Avanti West Coast has completed the upgrade of the thirty-fifth – and last – eleven-carriage Pendolino.
The operator will now work on upgrading the shorter, nine-carriage trains. It believes that this project is the UK's largest ever train upgrade and that it has “helped to deliver a step change in onboard experience”.
The upgrade project is due to finish next summer (2024) and has cost £117m.
The Pendolino fleet is comprised of fifty six trains, thirty five with eleven cars and twenty one with nine.
The Pendolinos have been working along the West Coast Main Line for more than two decades, travelling a total of more than 270 million miles, the equivalent distance of travelling to the moon and back more than five hundred times.
The upgrade work has been carried out at Alstom's facility in Widnes. The eleven-car trains were upgraded within sixteen months, at a rate of one set per fortnight. The work is financed by Angel Trains, a UK train Asset Management company.
In total, the work on the eleven-car trains has involved refurbishing 385 carriages and installing:
- 17,780 new seats installed
- 770 infotainment screens
- 3,010 new tables with WiFi charging
- 14,230 square metres of sustainable woollen flooring from UK based Axminster Carpets.
The operator claims that passengers have given positive feedback about the refurbished trains, including comments that they are more comfortable and better lit, and welcoming the increased availability of power sockets, the refreshed interior and the on-board shop.
As well as upgrading the Pendolino fleet, the West Coast route operator will be bringing a brand-new fleet of Hitachi trains into service from the end of this year. The operator has been subject to fierce criticism over recent years due to unreliable services.
Philippa Cresswell, Executive Director On Board at Avanti West Coast said: “The refurbished Pendolinos are proving a big hit with our customers. They really do look and feel like a new train.
“We will continue to work with our partners Alstom and Angel Trains to complete the transformation of one the UK's most iconic trains as we look forward to welcoming more people back to rail.”
Peter Broadley, Alstom's Managing Director Services commented: “We're incredibly proud of the Pendolino fleet upgrade project which takes train refurbishment to another level. Working in partnership with Angel Trains and Avanti West Coast we've delivered a fantastic product for passengers on the West Coast.”
Malcolm Brown, CEO of Angel Trains, said: “Our iconic Pendolino trains have been refurbished to provide a comfortable, connected, best in class passenger experience at a lower cost and carbon footprint than building new. Working together with Avanti West Coast and Alstom this project has supported UK suppliers and skilled jobs the length of the West Coast Main Line. “
The refurbished Pendolino’s are awful the main complaint being both the recline angle of the seats together with the nasty side head “support”. The original Virgin red seats were far better. The toilets still stink as they always have. A poor overpriced provider
Travelled from euston to Liverpool lime street last week 1-45pm. 32deg outside temperature and there was no air conditioning.
No catering or drink facilities because the cafeteria was too hot to work in there.
The poor lady working in there was really upset and voiced her concerns to the train manager about how their management treat them badly.
Free hot bottled water was available free, if you went and picked it up and not handed out by staff.
The train carriages are old virgin rail stock and must be atleast 30 years old.
Avanti should be sacked by the government as our main line train network is a national embarrassment
Took my first refurbished Pendolino from Preston to Glasgow earlier this week. This represents a vast improvement over the previous interiors which were looking increasingly dated. The new lighting retains a relaxed ambiance unlike the Hitachi Azuma’s. The seats are comfy with high backs and headrest design creating a cosy feel. The charging points are also thoughtfully positioned. Only criticism is the presumably faux leather on the armrests is already threadbare and looks really shabby. Hardly bodes well for the next 20 years and rethink may be required for that detail on the remaining sets.
It would have been nice to have seen some before and after photos of the works.
As for the actual trains themselves , over 20 years ago, I first got to take a train from London to Lancaster , it was A VIrgin , Loco hauled set, and shiny Mark2E or F Coaches , Thier only mod con was the Aircon and if I recall in first class there was at seat power.
Then about six months .maybe later, I had the chance to sample a ride on the then ‘ new ‘ Pendilino ‘. So that would be the pre refurb of course , as is being discussed here , but the step up in quality and ambience from the original loco hauled sets was considerable .
Yes those Mark2E,F and Mark3 coaches where Aircon and had IC7 seats ( like arm chairs ). But they had more noiseb, squeaks , rattles and wild fluctuations in temperature, and long Ques for the buffet car , but back to the Pendilino, it was a new world , comfy , smooth, ghostly quiet
Perhaps the only thing of note was harsh lighting , which would have been easily solved by changing the angle of a bulb fixture or these days using WiFi dimmable bulbs . Sadly Ive not had the pleasure of trying the new Pendilino sets yet , but I haven’t forgotten that trip to Milton Keynes , the acceleration from stations , was far beyond my beloved HST units in the east coast , and the class 91 ‘ Electra ‘ replacements., it was rapid beyond belief and felt faster than 125mph.
It was so quick that the journey was done almost as if before it started.
So if they were that good then, I can’t wait to try the new ones
And even more so I cannot wait to try the new 5 and 7bcar Class 805 bi mode , or 807 all electric , these of course are used on, GWR, LNER , Hull trains , and Lumo.
Soon of course Avanti will join that club, alongside East Midlands Trains
Then it really will be interesting to see if the new Hitachi sets , famous for terrible hard seats and over bright lighting , will be as gentle on the eye and easy on the body as the Pendilino sets .
I travelled Manchester to Milton Keynes on Wednesday. The seats are appalling. Very uncomfortable. Arm rest was threadbare and torn. The carriage temperature was too hot. On the plus side the recharging and WiFi worked well.
I did not use any other facilities
you lucky to get hot drink nearly all time I went for tea machine not working or it’s too hot for staff so closeing shop or no staff or money only as cannot use card reader as broken
I travelled between Crewe & Penrith recently on a revamped model & found it comfortable, modern & fast. I have made this journey every month throughout the year & haven’t seen anything broken or badly made, the wireless charging on my table worked perfectly & I enjoyed my journeys.
I’ve been travelling on Pendolinos for a number of years now and the refurbished sets are superb. The seats are very comfortable and I like that the seats have higher backs, it allows a bit of privacy. I have no complaints at all about these refurbished sets. Good job.
These refurbished sets are appalling, the workmanship is 3rd 🥉 world class. I can’t add photos on here, if I could you would see the ornamental non functioning water feature in the shop along with many of the rubber bump strips missing as they used the wrong glue. Then there’s the trims on the display shelves, all are broken after a few weeks use, split, bits missing etc. Still in the shop you’ll have to spin the wheel whether the coffee machine works, it’s 50/50 at best! Now take a look at the armrests in STD, that’s the threadbare ones after only a few months in service! If you do manage to get a coffee don’t put it down on the pull down tray. Someone thought that the indent for a cup & the raised lip around the edge was superfluous & removed both these necessary features (they were there for a reason, tilting trains at 125mph aren’t good at keeping drinks or items on a tray) replacing the seat back tray with a shiny slippery flat surface🤦🏻♂️. Now we’ll move to the hand driers in the toilets, you’ll be lucky to get that to stay on for more than 5 seconds each time. While there take a step into the vestibule & look for the black rubber seal that should be on the edge of the panel that is to the side as you step into or out of the train where the panel
Meets the body, many have not been refitted showing the trains insulation that should be out of sight. If you are stepping on or off in the dark, be careful as the step lights that light the floor in the vestibule don’t work on most of these refurbished sets either. As I said it’s a 3rd 🥉 world class refurbishment & how anyone could accept an award for innovation defies any kind of rationale! I will say though, the seats are good, very comfortable which is a vast improvement on the awful ones on the GWR Hitachis.
Hi,
Although you cannot post pictures in the comments section here, you can post them on our community page https://www.railadvent.co.uk/locostop
Is all this really true? I find it hard to believe, and would like to see the photos (on one of the normal sites like Twitter/X, Flickr or Instagram).