Transport for Wales complete £40m refurbishment of Class 175 train fleet
Transport for Wales say they have completed work to refurbish their fleet of Class 175 long-distance trains after three years.
Train manufacturer Alstom has been working to refurbish the 27 Coradia trains at their Technology Centre in Widnes, Cheshire, as part of TfW’s £40 million investment in its current fleet of trains.
The refurbished trains include USB and electric charging points, new toilet seats, re-covered seats, new carpets and new interior fittings. The trains have also been rebranded on the outside with TfW’s grey and red livery.
The Class 175s operate services across the north and south of Wales and the ‘Borders’ of England.
Transport for Wales said work on refurbishing their Class 153 and 158 fleets was nearing completion, and work is also ongoing to refurbish the Class 150 Sprinter trains.
TfW have also invested over £800 million on a fleet of new trains, which will begin to enter service across the Wales and Borders network later in 2022.
“It’s fantastic to be able to deliver these improvements for customers, which they rightly expect to see on a modern railway network,” Stuart Mills, TfW’s Fleet Engineering Manager, said.
“We know being able to travel in comfort and charge devices on the go are incredibly important to our customers, whether they are travelling for 20 minutes or four hours, for business or pleasure.
“While we are building brand new trains, they take time to build and we want our customers to have a comfortable experience right now. So the completion of this extensive work is another major step to building a better railway for current and future generations.”
Peter Broadley, Alstom’s Managing Director, Services said: “It’s great news for TfW and its customers that we have completed the refurbishment of the entire Coradia fleet as planned, and its a tribute to the hard work and professionalism of our team at Widnes, and Chester where the trains are maintained.”
David Jordan, Chief Operating Officer of Angel Trains, said: “After almost three years, it is brilliant to see our final Class 175 unit fully refurbished and ready to get back on track.
“It has been a pleasure to work alongside our industry partners to refurbish this fleet, working together to deliver modern trains that are fit for all TfW passengers.”
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Nice to see that TFW are keeping their promises of better trains. All we need now is for Welsh (and English) folk to take more care about Covid Distancing so that the pandemic declines enough to make it safe to travel by train over long distances again.
Cheshire!! Part of this contract was to provide the local area with employment. When is Cheshire part of Wales? Also refurbishing a load of someone else’s rolling stock is tragic. All other railway networks get brand new trains. Wales gets old carriages held together with gaffertape and a new paint job
So would you rather see a lot of only 20 tear old kit just scrapped rather than reutilised especially as in the same article it states new trains take a while to build. Its not .like a motor car, one every few hours off the line and off you go.. It takes time to build a train. Why scrap something that has a useful life left in it and costs a lot less than new.