UK: The passenger operator Arriva Group and the manufacturer have signed a contract for the delivery of nine five-car trainsets with 10 years of maintenance service.
The procurement worth £300 million (€357.3 mln) is financed by the leasing company Angel Trains. Manufacturing of the fleet will take place at Hitachi Rail’s plant in Newton Aycliffe, which was previously threatened with a serious reduction in staff but now is able to safeguard jobs.
The trains powered by diesel, catenary and batteries are due to be delivered starting from 2028. Last year, the Japanese producer tested the tri-mode solution on a retrofitted Class 802/2 trainset. One of the vehicle’s three diesel generator sets was replaced with a battery module of the same output, 700 kW. In general, fuel cost savings were between 35% and 50% over the entire trial period. The train reportedly achieved a range of 70 km and accelerated up to 120 km/h in battery mode.
