TfL with the capital funding requested for the additional trains. TfL will, as expected, then cover the maintenance costs and has signed a contract for that up to 2046, which takes the value of the total contract to £370 million.
That will take the Elizabeth line fleet up to 80 trains when they’re all delivered.
A TfL spokesperson said: “We have received Government approval on funding for the delivery of ten additional Elizabeth line trains to support passenger demand, including at Old Oak Common when it opens as the initial terminus for HS2 services. These trains will allow us to continue successfully operating the Elizabeth line, as passenger demand continues to grow ahead of predictions.”
A reminder that while it’s TfL ordering the trains for use in London supported by a government grant, the money will be spent in Derby, saving jobs there.
Amanda Solloway, Derby North’s former MP (and candidate in the general election) said “After many meetings, letters and challenging private conversations with the Secretary of State and Alstom I am so pleased rail manufacturing now has an exciting and sustainable future here in Derby.”
Good news but I fear that this was just an exercise for the manufacturer to tease out any likely contract options. With HS2 slated for ‘late 2026’ this order looks like (at max) less than 1 car a week until then.
Given that Aventra is a CKD product and that Derby is unique in using this manufacturing method it would make sense to exercise any options at Derby. If Derby were to close the options would involve enormous retooling and reskilling of a European plant for a, relatively, low value contract.
I sincerely hope that I am being overly cynical and that we can retain the world class skills and facility that is our last remaining fully capable rolling stock manufacturer but I fear the current wave of lay offs says something different
The DfT is well aware of every train order in the country and which manufacturer is building them there is no need for Alsthom to ‘tease’ anything or anyone.
This is not a direct order rather it is the exercising of an order ‘option’. Such options oblige the manufacturer to produce follow up vehicles if, and at such time, as the customer exercises said option.
Bringing said options to the fore maximises revenue from the contract and negates/reduces the need to maintain capability and is common practice across most industries
If I understand the situation correctly, the Lizzie line trains can have one carriage added (the central london stations were designed to support this with a minor retrofit to the platform screen doors, and a minor change to the selective door opening software for other stations).
Hopefully TfL/next government could negotiate a good deal now for a further order of carriages (80 in total) to extend the trains to maximise capacity, with interior alterations to create a bit more luggage space.
Would the extra 10 trains be enough to support takeover of the HEX paths if HEX service is terminated, or would yet more trains be needed to maximise that opportunity, ditto any other speculative service extensions down into Kent?
Given that a good number of services currently terminate at Paddington (is it 12? I’ve not checked the timeable) some of those could simply be extended to LHR so no extra trains needed for that just some jiggling of the timetable.
Does anyone know if Old Oak Common will support Liz line trains from Central London terminating there, before they head back into London? Maybe in the short-term some of the trains which terminate at Paddington could go on to OOC, instead of reversing at the sidings.
Then in 2028 when the HEX contract expires the Liz line could take over some of those slots.
@ChrisC
Extra trains are absolutely needed; Paddington to T5 is about a 1h round trip on the Elizabeth line, do you think the current terminators are all sitting around for an hour before heading back East?
If you want to extend 4tph to Heathrow that’s at least 4 extra trains you need to find!
And that’s before we even get to the messy business of squeezing them in between the freight trains on that section….
The platforms were designed for 250m with 12-car trains. When Alstom proposed trains of fewer but longer cars, that was accepted. The starting arrangement then changed from 10-car with long-term scope for 12, to 9 off 22.5m cars (~202.5m) with scope to add 2 (ie ~ 247.5m). Every platform with PEDs would need to have 6 doors added before train lengthening could commence.
Presumably extra trains would be needed if more/all the Paddington terminators were extended to OOC or Heathrow! I haven’t calculated how many, hopefully 10 is enough.
See my previous comment
There are already sufficent train sets to operate any improved service to the airport – they would retimetable the trains that currently reverse at Paddington to send them on.
The issue with the airport isn’t train sets but train paths for them to operate on.
@Chris C
If you extend the Paddington reversers to Heathrow their journey will 40+ minutes longer. Are you saying TfL have spare trains sitting in the depot today or are you saying they don’t need extra trains if they increase the journey time? I ask because if it is the former rejigging the timetable isn’t going to help.
I meant the latter