Southeastern has completed its £30 million joint venture with Eversholt Rail and Bombardier to upgrade a third of its trains, as the Class 375 fleet approaches its 15th year of operation.
Engineering teams have been working around the clock to update and enhance our rolling stock to improve our passengers’ journey experience. Each train required three weeks of work by 35 dedicated employees at Bombardier’s site in Derby.
As part of the revamp 83,000 seat covers were dry cleaned, 20,500 litres of paint have been applied, and 7 miles of carpet were replaced. And to show just how big a job this has been Southeastern has released a specially shot time lapse video, link below.
David Statham, Managing Director of Southeastern, says: “Our 625,000 daily passengers deserve the highest levels of comfort and that’s why our trains have been renovated. We are very proud of our teams who have worked incredibly hard over the past three years to ensure trains have been refurbished to the highest standards.”
Southeastern train carriages are cleaned every night, but the refresh programme has set a new benchmark for comfort and cleanliness. So as to meet this, by the end of the year, all of Southeastern’s trains will have received a full deep-clean by new service providers Servest.
The revamping of trains and stations is just one example of Southeastern’s franchise commitments of more than £78million to improve the experience of passengers travelling across their network.
A time-lapse film of the train revamp is available on the Southeastern YouTube channel, and below.
Bombardier employees show what it takes to refresh one of Southeastern’s Class 375 trains.
