The maintenance partnership between Great Western Railway, Eversholt Rail and Hitachi Rail will be extended and will see millions of pounds invested into the UK’s supply chain in order to bring improvements and increased reliability to rail services for the train operator’s customers.

The innovative and extremely successful train maintenance carried out by Hitachi Rail has seen the company awarded with a contract extension until 2028 and has a value of more than £300 million in order to maintain Great Western Railway’s West of England fleet which is made up of 36 Class 802 Intercity Express Trains until 2028.

Since Hitachi Rail has been handling maintenance for Great Western Railway, the fleet has seen an increase in reliability performance of more than 94%. Improvements have also been made in terms of reliability thanks to ongoing investment into digitally optimised maintenance, which began back in 2018.

The rail operator takes an ‘always improving’ approach and has been rewarded with the Class 802s hitting the best-ever period of performance last summer with 28,537 Miles per Technical Incident.

Hitachi Rail will see ongoing investment made into its digital maintenance abilities in order to improve performance further for Great Western Railway customers and includes technology such as onboard digital monitoring, which can cut bogie and wheelset maintenance needs by half.

More than 500 highly skilled workers will maintain their position at the West of England depots thanks to the extension. The majority of Class 802 maintenance takes place at Laira depot in Plymouth with a focus on maintenance being carried out closer to key stations such as Penzance, Exeter and Plymouth which in turn will bring better train availability, optimising the fleet and create a steady flow of work for the Laira depot.

The UK supply chain will also benefit from the extension of the contract with an investment of £70 million coming from Great Western Railway’s Intercity Express Train fleet.

Hitachi Rail is focused on prioritising people and the UK supply chain via its maintenance business and providing an annual economic benefit of £462 million throughout the UK.

Jim Brewin, Chief Director UK & Ireland at Hitachi Rail said:

“This major contract extension demonstrates our partners’ confidence in Hitachi Rail’s UK maintenance operations and rolling stock technology, which was 2.7 times more reliable than the industry average in 2022.

“As intercity travel continues to recover strongly following the pandemic, we are proud to enhance our maintenance services for GWR and Eversholt Rail. This includes the incorporation of industry-leading digital tools and expanding Hitachi’s presence at Plymouth’s Laira depot.”

Simon Green, GWR Engineering Director said:

“Since the introduction of this Intercity Express Train fleet almost five years ago, they have made a massive contribution delivering more services and seats and have allowed us to respond positively to changes in demand for leisure travel across many of our long-distance routes.

“The award of this contract means we have continuity in the maintenance of our Class 802 fleet, and we look forward to continuing to work with Hitachi to deliver this fleet into service every day.”

Paul Sutherland, Client Services Director at Eversholt Rail said:

“We are pleased to have secured this maintenance contract extension with Hitachi Rail for the Class 802 fleet. Hitachi Rail’s approach to maintenance and their investment in digital maintenance solutions will continue to serve the West of England routes with a high-performing service for years to come.

“This contract continues to build on our strong partnership with both Great Western Railway and Hitachi Rail to deliver the best services to passengers in the South West.”