30.09.05

Porterbrook Leasing Company Limited ("Porterbrook"), a subsidiary of Abbey National Treasury Services plc, has announced the acceptance of the 700th Class 377 Electrostar. This completes the contract awarded in March 2002 to finance a total of 700 Bombardier 'Electrostar' EMU vehicles to replace slam door trains on Southern routes.

The achievement of delivering the largest single order for new trains with one operator in the UK since privatisation is very much a joint effort involving a project team made up of personnel from Southern, the train operator, Bombardier the train manufacturer and Porterbrook the owner and financier. The 28 x 3-car and 154 x 4-car units will be in service throughout the Southern operating area replacing the outdated Mk1 'slam door' rolling stock which were first introduced in the 1950s.

The vehicles were assembled at Bombardier Transportation's production facility in Derby to a specification laid down by Southern and Porterbrook. The units are designed and fitted out to the highest standard including a train computer control and fault diagnostic system, air conditioning, automatic sliding doors, CCTV surveillance system and on-board electronic passenger information linked through a Global Positioning System. They are also equipped with automatic selective door opening to cater for short platforms, and also fitted with on train equipment to enable driver-only operation. The facilities on-board are also fully compliant with the latest Disability Discrimination Act legislation.

Paul Francis, Managing Director at Porterbrook said:

"Porterbrook is delighted to have been part of this project with our partners at Southern and Bombardier which has seen acceptance of this complete Electrostar build achieved on time and we look forward to seeing these vehicles in operation for many years to come."