Hull Trains

New rains for Hull Trains as company announces £36 million investment
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date 20 September 2002
source Hull Trains
type Press release

Hull Trains has announced a £36 million investment programme in new rolling stock for its Hull to London route. The new trains will bring faster services and more seats on the company's highly successful route which links Hull, Selby and Doncaster with London Kings Cross.

Four new Class 222/1 diesel trains, with a top speed of 125mph, are to be supplied by Wakefield-based Bombardier Transportation by May 2005. They will offer passengers a high quality environment, including air-conditioned First Class and Standard accommodation, excellent on-board catering facilities and on-train passenger information. The deal financed by HSBC is worth £21.5 million.

With four carriages, the Class 222s will offer more seats than the present three-coach Class 170s and their higher speeds will enable Hull to London journey times to be cut by around 20 minutes.

Hull Trains is also adding to its fleet in preparation for expansion (in an agreement financed by Porterbrook Leasing). Four new 100mph 3-carriage Class 170s, worth £14.5 million, are also being acquired from Bombardier to be built at its factory in Derby. Similar in specification to the trains currently operated by Hull Trains, these Class 170s will also offer First Class and Standard accommodation as well as a buffet.

They will replace Hull Trains' current Class 170s from March 2004, but when the Class 222s arrive it is intended that these new Class 170s will move to other routes over which Hull Trains is currently negotiating to operate.

Jim Morgan, Hull Trains' Managing Director says: - "We are delighted to be able to announce this major investment package which will be a major step in the expansion plans we have for the company. Everyone at Hull Trains has worked tremendously hard to ensure that after just two years of operating we already have an enviable reliability and punctuality record."

Since our first train ran in September 2000 we have successfully grown the rail travel market between East Yorkshire and London by 10%."

Our commitment to excellence in customer service has also led to us being short-listed for numerous awards. The new trains will enable us to further enhance the service we can offer our customers."

Keith Howard, Commercial Director, Porterbrook said "We have worked with Hull Trains since it first started its Open Access operations. We are delighted to be able to further support them as they continue to grow the market for direct rail services to this important east coast city. Hull Trains is now the third operator to take advantage of our speculative build programme for the Class 170 fleet, which will enable them to introduce the new trains as early as 2004."

Editor's Notes

Hull Trains is an "open access" passenger train operator providing train services between Hull, Selby, Doncaster and London. The company has recently signed a 10 year track access agreement with Railtrack, which guarantees timetable slots for its services until 2010.

Railhub Archive ::: 2002-09-20 HUL-001