Interfleet Appointed as Notified Body for Hitachi Rail Europe’s Fleet of Class 800 Series Trains for the Intercity Express Programme

London, June 10, 2013 – Hitachi Rail Europe and Interfleet Certification, part of international rail consultancy Interfleet Technology, today announced that Interfleet Certification has been appointed as the Notified Body (NoBo) and Designated Body (DeBo) for the prestigious Intercity Express Programme (IEP), which will provide Hitachi Super Express trains for both the Great Western Main Line and the East Coast Main Line. The new trains will primarily replace High Speed Train (HST) rolling stock on these key intercity routes.

Interfleet will provide assessment and certification services against European and UK legislative standards for the new IEP fleet. In addition to providing the core NoBo design assessment against Technical Specifications for Interoperability and DeBo assessment against Notified National Technical Rules and Railway Group Standards, Interfleet will provide technical support directly to Hitachi’s engineers. The technical support will focus on the interpretation of technical standards and on providing comprehensive guidance on what is required to demonstrate compliance.

Interfleet will also undertake a production quality management system audit and inspection programme in Japan and in the UK. Staged certification will be provided to support the train testing programme, part of which will be undertaken on Network Rail routes.

The Interfleet team is being led by Principal Engineer, Malcolm Beard, and Engineer, James Duncan, from Interfleet’s Safety Management & Assurance team. Malcolm has considerable experience of working with Hitachi, as Interfleet was the NoBo for the Class 395 which launched ahead of schedule in June 2009. Running at full service since December 2009, the Class 395 has dramatically reduced journey times between London and Kent.
Three pre-series Hitachi Class 800/801 Trains will start to be manufactured in Japan at the end of 2013 and testing will be carried out in the UK during 2015 and 2016. The first passenger trains will be in service on the Great Western Main Line in 2017 and on the East Coast Main Line by 2018.

The trains will be manufactured in Hitachi’s European Rolling Stock Manufacturing Plant, which the company will build in Newton Aycliffe in County Durham. The £82 million investment will create at least 730 new jobs, and major opportunities for the UK and European supply chain.

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