Angel Trains has agreed three leases that will provide an additional 4,500 seats for passengers on Great Western services between London and the Thames Valley to meet First Great Western (FGW) and DfT’s HLOS (capacity) requirements until the end of their franchise in 2013.
First Great Western will lease five 5-car Class 180s until the end of the franchise in 2013, the first three will be leased from 11 December 2011 with the remaining two being leased during March and May 2012.
These units were previously on-lease to East Coast and Angel Trains will undertake a modification programme for the vehicles before they enter into passenger service.
A second lease has also been signed for 15 catering cars which will be refurbished by FGW into standard trailer vehicles prior to entering into passenger service.
The catering cars were previously in warm storage. Angel Trains has also agreed to lease a further eight Class 150 vehicles which will be cascaded from London Midland to FGW during December 2011 until the end of the 2013 franchise.
The leasing deals strengthen the relationship between Angel Trains and First Great Western.
Kevin Tribley, Chief Operating Officer at Angel Trains, comments:
“It’s great news that we are able to play a key role in helping FGW and the DfT meet their HLOS targets.
“We have a vital role to play in being able to bridge the worlds of finance and operations to offer leases like this and work with operators to identify ways in which they can use and run stock in the most effective way to improve rail services for customers.
“Our focus is on delivering value for money and helping drive new ways of procuring and leasing rolling stock and we are keen to continue to explore other opportunities with train operators, and government to deliver this.”
First Great Western Managing Director Mark Hopwood said:
“These leases build on our existing highly successful relationship with Angel Trains and we’re confident they will deliver the quality our customers expect and deserve.
“This comes at a time when we’ve seen an ever increasing demand for travel on our services.
“While that demand is gratifying in one respect, it can lead to overcrowding on peak services, which is why we’ve been working for some time to secure additional carriages.”
