French-owned Connex Rail Ltd has ordered 30 four-car Class 375 ’Electrostar’ EMUs from Adtranz for £90m, to operate Connex South Eastern services from London to Dover and Hastings. The contract signed on July 16 includes options for up to 800 more cars, up to half of which could be for the neighbouring Connex South Central franchise if it is extended to 15 years. Connex has set up its own leasing arm to fund the trains, but it has yet to decide whether to involve banks, a rolling stock leasing company, or finance them from within the Générale des Eaux group.
The first train must be ready for testing by February 1999, with four units in service by April, and the rest by October 2000. The 160 km/h trains will be maintained by a 60:40 joint venture of Adtranz and Connex under a deal that could be worth £50m to £60m over the 15-year franchise.
The trains will be able to run on Railtrack’s 750V DC third rail network or on 25 kV 50Hz routes elsewhere - Connex says that the IGBT traction technology to be supplied from Västerås ’avoids interference problems with track circuits and signalling systems’. Aluminium bodies will be mounted on Adtranz ’generic’ bogies. At least 25% of the axles will be powered, and regenerative braking will be available. There will be 240 seats, and on-train CCTV. o
