Bombardier’s Train Fleets Are Officially the Most Reliable in the UK, Winning 8 Out of 10 Prestigious Reliability Awards

Posted on Feb 9, 2010 in Trainspotting

The BOMBARDIER ELECTROSTAR has been officially announced as the UK’s most reliable train fleet

Berlin, December 4, 2009 – Bombardier is proud to announce that the performance of its UK fleets has once again been recognised by the industry at the ‘Golden Spanner‘ Awards. Bombardier built and maintained trains continue to top the official UK rail industry performance league tables, with Bombardier scooping 4 out of the 5 ‘Golden Spanners’ for being the ‘best in its class’. Bombardier was also awarded 4 out of 5 ‘Silver Spanners’ for most improved fleets.

The ‘Golden Spanner’ Awards, organised by Modern Railways Magazine, were presented at a ceremony in London on Friday 27 November, 2009. The awards are based purely on factual data from national statistics and so are regarded as being a totally accurate assessment of train fleet reliability.

Roger Ford, Industry & Technology Editor of Modern Railways who devised the Golden Spanner awards said: “Manufacturers take this competition very seriously, particularly where they also maintain their own products and, as the results for 2009 show, this rivalry is pushing up reliability to the benefit of the passenger.”

The UK’s top performing trains are the Class 357 BOMBARDIER ELECTROSTAR trains operated by c2c, achieving almost 70,000 miles between casualties.

Julian Drury, Managing Director of c2c said: “We are delighted with the ELECTROSTAR units which are delivering Japanese style reliability on Britain’s most punctual mainline railway. Our maintenance partnership with Bombardier continues to bring improved reliability and availability of our ELECTROSTAR fleet.”

The Bombardier Class 221 Super Voyager units operated by Arriva CrossCountry and maintained by Bombardier at its Central Rivers facility scored a double success winning both Gold and Silver Spanners in the new generation diesel multiple unit category. The fleet saw an impressive 117% improvement in reliability over the year.

Bombardier was also awarded Gold and Silver Spanners in both the former British Rail electric and diesel multiple unit categories and a Silver Spanner in the Inter City section.

1/3Commenting on the UK train performance, Colin S Walton, Chairman of Bombardier Transportation in the UK said: “Bombardier’s UK train fleets, especially those fleets for which Bombardier plays a role in the maintenance, are consistently out-performing the other fleets on the network. We are especially proud of this performance and we will continue to work in partnership with our customers to further improve the reliability of all our trains.”

Laurent Troger, President of Bombardier’s Services Division, added “This is the result of steady and continuous improvements in our maintenance operations backed up by our worldwide Bombardier engineering network. It highlights our unique capability to develop long term and successful business and working relationships with operators, from the shop floor in our depot to operations control centers. We want to be the undisputed partner of choice for operators in order to relentlessly improve the performance of our trains in operation.”

About Bombardier Transportation
Bombardier Transportation, the global leader in rail technology, offers the broadest portfolio in the rail industry and delivers innovative products and services that set new standards in sustainable mobility. BOMBARDIER ECO4 technologies – built on the four cornerstones of energy, efficiency, economy and ecology – conserve energy, protect the environment and help to improve total train performance. Bombardier Transportation is headquartered in Berlin, Germany and has a presence in over 60 countries. It has an installed base of over 100,000 vehicles worldwide.

About Bombardier
A world-leading manufacturer of innovative transportation solutions, from commercial aircraft and business jets to rail transportation equipment, systems and services, Bombardier Inc. is a global corporation headquartered in Canada. Its revenues for the fiscal year ended Jan. 31, 2009, were $19.7 billion US, and its shares are traded on the Toronto Stock Exchange (BBD). Bombardier is listed as an index component to the Dow Jones Sustainability World and North America indexes. News and information are available at www.bombardier.com.
BOMBARDIER, ELECTROSTAR, and ECO4 are trademarks of Bombardier Inc. or its subsidiaries.