Great Western Railway (GWR) has revealed that it has completed a three-year refurbishment of its regional and suburban train fleet.
The operator hopes that the makeover will lead to an “improved journey experience” for passengers.
The work began in September 2021, and as it progressed, each unit was taken out of service for between four and five weeks.
Gemini Rail Services carried out the work in Wolverton, rejuvenating GWR’s Class 165/166 Turbo fleet of diesel-hyrdraulic multiple units.
GWR leases the 57 units from Angel Trains, and has spent ten million pounds on a comprehensive interior makeover.
Twenty two-car Class 165 trains have been refurbished. These trains operate from Gloucester to Frome and on to Weymouth or Portsmouth; on Bristol local services (including Weston-super-Mare); on Oxford local services; and on Thames Valley branch lines.
Sixteen three-car Class 165 trains and twenty-one three-car Class 166 trains have also been refurbished. These trains operate from Cardiff to Portsmouth (including Westbury); on Exeter local services; and on the North Downs line from Reading to Gatwick.
GWR introduced three-car Class 166 trains on its Bristol to Weston-super-Mare route in 2017.
Improvements including new flooring, repainting of all surfaces, replacement and repairs to seating, were made in a programme of work consisting of:
- a comprehensive strip-out of the vehicles
- replacement of all floor coverings.
- wet painting or powder coating of all interior panels, luggage racks, bulkheads, draught screens, doors, under-seat boxes and heaters
- removal of all seats, and repair and painting of seat shells
- fitting of new moquette throughout
- replacement of seat foams as required
- renewal of all seat rail and waist rail trims
- polishing or heavy cleaning of any non-painted metal surfaces
- fitting of new labels.
Eight of the Class 166 units had their exteriors painted in GWR green, replacing the previous blue livery and bringing them in line with all other units.
“This is all part of our commitment to improving the journey experience for our customers. We’re delighted with the results and hope our passengers enjoy the refreshed feel of our carriages.
“This has been a really good demonstration of the railway industry working collaboratively and I’d like to thank Angel Trains and Gemini Rail Services for their diligence over the past three years.
“This work demonstrates our commitment to investment and development in services, infrastructure and the future. We’re dedicated to modernising and expanding the network and ensuring efficient and reliable services.”
GWR Engineering Director Dr Simon Green
“We are very pleased to have successfully delivered this project through an effective partnership with GWR and Angel Trains, and all the team at Gemini look forward to working with GWR again, delivering future projects that continue to improve rail passengers’ experience.”
Gemini Rail Services Chief Operating Officer Sean Forster
“Thanks to Great Western Railway and Gemini for the successful refurbishment of our Class 165 and 166 trains. These improvements will make the journey more enjoyable for passengers, which we hope will lead to more people choosing to travel by train in the South West.”
Angel Trains’ Chief Operating Officer David Jordan
Responses
Class 166 for the Portsmouth Cardiff service is an abomination. They were never designed for long distance and are extremely uncomfortable on any trip over an hour. The 158 class were far superior even if they have fewer seats.
Removed arm rests and made the gang way smaller, okay for short journeys.
Good for the great western travellers in principle, but it is a shame that people like David Jordan of Angel Trains are benefiting, so heavily with share program incentives to themselves and senior managers.They don’t care how much people pay to get these trains.
Looks good,
Just one concern can you open the windows incase of another pandemic?
Aircon spreads flu and cold virus.
What about trains in local areas in Cornwall?
It’s a shame you can never put on enough coaches for special events like local airshows and football and rugby matches on the Exmouth to Paignton line. The overcrowding is unsafe
3 + 2 seating is outrageous and should be banned and removed with every “refurbishment”. We are too fat (me included) to squeeze five across UK interiors. It leads to more empty seats than if we had 2 + 2 because at least then there is full occupancy. Stop making trains for midgets! Make seats sittable in! Wrong move GWR.
Oh and “Refurbiushed” should be Refurbished.
“Ceerdit” should be Credit and “hyrdraulic” should be hydraulic. Wow, the 8 Turbos that were still in FGW colours are now finally in GWR colours, *nine years* (for some reason) after the supposed rebrand of the company.
Great Western Railway should keep hold of the Class 165 and Class 166 and to use them when the Portishead line does reopen. And they could have kept the 6 Class 387/3s that would mostly be used on Reading-Newbury shuttle.