£680 million investment for West Midlands Trains

A £680 million ($897million) order for new trains has been welcomed by West Midlands Rail (WMR), a consortium of 16 local councils set up to manage the regions rail services. The order, made up of 413 carriages, comes from West Midlands Trains (WMT) who will run local services on behalf of WMR and Department of Transport (D0T) from December onwards to help increase capacity and improve journey times. WMT will operate local services until March 2026.
October 19, 2017 Read time: 2 mins
A £680 million ($897million) order for new trains has been welcomed by West Midlands Rail (WMR), a consortium of 16 local councils set up to manage the regions rail services. The order, made up of 413 carriages, comes from West Midlands Trains (WMT) who will run local services on behalf of WMR and Department of Transport (D0T) from December onwards to help increase capacity and improve journey times. WMT will operate local services until March 2026.


WMT is made up of Abellio, JR East and Mitsui and the order is part of a near £1 billion ($1,319 million) investment into the franchise.

513 Bombardier Trains and Construcciones y Auxilar de Ferrocarriles (CAF) will manufacture 107 new trains for the next West Midlands franchise. CAF will also produce 80 diesel carriages to provide dedicated services for journeys to towns and cities around Birmingham.  

A total of 333 of the new trains will feature air conditioning, free Wi-Fi and in-seat power sockets provided as standard – produced by Bombardier in Derby.

Cllr Roger Lawrence, chair of WMR and transport lead on the West Midlands combined authority, said: "This is a very significant investment in new trains that will bring more space, more services and improved comfort for passengers.  

"We know a key issue for passengers is overcrowding at peak times so we are pleased that these new carriages will provide space for an extra 85,000 passengers on rush hour services into Birmingham and London.”

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Fara keeps data delivery simple
    January 25, 2018
    Simplifying the delivery of data and information gathered by traffic management, ticketing and other systems can improve travel efficiency and the traveller’s experience. Having quantified and analysed the previously unmonitored movement of road vehicles, trains, metros, cyclists and pedestrians, the ITS sector is a prime example of the digital world. Patterns discerned from those previously random happenings enable authorities to design more efficient transport systems, allow transport operators to run
    Read More
  • Carrots are proving cost-effective in Netherlands
    October 3, 2018
    There are lessons to be learned from congestion avoidance schemes in the Netherlands. David Crawford welcomes some new thinking in road pricing. Highway operators worldwide are being urged to learn from Dutch experience in using financial carrots rather than sticks to encourage drivers to avoid contributing to congestion. A Netherlands/UK group makes a convincing cost/benefit case in a new global survey of road pricing technologies, economics and acceptability. Representing the Rijkswaterstaat section of
    Read More
  • London conference hears EC calls for input on MaaS
    February 22, 2018
    “Tell us what you need the European Commission to do to help Mobility as a Service (MaaS), and I promise I will do my best to fix it,” was the call from Paivi Wood, policy officer in the EC’s DG Move to delegates to ITS International’s second MaaS Market Conference. Several delegates identified a lack of co-operation by bus, train, taxi and other transit companies as the biggest hurdle to implementing MaaS in many parts of Europe and while pledging to act where she could, Wood said such legislation would b
    Read More
  • New signalling technology for Circle and Hammersmith & City Lines 2018
    October 17, 2017
    Thales has tested a new signalling control system on sub-surface trains on the Circle and Hammersmith & City lines, which enable trains to run closer together. The test aims to provide a more frequent service, reduce waiting times and help boost capacity for the Circle, District, Hammersmith & City and Metropolitan lines. The system will go live on the first section of the network as early as 2018.
    Read More

Highlighted Content