The state-of-the-art Virgin Azuma train travelled to Edinburgh this week as preparations for roll-out of the 65-strong fleet on the east coast route gather pace.
The Hitachi-built intercity train, whose name means “east” in Japanese, visited the Scottish capital ahead of a driver training programme getting underway in summer. It follows successful testing of Azuma on routes to Dunbar and Inverness last year.
Azuma will transform travel on the east coast route, with the first train due to enter service in December this year and services to Edinburgh due to start in March 2019.
This week's Azuma visit to Scotland will enable driver trainers to be put through their paces on the newly-built trains, ensuring they have the knowledge to train the rest of Virgin Trains’ drivers on the east coast route.
Aileen Jordan, Azuma Director at Virgin Trains, said: “This is another key milestone in our journey to bring the Azuma fleet into service and transform travel on the east coast route. This is an important step ahead of our driver training programme getting underway in summer and we’re delighted to see the Azuma stationed in Edinburgh Waverley for such a long period, allowing passengers the chance to get their first peek of the train.”
Azuma is part of a £5.7bn investment by the Department for Transport in new inter-city trains. Hitachi is building the Azuma fleet at its Newton Aycliffe factory in the North East of England, which is home to 1000 train builders, including 50 apprentices.
The firm has invested £18 million to modernise depots at Aberdeen, Inverness and Edinburgh to ensure they are able to service the new fleet, securing long-term engineering jobs at all three locations.
The driver training programme comes nearly two years after Virgin Trains launched the biggest driver recruitment campaign on the east coast route since the 1980s.
As well as allowing regular journeys between Edinburgh and London to be accelerated to just four hours, the Azuma is far greener than the existing fleet of east coast trains and will contribute to greater carbon savings on cross-border travel. The bi-mode trains are capable of running under electric power as far as Edinburgh but can switch to diesel power when travelling further north to Aberdeen and Inverness.
