Wednesday 20 February 2008

Even more new trains for London Overground

TfL have put out a press release discussing a change in the way the London Overground Electrostars will be financed - they've essentially sold them to a bank and are leasing them back, which improves their cashflow and gives them the option of walking away in 2027 and buying new ones. Anyway, hidden at the bottom is this note:

In its final configuration, it is intended the fleet will comprise 54 4-carriage trains
The original order was for 44 trains, a mix of 3 and 4 car trains and a total of 152 carriages. They then ordered three more whole trains plus extra cars to make the fleet all 4-car, taking the total to 188. The latest news adds an apparent 7 more trains and brings the total to 216.

A brief mention of a follow-on order did appear in the recent board papers, but this the first indication of its size.

6 comments:

Dazz285 said...

I wouldn't trust the dates for delivery..
I was told July 08 then Sep 08 now it's more like Nov 08.
Also the simulator is arriving at the new Willesden depot in May 08, can't wait for a go ;-)
Dazz285

Anonymous said...

The press release says there is an option for 216 vehicles, not an order yet.

Mr Brightside said...

What I will say though is that they obviously intend LO to be serious option for getting around.
Right now, even though I live in Stratford, I rarely use it to go west because whenever I pitch up on the platform the next service is ages away...

Dazz285 said...

How long would you say ages?? it's a 15 min service most of the day...

Charlie said...

Anyone know if the train options are for the ELLE phase 2 or will that require additional trains to be ordered?

Mr Thant said...

My thinking would be that the original order was a rush job made as soon as they possibly could, and so only included replacements for the existing fleet. That bought time to work out how many extras were needed for enhanced services, and that's what these trains represent.

An alternative idea is that they were expecting Bakerloo to Watford to be imminent, which would have freed up ca. 7 trains. Without it happening, they need these extras.

I'd expect ELL phase 2 to be another follow-on.