British Rail Class 390

Description

In 1997, Virgin Rail Group commenced operating the InterCity West Coast franchise with a commitment to replace the existing British Rail Class 86, 87 and 90 electric locomotives and Mark 2 and Mark 3 coaching stock with tilting trains. Virgin placed an order with Alstom/Fiat Ferroviaria. British Rail had intended to replace the existing fleet of trains on the West Coast Main Line (in conjunction with a planned route modernisation) as part of the InterCity 250 project, but this was cancelled by the government shortly before privatisation.

Tilting trains were not new on the West Coast Main Line. Twenty years previously, British Rail had developed the revolutionary, but ultimately unsuccessful, Class 370 Advanced Passenger Train (APT).

Fiat Ferroviaria supplied much of the content of the Class 390 units, including the bodyshell and the bogies, while final assembly was carried out at Washwood Heath. The tilting technology was developed by SIG Switzerland (later Fiat-SIG, today Alstom). Two electromechanical actuators are used per car to achieve the desired tilting angle on curved stretches of track. The train can tilt to a maximum of eight degrees, at which point one side of the cabin train is 380 mm higher above the track than the other. In contrast to other Fiat Ferroviaria tilting trains which use hydraulic tilting actuators, the electromechanical systems offers lower maintenance cost and higher efficiency.

The new trains were intended to run at 140 mph (225 km/h), but the West Coast Main Line modernisation programme, which was an upgrade to the infrastructure to allow faster line speeds, ran over budget. Consequently, plans were scaled back, and in a manner reminiscent of the introduction of the InterCity 225, the lack of signalling upgrades resulted in the maximum line speed being restricted to 125 mph (200 km/h). Although this (and 140 mph) are well below BR's hopes for APT of 155 mph (249 km/h), it does match the maximum speed of 125 mph (200 km/h) for the APT in passenger service (although one APT set reached 162 mph (261 km/h) in testing).

The original order was for 53 sets, 34 eight-carriage sets and 19 nine-carriage sets. The eight-carriage sets each had an additional carriage added in 2004. To increase capacity, 4 eleven-carriage sets and an additional 62 extra carriages were ordered to increase 31 sets to eleven carriages. These were delivered between 2009 and 2012. Each 11-car set is identified by having 100 added to its unit number (3901xx). The unit formation as of January 2015 is described in the table below, with vehicles listed in the order they are formed in the unit:

The units incorporate a number of innovations, including a walk-in shop in place of the traditional buffet/restaurant car, and extensive passenger visual information systems on the inside of the car ends and on the outside of the doors. Following criticisms of the pressure- operated automatic gangway doors of the older Mark 3 and Mark 4 carriages (which could easily be held open by items of luggage resting on the floor sensor, allowing draughts into the passenger saloon) the gangway doors on the 390 sets are of the push-button "open on demand" type. All seats originally had an on-board entertainment system with a number of pre-recorded music channels. This feature was disabled in March 2010 to make way for new on-board WiFi provided by T-Mobile. Each seating row has a dot-matrix LCD display to indicate the reservation status of each seat, removing the need for conventional printed labels inserted manually by train crew.

The coaches also incorporate steps which automatically extend to platform level when the doors are opened. This feature was first seen on the APT-P, which as mentioned above is a distant ancestor of the Pendolino. The windows are fitted with roll-down blinds. If there are too many standard class standing passengers coach G (MFO) can be re-classified as a standard class coach to provide extra standard-class seating capacity.

Current operations

The fleet was introduced into passenger services from London Euston to Manchester Piccadilly on 23 July 2002 to coincide with the opening of the 2002 Commonwealth Games in Manchester. Over the next few months they took over the Manchester services, and were soon introduced on routes from London to Liverpool Lime Street, Birmingham New Street, Wolverhampton and Preston. By late 2003 the last of the elderly Class 86 locomotives had been withdrawn.

In 2004 their sphere of operation expanded further. The units started to operate services to Glasgow Central, and by the end of summer, in theory all services north of Preston were worked by Class 390 units. This allowed the final Class 90 locomotives to be withdrawn, and inroads were made into the main Class 87 fleet. It was expected that all locomotive-hauled trains would have been replaced by the end of 2004, but the Pendolinos suffered from several technical problems, which granted the Class 87s a reprieve. By January 2005, only eight locomotives remained, for use on peak London Euston-Birmingham New Street services.

Another development in 2004 was the clearing of the units for the North Wales Coast Line from Crewe to Holyhead. This line is not electrified, so Virgin's Class 57/3 Thunderbird diesel locomotives were used to haul the Pendolinos. After Virgin's loss of the CrossCountry franchise, it introduced its remaining Class 221 "Super Voyagers" on to the coastal line, ending the practice of hauling the units from Crewe and thus making several Class 57 locomotives redundant. These locomotives have special Dellner coupling adaptors and electrical systems to make them compatible with Pendolino trains, allowing failed units to be rescued. The Class 57s are also used when engineering works force Pendolino services to run over non-electrified diversionary routes.

Virgin Trains has named its entire fleet. Most carry promotional names such as "Virgin Valiant", "Virgin Crusader" and "Virgin King", but some have received traditional names such as "City of London" and "City of Liverpool". The names are carried on the MFO (696xx) vehicle.

The entire Pendolino fleet is allocated to the (Alstom) Manchester Traincare Centre at Longsight, where heavy maintenance is carried out. Longsight has a hoist on which an entire Pendolino set can be lifted. Lighter maintenance, cleaning and overnight stabling is carried out at Alstom's other centres: Wembley (London), Oxley (Wolverhampton), Edge Hill (Liverpool) and Polmadie (Glasgow).

On 5 April 2012, the first 11-car Pendolino entered service on the London-Birmingham-Wolverhampton and London-Manchester routes.

Problems and incidents

In October 2004, a train overshot the platform at Liverpool Lime Street station and collided with the buffer stops, and a similar incident occurred a few weeks later at the same station. The Rail Safety and Standards Board's inquiry into the incident identified a software glitch in the wheel-slip protection (WSP) system whereby the train's friction brakes were inhibited at low speeds after prolonged coasting (such as that occurring on approach to a station). The units were once again limited to 110 mph (180 km/h) for a short period until modifications to the software were made.

As a result of the smaller cabin dimensions necessitated by the tilting geometry, the higher floor needed to package the tilting mechanisms themselves, and the need to provide disabled toilets, the units have a lower seating capacity than the nine-car Mark 2 and Mark 3 rakes that they replaced. The result has been severe overcrowding on some services, something that Virgin has somewhat mitigated through the increased frequency of service.

The smaller size of the Pendolino windows has attracted comment and, in fact, the window size is unprecedented for British railway rolling stock. The wider window pillars mean that in some standard class carriages, 22.5% of the seats are parallel with either no window or only a limited portion of one, however the roll-over strength of the bodyshell was commented on regarding the crashworthiness performance of the train in the RAIB Accident Report into the derailment at Grayrigg.

Grayrigg derailment

On 23 February 2007, a faulty set of points caused a Virgin Trains Pendolino to derail near Grayrigg in Cumbria. The train, unit 390 033, named "City of Glasgow", formed the 17:15 departure from London Euston bound for Glasgow's Central station. 115 people were on board, one of whom died from trauma suffered in the crash. The train's excellent crashworthiness was credited with preventing more fatalities.

The train was formally written off on 30 November 2007, owing to the prohibitive cost of repair against the price of a new set; a driving car and carriage from the train have subsequently been put into use for training purposes at the Virgin Trains Talent Academy in Crewe. Virgin trains then leased a Class 90, Mk3 coaches and a DVT (Driving Van Trailer), all painted in Virgin's new livery, and affectionately nicknamed the "Pretendolino" by Alstom maintenance staff, as a replacement for the train written off. The name made a resurgence in official communications when the "Pretendolino" was used instead of the usual Pendolino or Voyager stock, typically when there were stock displacement issues or the regular stock was unavailable. Subsequently, the set was handed back to the leasing company, and has since been transferred to Abellio Greater Anglia.

Fleet developments

Following a very sharp increase in passenger numbers following the WCML modernisation, the Department for Transport announced a capacity increase by procuring additional sets (with one intended to replace the unit damaged at Grayrigg). Four new sets have been built with 11 cars, and 31 existing sets lengthened to 11 cars.

This required major infrastructure changes to allow stations and depots to accommodate the 11-car units. Virgin Rail Projects was set up to introduce these new trains with the new franchise winner as well as Alstom, Network Rail and the current franchise holder, Virgin Trains West Coast, to ensure the new sets were able to run from 1 April 2012.

With the closure of the Washwood Heath works, the additional vehicles were manufactured in Alstom's Savigliano factory in Italy.

In June 2010, it was announced that the new units would be placed in store until the planned start of the new West Coast franchise in 2012. This provoked some criticism given the overcrowding in place on the WCML, which the new trains were intended to alleviate.

The first new sets were built with 11 cars and delivered via Dollands Moor to Edge Hill. On 14 July 2011, Virgin Trains announced that chief operating officer, Chris Gibb, had accepted the train (as a 9-coach set) from Alstom Transport UK managing director Paul Robinson and Malcolm Brown, Angel Trains' chief executive, at Alstom's Edge Hill Traincare Centre in Liverpool on 12 July.

In March 2012, 390055 operated a test run on the East Coast Main Line from Edinburgh to London King's Cross.

With the franchise process in place, and Virgin Trains franchise extended until December 2012, the first 11-car set (390 156) entered service on 5 April 2012. The remaining new sets were brought into service, and 31 sets increased to 11 carriages, over the next eight months.

As part of the subsequent extension of the franchise until April 2017, Virgin Trains made further enhancements to the Pendolinos. The 21 nine-carriage sets each had one first class carriage converted to standard class. This work was completed by September 2015.

Models

Hornby Model Railways manufactured a model of the Class 390 in '00' Gauge. The "train pack" consists of a four-carriage train; extra carriages are available separately.

Rapido Trains has announced that it will be producing the Class 390 in 'N' Gauge. Various "train packs" are to be produced consisting of five, nine and eleven-carriage train; extra carriages will be available separately.

Dapol also manufactured a Class 390 in '00' Gauge.