Three Hitachi Rail fleets win U.K.’s leading award for reliability

• Hull Trains awarded the gold prize for the second consecutive year in the intercity reliability category, with Lumo securing silver.
• ScotRail’s Class 385 wins gold award in the regional category.
• Awards are recognition of industry collaboration and benefits of digital maintenance.

Hitachi Rail fleets win three separate awards at the 2023 Golden Spanner Awards. The fleets were rewarded for their outstanding performance and reliability over the past 12 months, which is a result of customer collaboration, tireless work from its maintenance teams, and investment in new digital solutions.

Hull Trains Paragon fleet (Class 802) was awarded Gold – the highest accolade possible – in the 2^ndGeneration new inter-city category for the second year in a row. In the same category, Lumo (Class 803) fleet was awarded Silver. This demonstrates how Hitachi Rail fleets and maintenance have helped transform reliability on the East Coast Mainline.

The final gold was awarded to ScotRail’s Express (Class 385) fleet, in the 2^ndGeneration new Electrical Multiple Units (EMU) category.

The Golden Spanner Awards, organised by Modern Railways, is the rail industry's most prestigious awards for fleet reliability, celebrating the best of the U.K.'s rolling stock maintenance and practices.

Jim Brewin, Chief Director U.K. & Ireland at Hitachi Rail, said: “We share these awards and success with our customers because their day-to-day collaboration is essential to ensuring that we break new records in reliability together.

A huge congratulations to our maintenance teams, whose ‘always improve’ mindset puts them at the forefront of our digital maintenance transformation, which is setting the industry benchmark in reliability.

Our digital solutions are part of Hitachi Rail’s wider investment in the U.K. which is delivering over £640 million benefit to the British economy in 2023.”

Digital maintenance has played a major role in maintaining consistently high levels of train availability across the rail network. Hitachi Rail’s digital maintenance offer includes On-board data and monitoring systems, which captures information about the train in real-time. This reduces depot downtime and digitally optimises maintenance activities.

Martijn Gilbert, Managing Director of Hull Trains, said: “Our £60m Hitachi fleet continues to go from strength to strength. It has been a challenging year for many rail operators, yet Hull Trains has consistently delivered for our customers. Prior to last year’s success at the Golden Spanners, we had not been recognised since 2016. So, to win a Gold Award two years running is testament to the dependable service people have come to expect from Hull Trains. We are currently England’s most reliable train operator.”

David Lister, ScotRail Safety, Engineering & Sustainability Director, said: “It’s great to see our Class 385 fleet recognised at the Golden Spanner Awards. It’s a win not just for Scotland’s Railway, but more importantly for our customers.

“Since their introduction, the Class 385s have proven to be a reliable and dependable fleet of trains, which is exactly what our customers want and is testament to the collaborative work of the ScotRail and Hitachi teams.”

ENDS

For more information, please contact:

Lamisa Ahmed, Hitachi Rail

+44 7523 916398

lamisa.ahmed@hitachirail.com

Notes to Editors

• More information about Hitachi Rail’s U.K. maintenance business and digital investment can be found here.
• Independent economic analysis by Steer Economic Consultancy calculated that Hitachi Rail’s total annual gross value add to U.K. economy is £645million and supports 9,787 jobs.
• Hull Trains was established as an open access operator in 2000 and normally operates 94 services a week directly from Hull to London.
• Lumo’s Class 803 operated on the East Coast Main Line between London and Edinburgh, entering passenger service in October 2021.
• Hull Trains and Lumo are part of FirstGroup plc.
• Hull Train’s Class 802 Paragon was awarded a Golden Spanner in 2022 - here
• ScotRail introduced the first Hitachi-built Class 385 EMUs (Electric Multiple Units) into passenger service in July 2018 on the Edinburgh to Glasgow route.
• Three categories of trophies are awarded at the Golden Spanners: Gold for best in class, Silver for most improved over the last year, and Bronze for the lowest impact on the customer of failures.