London Midland Desiro rolled out

摘要

On October 8 at its Wildenrath test centre in Germany, Siemens formally rolled out the first of 37 Class 350/2 Desiro EMUs for London Midland. The aim is to have 10 trains in service for the December 14 timetable change, with the full fleet operational for June next year. Jorn Sens, CEO of the Rolling Stock business unit at Siemens Mobility, pointed out that the first train had been completed in just under 15 months since the contract was signed with Porterbrook Leasing. This was largely a function of the use of an existing design, where a repeat order reduces the lead time to around a year. With 1 079 Desiro vehicles already in service in the UK, certification was not an issue and the live production line enabled an early start to manufacture. Eive complete Class 350/2 EMUs have already been assembled for commissioning at Wildenrath and the first unit is expected to be delivered to Siemens' Northampton depot before the end of this month.