County Durham firm Hitachi Rail will have to repair more than 1,700 train carriages after a report into cracks on vehicles that led to mass rail cancellations last year.
A number of services on the East Coast mainline, TransPennine Express, Great Western Railway and Hull Trains were cancelled last May when cracks were found on the shell of the Class 800 trains made at Hitachi Rail’s plant in Newton Aycliffe, County Durham. Now a report by the Office of Rail and Road (ORR) has found that the cracks were caused by excess movement and aluminium corroded by salt in the air.
Fatigue cracking in the area above the wheels of Hitachi-built Class 800 trains was a result of the rolling stock experiencing more movement than allowed in original designs, though it is not known for certain why this happened. The withdrawal of Class 800 trains until additional safety checks were introduced led to a week of severe disruption to services last May.
