The eight-year agreement, valued at around €90 million, will see Alstom provide ongoing maintenance support from the Great Western Railway (GWR) Laira depot in Plymouth. The contract will support over 15 roles, including engineers, material planners and administrators, as well as many more in Alstom’s wider supply chain.
The 26 Class 175 trains, owned by Angel Trains, will predominantly operate on key regional routes, including services between Exeter St Davids, Penzance, Barnstaple and Okehampton.
"We are delighted to be partnering with Great Western Railway and Angel Trains to bring the Class 175 fleet back into service. With our extensive expertise as the original manufacturer and long-standing maintainer of these trains, we are well placed to ensure their smooth reintroduction and continued reliability," said Peter Broadley, Business Development Director at Alstom.
The Class 175 diesel multiple units (DMUs) were built by Alstom in Birmingham between 1999 and 2001. Transport for Wales operated them until 2024, but GWR signed the lease for the fleet in March this year.
"We are really pleased to have reached an agreement with Alstom to support this major investment in our train fleet. The Class 175s are a welcome addition to the GWR fleet and will provide a tangible boost as we seek to rejuvenate our regional and suburban services," said Simon Green, Engineering Director for Great Western Railway.
The Class 175 trains are also the first GWR fleet to utilise Alstom’s HealthHub digital solution for condition-based and predictive maintenance, which analyses and displays all the data captured by the train. Every 30 seconds, a train sends data on over 200 parameters, including its speed, the temperature inside the carriages and its GPS coordinates. This provides real-time monitoring that alerts the team if anything is wrong with the train, helping to prevent incidents before they impact passenger services.
