Agility Trains was the contract partner for the DfT for the delivery of trains, maintenance and daily service delivery, with Hitachi Rail Europe as sub-contractor in charge of supplying the trains and ensuring that they reliably performed day in and day out. The contract guaranteed 27.5 years of usage of the trains, ensuring long-term reliability for UK passengers.
Given the size of the project, the transaction was split into two phases. In July 2012, Agility Trains West and the DfT achieved financial close for the GWML project. Agility Trains East and the DfT achieved simultaneous commercial close for the ECML project with financial close achieved in April 2014.
As part of the contract, Agility Trains’ sub-contractor Hitachi Rail Europe provided 866 carriages of electric and bi-mode trains for the Great Western Main Line (Phase 1) and the East Coast Main Line (Phase 2). The fleet of 122 trains were maintained in a number of new-built and upgraded maintenance facilities, including new depots in Swansea, Bristol, west London and Doncaster.
