ScotRail completed its rollout of Class 385 trains into passenger service last month, and the final addition to the 70 strong fleet of electric trains has brought the train operator’s total number of carriages across Scotland’s Railway to 1,016 – an increase of 28 per cent since the start of the Abellio franchise.
This follows the retirement of ScotRail’s Class 314 trains, which operated on routes across Strathclyde since 1979.
The state-of-the-art Hitachi built Class 385 trains operate on routes across Central Scotland, and the completion of platform extensions at Glasgow Queen Street station by Network Rail has enabled ScotRail to operate eight-carriage Class 385 Express trains between Glasgow and Edinburgh via Falkirk High.
ScotRail is also in the process of introducing 26 refurbished high-speed Inter7City trains to connect Scotland’s seven cities.
When the Inter7City rollout is complete, it will allow the train operator to make better use of its existing trains, with even more carriages deployed to Fife and the Borders.
The introduction of new and upgraded trains is part of Abellio’s £475million investment in Scotland’s Railway.
Alex Hynes, Managing Director of Scotland’s Railway, said:
“We know that one of the biggest concerns for our customers is busy trains, so to now have more than one thousand carriages delivering more seats across the network is another import milestone for ScotRail.
“The introduction of our new and upgraded trains has also helped improve journey times and provide a better experience for our customers.
“It’s all been made possible by the unprecedented investment in Scotland’s Railway over the last few years.”
