Ministers have confirmed that the Elizabeth line is going to get 10 new trains. This was confirmed last week, and it has made a Derby manufacturer, Transport for London (TfL) and the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, very happy.
On Friday (June 14), Alstom announced that it has signed a contract worth around £370 million for the new nine-car Aventra stock, along with associated maintenance, until 2046. Bosses say the additional Aventra electric multiple unit (EMU) passenger trains will be built at Alstom’s Derby Litchurch Lane Works, the only UK facility that designs, engineers, builds and tests trains for domestic and export markets.
Currently, the capital’s flagship railway line has a 70-strong fleet of Alstom-built Aventra Class 345 trains. Officials say these would be insufficient to meet demand later this decade and through the 2030s.
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In addition, the line will have a new station at Old Oak Common (OOC) in the coming years. This will be part of HS2’s massive new West London interchange, currently due to open at some point between 2029 and 2033.
Last year, TfL was told that extra Elizabeth line services will need to be made available at OOC. The authority’s board was advised that the combination of different services to and from London and elsewhere in the UK will lead to a huge level of demand, and more trains would need to be acquired to serve customers at the transport ‘super-hub’.
Latest Elizabeth line stop at transport ‘super-hub’
OOC is expected to act as a temporary terminus for the HS2 network before its Euston station is complete. A report from June advising TfL said: “Old Oak Common (OOC) is set to become a new transport super-hub and is expected to act as the temporary London terminus for HS2 services until Euston station is complete.
“To enable HS2 services at OOC significant enhancements are required to Elizabeth line services to accommodate the expected levels of demands, particularly for interchanging HS2 and Great Western Main Line passengers.”
Mr Khan told the London Assembly on May 29: “TfL has secured an order for an additional ten new Elizabeth line trains to support growth in the Old Oak Common area and hopefully further into west London and provide greater capacity to and from the future HS2 station. TfL and I will also campaign for TfL to oversee services currently operated by Southeastern and Great Northern, to improve service levels and passengers’ experiences and push to deliver the Bakerloo Line Extension, West London Orbital and DLR extension to Thamesmead.”
HS2 ‘reassessing’ passenger movements
Peter Gow, HS2’s project client director, told MyLondon in January that, due to the axing of the project’s northern leg, bosses are ‘reassessing’ passenger movements at OOC. He added: “But very much, there’s clear plans in place to make sure that when we start operations at Old Oak Common and for the future have sufficient services to get passengers away from Old Oak Common, on the Elizabeth line and Great Western Mainline and Heathrow Express.”
On level boarding, which the OOC Elizabeth line stop would not have under current plans, the director said that there are ‘separate conversations’ between the DfT and Network Rail about ‘how they could potentially look to enable that’. First, officials would have to navigate ‘serious technical challenges’ around how they allow all the rolling stock through the station.
Mr Gow also said engineers are ‘trying to find a technical solution’ and, if it is possible and supported by industry buy in, bosses would ‘look to implement that where they can’.
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