By Tony Miles
ScotRail operated its first refurbished HST set in passenger service on October 15 as the 2+4 formation worked the 09.07 Aberdeen-Edinburgh.
The provisional first diagram is 09.07 Aberdeen-Edinburgh, 13.30 Edinburgh-Aberdeen,16.39 Dyce-Edinburgh and 21.43 Edinburgh-Aberdeen.
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Ahead of the service debut ScotRail presented the refurbished HST to the press on October 10
with a special run between Aberdeen and Edinburgh.
Local media and stakeholders were extremely impressed with the quality of the refurbishment work, but the run was marred by technical problems with the leading power car – 43183 – which saw the train halted for more than 40 minutes south of Leuchars while the faults were rectified after a horn valve stuck open.
The refurbished trains will carry the ‘Inter7City’ branding as the sets will be used on services connecting Scotland’s seven cities: Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Inverness, Perth and Stirling.
In addition to freeing up DMUs for use elsewhere, the HST sets will offer increased seating and luggage space on these flagship services, together with better on-board hospitality, ‘providing a boost for commuters, tourists, and business travellers’.
Read more and view more images in the November issue of The RM – on sale now!
