Hull Trains have experienced some persistent and fairly major electrical problems with their Class 180 Adelante trains and the company have apologised to their regular customers for having to run a reduced timetable of 11 daily services for at least the next two weeks instead its advertised timetable of 14 services a day.
The First group company has four Class 180's and needs three of them in service to be able to run 14 daily services on its route between Hull and London Kings Cross.
The company had explored the possibility of leasing a train to bolster its fleet but had been unable to find suitable vehicles. "There are simply no spare trains available in the UK that are easily acquirable," said Chief executive Cath Bellamy.
There are 14 Class 180 trains in the UK, operated originally by First Great Western and numbered 180101-180114. There are five cars per unit. Each unit consists of two Standard Class Driving Motor, two Standard Class Intermediate Motor and a First Class Intermediate Motor. All coaches are equipped with a Cummins QSK19 diesel engine which develops 560 kW (750 hp) at 2,100 rpm identical to that found in the family of Voyager DEMUs as well as in the Siemens Class 185 DMUs used by First Transpennine Express.
Unusually for such a fast train, they feature a three speed hydraulic transmission supplied by Voith. One bogie per coach is powered, with both axles driven. Total vehicle weight is 278 tonnes
When the units were introduced they were plagued with delays and unreliability, missing various planned introduction dates before finally entering service in December 2001 but still being unreliable in service.
This eventually led First Great Western to lose patience with the class and instead to acquire extra refurbished HST sets towards the end of 2007 as replacements to operate the express commuter services
As a consequence, First Great Western returned most of the Class 180 fleet to the leasing company in early 2008
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-humber-14213307
David Gambles
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