Siemens Mobility has secured a €530 million contract extension for the maintenance of Class 185 trains that operate on the former TransPennine Express routes between Manchester, Sheffield, and Cleethorpes and Manchester to Hull.
Most of the maintenance work will be carried out at Siemen's Ardwick Depot in Manchester and its depots at York and Cleethorpes.
The contract extension will secure around 200 jobs across Siemens Mobility depots in the north of England.
The company has maintained the fleet since 2006 and has completed a full digital upgrade of the fleet to improve its reliability.
The Class 185 trains are fitted with remote condition monitoring that uses use Siemens Mobility's cloud-based Railigent X application suite.
This provides maintenance teams with direct updates on the performance of each train, including any areas that need to be prioritised for maintenance.
As well as providing updates on individual vehicles, the system provides an accurate picture of the whole fleet to ensure they continue to give the best passenger experience.
In six times of the last seven years the Class 185 fleet has been awarded a Golden Spanner award, with the latest being in November 2022.
Michael Peter, CEO of Siemens Mobility, said “The UK is one of our core markets and we're proud to have been awarded this contract extension. It is a real testament for us being a trusted partner to our customers and continuing to ensure trains perform at a high standard throughout their entire lifecycle. Railigent X applications, part of the open, digital Siemens Xcelerator business platform, enable us to offer best passenger experience and highest availability.”
David Walker, Head of Fleet Commercial for TransPennine Express, said “We have had a long and productive relationship with Siemens Mobility and we are delighted to continue working together with the award of this eight-year contract extension.
“We are looking forward to Siemens Mobility, Eversholt Rail and TransPennine Express delivering further improvements to one of our key fleets through building upon our strong, collaborative partnership.
“Suppliers like Siemens are vital in making sure that customers remain at the heart of everything that we do and we are committed to offering the best passenger experience when people choose to travel with us.”
“We look forward to working with TransPennine Trains Limited and Siemens Mobility to continue to deliver a reliable Class 185 fleet for passengers”, said Paul Sutherland, Client Services Director at Eversholt Rail.
The Class 185 Desiro that were built by Siemens are very useful, fast and very reliable diesel passenger trains that Siemens have ever built them. Siemens could of built more of these DMU Desiro for South Western Railway, Great Western Railway, East Midlands Railway, Northern, ScotRail, Transport for Wales and Greater Anglia.