West Midlands Trains Ltd, a joint venture between Abellio, JR-East and Mitsui, that was awarded the West Midlands Rail franchise on August 10, 2017, announced this morning that they are ordering 333 AVENTRA Electric Multiple Unit (EMU) vehicles from Bombardier as part of a broader £680m rolling stock order, further underlining the commercial success of the new train, designed and built in Britain, and it’s broad-based appeal to operators.

Once in passenger service with West Midlands Rail, the AVENTRA trains, which are being financed by Infracapital and Deutsche Asset Management, will operate right across the franchise, covering commuter, regional and long-distance services, and confirming their versatility.

Services on the Birmingham cross city line (Lichfield – Birmingham – Bromsgrove/Redditch), will be operated by a fleet of 36 x three-car AVENTRA ‘Metro’ (MET3) trains (108 vehicles), which are planned to enter passenger service in 2020, and will have a top speed of 90mph.

Long distance services along the West Coast Main Line (WCML) from Liverpool to Birmingham and Crewe to London, and direct services between Birmingham, Coventry and London, will all be handled by 16 x five-car ‘Long Distance’ (LD5) trains (80 vehicles), which alongside a further 29 x five-car ‘Outer Suburban’ (OS5) sets (145 vehicles) will enter service in 2021, with a top speed of 110mph.

The new trains will all sport West Midlands Rail’s new livery, which will be closely modelled on the image below, unveiled on January 30, 2017, whilst each train will also feature air conditioning, free Wi-Fi and in-seat power sockets.

As part of the £680m deal, an order has also been placed with Construcciones y Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles (CAF) for 26 ‘Regional DMU’ Civity trains, comprising 12 x two-car trains (24 vehicles), and 14 x four-car trains (56 vehicles). The new trains will operate on the Birmingham Snow Hill Line (Worcester – Kidderminster – Birmingham – Stratford-upon-Avon – Leamington)

Whilst it hasn’t been confirmed, the 26 new train sets, which are due to enter passenger service in 2020 could be built at CAF’s recently announced Newport plant, which is expected to open in mid-2018 as part of a £32m investment by the Spanish manufacturer.

For Bombardier and its workforce of 2,500 people in Derby, this new deal, the second from Abellio, takes the total order book for the AVENTRA to 2,558 vehicles, securing the plant’s future through the early 2020’s, with the strong prospect of further contract wins.

October, 2017