FINAL CLASS 395 TRAIN ARRIVES IN SOUTHAMPTON, BEGINS LAST LEG OF JOURNEY TO DEPOT IN ASHFORD Full Fleet of Hitachi Class 395 Trains now in the UK LONDON, 17 AUGUST 2009 – The 29 th and final Hitachi train ordered for Southeastern High Speed Services will be unloaded at the Port of Southampton today. The train will arrive in Southampton on board Wallenius Wilhelmsen Logistics' 67,140 GRT RoRo ship, MV Tamesis and will be transferred by DB Schenker to Hitachi’s state of the art maintenance facility in Ashford for commissioning.
Logistics specialists Wallenius Wilhelmsen Logistics, DB Schenker Rail (UK) Ltd and Hitachi Transport Systems worked together seamlessly to bring the 29 trains to the UK and to deliver them on schedule to the Ashford depot. All Class 395 trains have been manufactured to latest UK and European safety standards in Hitachi's manufacturing facility in Kasado, Japan and shipped from Kobe, Japan some 12,580 nautical miles to Southampton in the UK and then to Ashford, Kent – an overall journey of over 12,800 miles or 20,600 kms from factory to customer.
The Class 395 is Hitachi’s first rolling stock in regular service in the European market. Currently operating on Southeastern’s limited ‘preview’ service, journeys between Ashford and St Pancras take just 37 minutes on the 140mph train, almost an hour quicker than some trains on the existing Mainline service. The full passenger service will start in December 2009.
The timely delivery of the trains from Japan and successful completion of 4,000 miles ‘fault free’ running enabled Southeastern to launch its preview service nearly six months early on 29 th June.
For its first month of operation the service has seen near perfect punctuality at 99.1 percent and proved so popular that two peak-time trains were doubled from six to 12 carriages.
Alistair Dormer, General Manager at Hitachi Rail Europe, said: "Thanks to our logistics partners Wallenius Wilhelmsen Logistics and DB Schenker, the delivery of the final Class 395 train marks the successful delivery to the UK of the country’s fastest commuter trains. This has been a great opportunity for Hitachi Rail to demonstrate its efficient manufacturing and delivery to the European market. Now our focus is on making sure the fleet is fully commissioned and ready for Southeastern’s full launch in December.” Captain Mark Bookham, Operations Director, Wallenius Wilhelmsen Logistics, United Kingdom, said: “The three year project to ship Hitachi’s 395 trains from Kasado, Japan to Ashford, UK has been a seamless factory to dealer operation requiring careful strategic planning and execution.
Our team is delighted that the operation has gone so smoothly and the entire fleet has been delivered on schedule, to budget and in an environmentally friendly way.
“We developed special rubber tyre bogies (RTBs) to carry the carriages on board our ships. In Southampton the carriages were rolled off the ship and then lifted using two 100 tonne mobile cranes in tandem directly onto the rail tracks running along the Ocean Terminal and reformed as a train. The trains were then taken by rail to Ashford by our logistics partner, DB Schenker”, commented Bookham.
Stuart Boner, Managing Director of the Network segment of DB Schenker Rail (UK) Ltd, said: “Through a journey of over 12,800 miles the last leg of the journey has been delivered as planned for Hitachi through a seamless interaction between the ocean and the railway. In doing so, the class 395s have only travelled by rail in the UK, avoiding any need for road transportation. We are proud of our role in ensuring a complex international global logistics operation has been successfully completed on-time.” Charles Horton, Managing Director, Southeastern, said: “We are very pleased that that the final train has arrived safely at Southampton. We have formed a strong working relationship with all our industry partners to ensure that the trains are delivered to us on time. It is partly thanks to this strong relationship that we have been able to introduce our preview service in advance of the new timetable, incorporating the new high speed services, in December.” Hitachi Europe originally won the £250 million contract for 28 high-speed trains in October 2004.
Southeastern later added the 29 th train to the order to provide additional capacity. The first train arrived in Southampton on 23 August 2007.
Press Enquiries For further information, please contact: Daniela Karthaus PR Manager Hitachi Europe Tel: +44 1628 585 379 Mobile: +44 7920 205 631 Daniela.karthaus@hitachi-eu.com Robert Minton-Taylor Global Media Relations Manager Wallenius Wilhelmsen Logistics Tel : +44 1535 634 634 (GMT) Mobile : +44 7947 818 816 E-mail: robert.minton-taylor@2wglobal.com Internet: www.2wglobal.com Graham Meiklejohn Head of Communications, UK DB Schenker Mobile: +44 (0)7801 905 363 graham.meiklejohn@dbschenker.com www.rail.dbschenker.co.uk About Hitachi Europe Ltd. Hitachi Europe Ltd., is a wholly owned subsidiary of Hitachi, Ltd., Japan. Headquartered in Maidenhead, UK, it has operations in 13 countries across Europe, the Middle East and Africa and employs approximately 550 people.
Hitachi Europe comprises of nine business areas: rail systems; power and industrial systems; information systems; digital media and consumer products; display products; industrial components and equipment; air conditioning and refrigeration systems; manufacturing systems; and procurement and sourcing. Hitachi Europe also has three Research and Development laboratories and a design centre. For more information about the company, please visit http://www.hitachi.eu. About Hitachi Ltd. Hitachi, Ltd., (NYSE: HIT / TSE: 6501), headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, is a leading global electronics company with approximately 400,000 employees worldwide. In fiscal 2008 (ended March 31, 2009) consolidated revenues totaled 10,000 billion yen ($102.0 billion). The company offers a wide range of systems, products and services in market sectors including information systems, electronic devices, power and industrial systems, consumer products, materials, logistics and financial services. For more information on Hitachi, please visit the company's website at http://www.hitachi.com. About Wallenius Wilhelmsen Logistics Wallenius Wilhelmsen Logistics (WWL) is a leading independent provider of global factory-to-dealer transport solutions for the automotive and rolling equipment industries. The company also specializes in handling complex project cargo such as trains, power generators, mining equipment, and yachts.
Sophisticated supply chain management services ensure an efficient integration of the company’s ocean services, inland distribution, terminal handling, and specialised technical services.
WWL employs 3,000 people and deploys around 60 modern environmentally adapted vessels, serving 20 trade routes to six continents. WWL transports four million vehicles annually: two million by sea and two million by land. Three million units are handled through its 33 vehicle processing centres worldwide. The company has a strong environmental focus and is an industry leader in developing innovative solutions to reduce its operational impacts on the environment.
About DB Schenker Rail (UK) Ltd DB Schenker is Britain’s largest rail freight operator. It also operates services to mainland Europe through the Channel Tunnel, and has expanded into France and Spain with a rail freight company called Euro Cargo Rail.
DB Schenker Rail (UK) Ltd’s headquarters are in Doncaster, South Yorkshire, and the company is wholly owned by Deutsche Bahn.
More information can be found on www.rail.dbschenker.co.uk - ends -
