British Rail Class 390

During 1997, private operator Virgin Rail Group started operating the InterCity West Coast franchise, taking over from state-owned operator British Rail. Virgin had been awarded the franchise having made a commitment to replace the locomotives and rolling stock in use on the route, namely the classes , and electric locomotives and Mark 2 and Mark 3 coaching stock, with brand new tilting trains. Following negotiations with several manufacturers, Virgin placed an order with Alstom/Fiat Ferroviaria to produce the envisioned tilting train, which was known by the name Pendolino and was later designated under TOPS as the Class 390. The Pendolinos were intended to run at service speeds of up to . Railtrack, therefore, embarked on a modernisation of the West Coast Main Line to allow for the faster line speeds. ==Design==

Overview The Pendolino is a high-speed electric multiple unit train, which incorporates Fiat Ferroviaria's tilting train Pendolino technology. According to Ian Scoley of the design firm Priestman Goode, the design of the Pendolino is "more reminiscent of an aircraft than a train". It has a maximum design speed of , which requires compatible infrastructure to do so. A nine-carriage Pendolino reportedly weighs around 471tonnes, which is equivalent to a dozen fully laden lorries. The structure of the Pendolino is largely composed of extruded aluminium panels; allegedly, this material is responsible for the train's exterior surface being considerably smoother than its steel counterparts. The cross-section of the bodyshell is deliberately tapered; the need for this shaping is imposed by the train's ability to tilt around corners. To avoid the risk of striking passing trains or static structures while a carriage is being tilted, the body must be narrower towards the top than it is at wheel height. Combined, they are capable of producing a rate of acceleration of up to 0.43 ms−2, which enables the train to accelerate from stationary to in just over 60 seconds. Power for each Pendolino is supplied in the form of 25,000voltsAC, and is delivered via the overhead catenary infrastructure installed across its route. First class passengers were provided with a 240 volt mains power socket at each seat. The Pendolino uses an electronic seat reservations system. Each seat has a small dot-matrix LCD installed near the top. If the seat is reserved, the display shows the station the seat is booked from until the train leaves that station; it subsequently displays "Available unless occupied". The display can also show the name of the passenger if this has been entered at the time of booking. This information is provided by the onboard Train Management System (TMS), which downloads current data via mobile operator Vodafone’s wireless network from the national Customer Reservation System shared by all train operators. The TMS is also used to provide route information to the passenger visual information systems. If a train is rescheduled, the system can rapidly be updated and the displayed information changed to reflect the new schedule. Consist The original 53-unit Pendolino fleet was delivered in nine-car formation (although some units initially operated as eight-car units), with vehicles built at the former Metro-Cammell Washwood Heath plant (by then owned by Alstom), in Birmingham. Thirty-one units were later extended to 11-car formation, with the addition of two new carriages (the 653xx Trailer (Car U) and the 689xx Motor (Car F)), built by Alstom at Savigliano in Italy. Units that had been extended were renumbered into the 390/1 range by having 100 added to their original unit numbers (for example, 390003 became 390103). ==Operations==

The service introduction of the Pendolino was repeatedly delayed, a fact which has been attributed to the poor project management and the collapse of infrastructure owner Railtrack. The fleet was introduced into passenger services from to Manchester Piccadilly on 23 July 2002 to coincide with the opening of the 2002 Commonwealth Games in Manchester. During the Games, they operated a daily return service between the two cities; however, it was not until 27 January 2003 that the first Pendolino carried passengers between London Euston and Manchester Piccadilly. The Rail Safety and Standards Board's inquiry into the incident identified a software glitch in the wheel-slip protection (WSP) system whereby the train's friction brakes were inhibited at low speeds after prolonged coasting (such as that occurring on approach to a station). The units were limited to for a short period until modifications to the software were made. As a result of the smaller cabin dimensions necessitated by the tilting geometry, the higher floor needed to package the tilting mechanisms themselves, and the need to provide disabled toilets, the units have a lower seating capacity than the nine-car Mark 2 and Mark 3 rakes that they replaced. The result has been severe overcrowding on some services, something that Virgin somewhat mitigated through the increased frequency of service, and with the increase to 11-car formations. The smaller size of the Pendolino windows has attracted comment and, in fact, the window size is unprecedented for British railway rolling stock. The wider window pillars mean that in some standard class carriages, 22.5% of the seats are parallel with either no window or only a limited portion of one; however the roll-over strength of the bodyshell was commented on regarding the crashworthiness performance of the train in the RAIB Accident Report into the derailment at Grayrigg. Grayrigg derailment On 23 February 2007, a faulty set of points caused a Virgin Trains Pendolino to derail near Grayrigg, in Cumbria. The train, unit 390033, named City of Glasgow, formed the 17:15 departure from London Euston bound for Glasgow Central. 115 people were on board, one of whom died from trauma suffered in the crash. The train's excellent crashworthiness was credited with preventing more fatalities. The train was formally written off on 30 November 2007, owing to the prohibitive cost of repair against the price of a new unit; a driving car and carriage from the train were subsequently put into use for training purposes at the Virgin Trains Talent Academy in Crewe. Virgin Trains then leased a Class 90, Mk3 coaches and a Driving Van Trailer, all painted in Virgin's new livery, and nicknamed the Pretendolino by Alstom maintenance staff, as a temporary replacement for the written-off train. Occasionally, the name even appeared in official communications. Subsequently, the set was handed back to the leasing company. Shap derailment On 3 November 2025, an Avanti West Coast Pendolino derailed at after running into a landslide obstructing the line. The train, unit 390117, was operating the 04:27 to service. == Speed records ==

In September 2006, a Pendolino completed the fastest ever southbound run along the length of the West Coast Main Line from Glasgow Central to London Euston, at 3hours and 55minutes. The previous record was 4hours and 14minutes, set in 1981 by the Pendolino's ancestor, British Rail's Advanced Passenger Train (APT). In June 2021, another record-breaking attempt was made with a Pendolino, this time in the northbound direction. It completed the journey in 3hours, 53minutes and 1second; faster than the 2006 Pendolino run, but narrowly missing the APT's northbound record, which stands at 3hours, 52minutes and 40seconds. Though the trains are limited to a maximum of 125 mph in service, faster runs have been made in 2003 when the trains were in the final stages of testing before introduction to service. On night-time runs between Rugby, Nuneaton and Lichfield Trent Valley, 390002 achieved a record speed for the class of , as witnessed by Modern Railways magazine. ==Fleet developments==

Additional capacity Following a large increase in passenger numbers following the WCML modernisation, the Department for Transport announced a capacity increase by procuring additional units (with one intended to replace the unit damaged at Grayrigg). Four new units have been built with 11 cars, and 31 existing units lengthened to 11 cars. This required major changes to stations and depots to accommodate the 11-car units. Virgin Rail Projects was set up to introduce these new trains with the new franchise winner as well as Alstom, Network Rail and the current franchise holder, Virgin Trains West Coast, to ensure the new units were able to run from 1 April 2012. The additional vehicles were manufactured in Alstom's Savigliano factory in Italy because Washwood Heath works had closed. The first new units were built with 11 cars and delivered via the Channel Tunnel to Edge Hill. The first was accepted on 12 July 2011. In March 2012, unit 390055 operated a test run on the East Coast Main Line from to . With the franchise process in place, and Virgin Trains' franchise extended until December 2012, the first 11-car unit (390156) entered service on 5 April 2012. The remaining new units were brought into service, and 31 units increased to 11 carriages, over the next eight months. The lengthening project was completed in December 2012. Reconfiguration of nine-car units As part of the subsequent extension of the franchise until April 2017, Virgin Trains made further enhancements to the Pendolinos. The 21 nine-car units each had one first class carriage converted to standard class. This work was completed by September 2015. Proposed order by Alliance Rail Operations In its successful submission to operate services from London Euston to , Alliance Rail Holdings proposed purchasing four Class 390s for entry into service in 2018. However, as the 390s no longer met crashworthiness standards for new trains, a derogation would have been required. With Alliance Rail not able to obtain this, in June 2017 it dropped its plans to purchase 390s. Avanti West Coast refurbishment In December 2019, all 56 trains transferred to Avanti West Coast, operators of the new West Coast Partnership. A major interior refurbishment of the fleet commenced in 2021, involving the replacement of all carpeting and standard-class seats, installation of power sockets at every seat, provision of more luggage space in second class, refitting of the onboard shop, installation of new lighting and the reupholstering of existing seats in first and standard premium classes. Additionally, one first-class coach in each of the 35 eleven-car 390/1 units was converted to standard class in order to provide additional capacity. ==Fleet details==

Liveries All units were delivered in Virgin Trains livery of silver bodysides with black areas around the windows, red roofs and red cab-sides with the red areas on the cabs separated from the silver with a curved white band. Doors were originally painted with grey and white stripes. These were re-vinyled in plain grey in 2015. From September 2017 onwards, the fleet was repainted by Alstom in Widnes into a new livery known as Flowing Silk, featuring plain white bodysides, black roofs and a vinyl applied red swoosh around the driving cab intended to visually represent a moving piece of silk. The livery was designed to use neutral colours at the behest of the Department for Transport to allow for an easier rebranding. The first unit to wear this livery was 390010. All of the nine-car units were repainted with last to be treated in August 2018, with repaints then commencing on the 11-car units. The final unit to receive the full Flowing Silk livery did so in August 2019. Subsequent repaints omitted all Virgin branding in preparation for the end of the franchise in December 2019. Names All 53 of the original units were given cast nameplates in a standard style bearing the word Pendolino on the top of each name although several units were subsequently renamed with similar replacement cast nameplates being fitted. New cast names were applied to the additional four units after they had initially entered service without names. Cast nameplates were removed from each unit when they were repainted into Flowing Silk in 20172018 and most of the Virgin-prefixed names have not been reapplied. However, those named after places, people and events have generally had the name reapplied in the form of a vinyl sticker. List ==References==