West Midlands Trains has signed an agreement with Porterbrook in a bid to reduce costs and improve the reliability of the Class 172 fleet of trains.
In an industry first, heavy maintenance of the fleet will move from West Midlands Trains to Porterbrook.
The new way of working between the operator and the rolling stock manager covers the delivery of heavy maintenance, future optimisations and enhancements.
The partnership builds on the ongoing improvements to the quality and performance of the train feet.
Mary Grant, Porterbrook CEO said: “Porterbrook is committed to supporting and adding value to our train operating customers. By working collaboratively with West Midlands Trains, utilising digital technology and drawing on the asset knowledge of our own engineers we can jointly reduce costs and provide a step improvement in rolling stock reliability that will benefit passengers.”
West Midland Trains' engineering director, Zena Dent, said; “This new way of working, between a train operator and a rolling stock company, is yet another example of how we are driving forward to improve passenger services across our network. While we are investing over £700 million in new trains to expand capacity, we are determined to ensure our existing fleet continues to perform at its very best.”
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Next year West Midlands Railway and London Northwestern Railway will start to introduce the Class 196 and Class 730 that they are replacing the Class 170, Class 323 and Class 350/2. With 17 Class 323s cascaded to Northern. And the Class 170/5/6 cascaded to East Midlands Railway.
Is that for Class 172/2/3 and Class 172/0 that was cascaded from London Overground following the introduction of the Class 710/2 on the Gospel Oak-Barking Line. The Class 172/2/3 Turbostar is very identical to its Electrostar cousins Class 375, Class 377, Class 379 and Class 387. With the gangway corridor fitted on the front and rear side.