Longsight Depot is using set 390012 to integrate the displaced 10/11 car vehicles from new train 390055. This will enable Alstom engineers to perfect their integration plan and highlight any potential engineering issues, which can be resolved before integration proper starts in April.
It also allows for Longsight depot staff to practice the depot moves and processes which are required for the H3 heavy overhaul which will be taking place concurrently with the integration plan.
Starting on 10 February, the lengthened set will also undertake several test runs including to London and Scotland to test modified depot facilities and Selected Door Operation (SDO) at stations where during disruption it may be needed. The test programme covers SDO tests at Rugby on 10 February and the following day will undertake tests within the depot at Wembley, running late afternoon from Wembley to Polmadie.
On Monday 13 February it will return from Polmadie to Longsight and SDO tests will be undertaken at Macclesfield. This work will take around two weeks, following which the extra vehicles will be removed from this test set, which will then return to service as a 9-car train.
Trial runs are planned at the end of February and into early March using Pendolinos at varying speeds, with two pantographs raised. This is feasibility testing to understand the issues of running with two pantographs raised at the same time and is being done at Alstom's request. The overnight tests are between Nuneaton and Stafford.
During March, new trains 390054 and 390055 will have WiFi commissioned at and towards the end of the month will be reunited with their displaced vehicles. The third new set 390056 is due in the UK imminently and after a period of commissioning will enter service on 2 April with 390055 to be the first 11-car Pendolinos in service. 390054 will enter service as the third 11-car Pendolino by the end of the first week in April.
The final new Pendolino, 390057, is due to be delivered for testing and acceptance during the first week of April and is due to enter service at the beginning of June.
By the end of February the first four pairs of extra vehicles will be complete and are due to arrive in the UK by the second week of March, with the next four pairs of extra vehicles due around three weeks later.
31 existing sets will be strengthened to 11-car units in the order that they undergo H3 overhaul, which is being done on a mileage-based programme. The first two lengthened sets will be in service by the end of April, with further lengthened sets returning to service at the rate of one per week.
11 car Pendolinos will be renumbered into the 390/1 series, for example 390054 when restored to an 11-car train will become 390154.
