First Group Open Access Service - London to Edinburgh (21/03/2019)

[whole diary]

[SandTEngineer]

FIRSTGROUP AND HITACHI ANNOUNCE NEW PARTNERSHIP FOR HIGH SPEED TRAINS LINKING LONDON AND EDINBURGH

A new high-quality, low fare rail link between London and Edinburgh has come a step closer for customers with news that FirstGroup has confirmed an order for five brand new AT300 125mph intercity electric trains and ongoing maintenance, following completion yesterday of a £100 million deal for the trains between FirstGroup and Hitachi Rail, financed by Beacon Rail.

FirstGroup has secured rights from the Office of Road and Rail to run a new ‘open access’ service between the two capitals, with the aim of encouraging people to use trains rather than planes. Currently two-thirds of journeys between the two capitals are made by air.

Under the plans, customers will benefit from an average fare of less than £25, on-board catering and free Wi-Fi, all offered in one high-quality class of travel. FirstGroup already operates an open access service, the award-winning Hull Trains.

Today’s news that FirstGroup has procured Hitachi’s latest AT300 125mph intercity electric trains provides confirmation that the service will be going ahead and will start in Autumn 2021.

Hitachi will build the five electric intercity trains of five carriages each. As part of the agreement, the new trains will be fully maintained by Hitachi for 10 years.

Also: https://www.firstgroupplc.com/about-firstgroup/uk-rail/eastcoast.aspx

By 2021, FirstGroup will offer a new travel choice for passengers between London, north-east England and Scotland with great value fares and high-quality service.
- Five trains a day each way from London King’s Cross to Edinburgh, via Stevenage, Newcastle and Morpeth
- Average fares of less than £25
- On-board catering and free wi-fi in one high-quality class of travel
- Over 1.5m additional seats every year on brand new, state-of-the-art trains
- Seats reservable online up to a few minutes before departure
- First service of the day from London arriving in Edinburgh by 10am, one hour earlier than is possible now.

Choice for passengers
The new service will provide real choice for passengers looking to travel between London, north-east England and Scotland. Low fares will persuade passengers to make the switch to rail from coach or air travel, and business travellers will benefit from the first service of the day from London arriving in Edinburgh by 10am, one hour earlier than is possible now.

An experienced, award-winning operator
FirstGroup has extensive experience running award-winning, high-quality ‘open-access’ train services. The First Hull Trains service between London and Hull regularly receives amongst the highest customer satisfaction scores in the country – scoring 97 per cent in the Autumn 2015 Transport Focus National Rail Passenger Survey.

[ChrisB]

It'll be interesting to see what the highest & lowest fares are to average £25....

Mentioned elsewhere, these AT300s will not have diesel back-up, but battery back-up.

[Noggin]

When First did the deal to buy the 802's for GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) and Hull Trains it was suggested that they had got a remarkably good deal on them, so conceivably they managed to get even better terms.

[JayMac]

Having fleet commonality between Hull Trains and First East Coast (with Transpennine Express also having Class 802s) will certainly help FirstGroup with maintenance and staff training costs. We've already seen 802s destined for Transpennine Express being tested between Hull and Kings Cross.

It's not beyond the realms of possibility that First Hull Trains and First East Coast could eventually merge. If not totally then at least for management and operational purposes.

The Class 80x products are fast becoming the inter-city and inter-regional trains in the UK^▸ (United Kingdom). How soon before we see orders for CrossCountry and East Midlands?

[IndustryInsider]

It'll be interesting to see how further orders develop.  Mind you, so far it is only First Group linked franchises that have ordered them outside of the IEP^▸ (Intercity Express Program / Project.) order which was kind of forced upon the East Coast franchise as well as GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway).

[stuving]

The Class 80x products are fast becoming the inter-city and inter-regional trains in the UK^▸ (United Kingdom). How soon before we see orders for CrossCountry and East Midlands?

Yes, but ... these are only small orders they've been getting. The Times today had this headline: "East coast order small comfort at Hitachi factory".

The IEP^▸ (Intercity Express Program / Project.) orders, plus GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway)'s 802s, came to well over 1000 vehicles (most, but not all, made in Newton Aycliffe, of course). Then the Scotrail 385s were a large order, the TPE^▸ (Trans Pennine Express) order was much smaller, and since then - not a lot, really. The factory must be capable of about building about 20 vehicles per month, and runs out of work in about a year. So an order of 25 vehicles doesn't stretch that end date much.

[ellendune]

The IEP^▸ (Intercity Express Program / Project.) orders, plus GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway)'s 802s, came to well over 1000 vehicles (most, but not all, made in Newton Aycliffe, of course).

I thought the 802's were made in Italy!

[stuving]

The IEP^▸ (Intercity Express Program / Project.) orders, plus GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway)'s 802s, came to well over 1000 vehicles (most, but not all, made in Newton Aycliffe, of course).

I thought the 802's were made in Italy!

I did allow for that, when I did the numbers. But have all 802s been made at Pistoia? I did rather expect production to come back at some stage, though it might not be announced.

[broadgage]

Well with only a single 5 car unit, they cant claim that the refreshment trolley is in the other unit !