Any significant interior refurbishment of the fleet is going to be very expensive (£50-100M), so there’s no payback period for Virgin at this stage of the current franchise and possible direct award period. The interior environment is important but refurbishing it can’t be justified until we have a longer term franchise commitment such as West Coast Partnership (WCP).
The repaint facility isn’t geared up for interior refurbishment anyway – in fact the two conflict with each other. Interior refurbishments would require a second set to be stood down, which can’t be sustained with the current fleet.
If we decided to go ahead with an interior refurbishment, it would take at least a year to sort out (agreeing a spec, gaining commercial agreement, doing the engineering, getting long lead time material delivered)
This would not align in any way with the repaint programme and wouldn’t be effective this side of the franchise. This doesn’t mean we’re not doing anything at all about interiors until we win the West Coast Partnership.
In 2015, we did a deep clean and repair of aesthetic defects. Following this, the K exam was developed in which each train is stood down at Oxley Depot for 2 days every 6 months specifically focused on clearing customer facing defects. We’re working with Alstom to improve the quality further by much better integration of the current heavy cleaning and K exam activities.
What’s happening with carpets?
It’s recognised that the saloon carpet life is well advanced but to replace would be a significant investment (£2-3M). We are developing plans for the next couple of years in which we intend to include replacement of vestibule carpets, which will help to protect saloon carpets by removing dirt before customers even enter the saloon area. Replacing vestibule carpets will also reduce the smells outside toilets.
