West Coast Main Line increases its Pendolino fleet

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Part of the Pendolino extension programme to deliver 106 new carriages to the current fleet operating on the West Coast Main Line, four new 11-car Pendolino trains are being delivered by Alstom. The first one was brought by rail on December 6th, 2010 from Italy to the Liverpool Traincare Centre at Edge Hill in Britain, one of five maintenance depots where Alstom maintains the current Pendolino fleet. A six-month programme of testing and commissioning of the train has now begun for this train.

As well as building these new trains, Alstom will lengthen 31 of the 52 existing trains operating on the West Coast Main Line from nine to eleven cars by the end of 2012, providing over 7,000 extra seats in all. Each 11-car high-speed tilting train is 265 metres long and can carry 589 passengers. Almost 28 million passengers use the West Coast Main Line every year.

This delivery is also in line with the recent commitment made by the British government to introduce 2,100 new carriages on to the rail network by 2019.