Posted 13th February 2024 | 1 Comment
New trains enter service on West Midlands Railway
The first unit in West Midlands Railway’s new fleet of Class 730 electric trains went into service last night. The Class 730s have been built by Alstom at Derby, and consist of 48 three-car sets.Some have been running in pairs on the West Coast Main Line for London Northwestern since November, and will continue to do so until five-car Class 730/2s are available later this year.
The inaugural unit worked the 22.41 departure from Birmingham New Street to Wolverhampton. From today, the trains are running between Wolverhampton and Walsall.
The fleet is part of a £700 million investment in new fleets and infrastructure for WMR, which said its trains have ‘significantly more capacity’ than the rolling stock they are replacing.
WMR customer experience director Jonny Wiseman said: ‘I am delighted that our fantastic new Class 730 fleet has entered service in the West Midlands. These trains will make a real difference for our passengers between Wolverhampton and Walsall.
‘The Class 730s have modern features including digital information screens, accessible toilets and power points at every seat. They will also provide a much more spacious feel and a higher capacity so more passengers can travel on our services.
‘Later this year we will be introducing the trains on other routes, including the busy Cross City Line through Birmingham.’
Reader Comments:
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Christopher Jones-Bridger, Buckley Flintshire
Congratulations to WMR for getting their new train fleet accepted & into service.
However perhaps time to address the dysfunction within the rolling stock market. At one extreme we have fleets that have been prematurely retired resulting in surplus quality rolling stock being stored while at the other end we have our major manufacturing plant on the brink of at minimum mothballing but even so with the pain of redundancy for a large part of it's workforce.
At heart we have a lack of joined up investment strategy. Without a coherent electrification strategy we have a surplus of EMU's without the wires to run under. Just completing the GW plans to Bristol & Oxford plus some infill routes in the North & Midlands would open up opportunities to convert more services to electric operation.
Time to to question the dubious decisions which resulted in wasted investment in retractioning stock by both South West Railway & it's predecessor South West Trains before being jettisoned either pre or post franchise renewal. Similarly the 769 conversions for GWR. Will the leasing company ever see a return on it's cash?
Since day one of privatisation there has been a strained relationship between DfT and the leasing companies. Time now to assess if the market has been the best way to allocate a rolling stock in the UK passenger market as while some routes have been well resourced others remain neglected especially where the surplus trains, ie EMU's, are unsuited to replace the ageing diesel rolling stock on non electrified routes.